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2 Articles

Altoids Tin Keyboard Is A Breath Of Fresh Air

February 4, 2024 by 35 Comments

Well, here’s a fresh idea! [flurpyflurples] is back from hiatus with the Mintboard, a 40% that fits inside of an Altoids tin. Who could ask for more than a rugged little Bluetooth keyboard with a built-in cover that fits in your pocket?

This build started with meticulously measuring the tin to figure out what kind of switches could be used. At first, this was going to be a 60% keyboard, but after a lot of design decisions and switch comparisons, [flurpyflurples] settled on a certain micro switch spaced at 7.3mm for a 40% layout. Then it was time to design a PCB.

Although [flurpyflurples] tends to use Arduino Pro Micros in their builds, they went with the Nice! Nano this time for the Bluetooth capabilities. This means that they had to program it with ZMK instead of QMK, but found that QMK knowledge transfers rather nicely.

Let’s talk about those lovely legends. The keycaps are 3D printed of course, and the legends were cut out on a Cricut machine. The best part is that sealant — [flurpyflurples] used a few drops of UV nail polish top coat and cured it with light.

We think this looks and sounds fantastic, and would really like to know how to get such clean cutouts. According to [flurpyflurples] and the end of the build/demo video you’ll find below the break, the action is a lot like a Blackberry keyboard.

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Banana Split Macropad Is Dessert For Your Desk

September 18, 2022 by 10 Comments
Once again, [Dan Bostian] is ahead of the curve when it comes to bringing bunches of banana puns to the table, but we think you’ll find this banana split macropad quite appealing nonetheless. Does this tasty thing look familiar? It ought to — we discovered, plucked, and uncovered the one-piece version last summer, and this time, [Dan] simply made our two-piece, wireless dreams come true.
Peel back the — oh, forget it. Inside, you’ll find a nice!nano running the show from the right-hand board using ZMK firmware, and a banana-shaped chalk outline on the left-hand silkscreen that represents how completely [Dan] killed it with this build. You can use any switches you want, as long as they’re Cherry MX-compatible in the shoe footprint department.
The PCBs are open source, of course, and so are the printed parts — it’s all there in the repo. As for the stickers, well, you’ll have to produce those yourself.