If you’ve got a nice mechanical keyboard, typing on anything else can often become an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, full-sized versions are bulky and not ideal when you’re travelling or for certain portable applications. [Applepie1928] decided to create a small travel keyboard to solve these problems.
Meet the Micro Planck. It’s a simple ortholinear mechanical keyboard in a decidedly compact form factor—measuring just 23 cm wide, 9.5 cm tall, and 2 cm deep. You could probably stuff it in your pocket if you wear baggy jeans. Oh, and if you don’t know what ortholinear means, it just means that the keys are in a straight grid instead of staggered. Kind of like those “keyboards” at the bowling alley.
The build relies on Gateron KS-33 switches installed on a custom PCB, with a ATmega32U4 microcontroller running the popular open source QMK firmware. The keyboard has a USB-C port because it’s 2024, and all the components are wrapped up in a neat 3D printed shell.
Overall, it’s a tasteful design that packs in a lot of functionality. It’s also neat to see a mechanical design used which offers more tactile feedback than the rubber dome designs more typical at this scale. Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own nifty keyboard designs, don’t hesitate to let us know what you’re up to!
“like those “keyboards” at the bowling alley.” is oddly specific.
Maybe I’m of a certain age and lived in certain countries, and have not bowled in about a decade, but I’ve never seen a keyboard at a bowling alley.
It’s been a while since I’ve been, but I remember very poor membrane keyboards to enter player names in the scoring system. Possibly even an ABCDEF layout.
Like those keyboards on the Commodore Pet in 1977. Is that better?
Yes!
Pretty build! My kids are learning touch typing right now and complaining that it takes so much work to reach the C and P and I think…. sigh, we could’ve walked down an alternate worldline if we’d gone ortho from the start.
As an aside, the phrase “mechanical keyboard” suddenly struck me as funny, because (barring exotic tech like optical switches) they’re all mechanical keyboards. Makes me wonder what other options are possible. Chemical keyboards maybe? :D
Well there are touch keyboards, laser projection keyboards and even keyboards that work via eye movement tracking. But you’re right, rubber dome keyboards are (in a way) mechanical as well.
Very cute! I like it!
I can’t really tell from the picture or the links if the keys are cupped. Laptops’ keyboards are typically terrible about this, being short-travel and flat, so I make a ton of mistakes. Having the keys a little bit cupped tells you, by feel, if you’re getting a little off-center, long before you start fat-fingering keys and making mistakes. I never look at the keyboard while I type.
The other thing is that it’s USB. Boy do I hate USB! But, it’s everywhere now, and it’s hard to get away from it. If you want to make your own computer, PS/2 is far simpler softwarewise.
I can’t really tell from the picture or the links if the keys are cupped. Laptops’ keyboards are typically terrible about this, being short-travel and flat, so I make a ton of mistakes. Having the keys a little bit cupped tells you, by feel, if you’re getting a little off-center, long before you start fat-fingering keys and making mistakes. I never look at the keyboard while I type.
The other thing is that it’s USB. Boy do I hate USB! But, it’s everywhere now, and it’s hard to get away from it. If you want to make your own computer, PS/2 is far simpler softwarewise.