Recently, I’ve built the Iris split keyboard, and the Dilly 30% board, which are both super
interesting DIY kits from Keebio.
I don’t want to be so preachy, but I really do love the range of PCBs they offer, as they
give me a base to build keyboards from.
So today we’re going check out the Viterbi 70% split ortholinear mechanical keyboard.
Alright so here we have the Viterbi PCB’s.
And this is all I ordered from them, but you can get plates, cases, and other accessories
from them as well.
This is a split keyboard, so we have a pair of bare PCBs which are identically the same,
as the components can be soldered to either side.
You will require a soldering station to complete the PCBs, which you can learn to do very easily
with a couple of video tutorials, which I’ll link in the description.
I forgot to do it here.
But make sure you put in the headers of the Pro Micro’s in before the keyswitches.
But do not solder the actual Pro Micro until the very end.
I’ve hand cut a plate before, and it’s the absolute worst thing to do.
So I got some 3mm acrylic plates cut by my friend Laser_Ninja.
Keebio do sell plates of course, but I made a few changes to mine, using the plate files
that they have on Github.
I basically just gave more room for some bezel, as normally there is none.
For the actual case, I’m using the same old polycarbonate sheets that I’ve been
using for my other handmade cases.
Honestly, having the scroll saw has really made making cases easy, without having to
spend much at all.
As you may have seen, I’ve already made the Pain27, and the Dilly, using the scroll
saw, and I love it.
Although it’s still all pretty much free hand, as you’re just following lines.
So you still have to do a lot of fixing up and checking to make sure things line up and
fit.
And then of course sanding and filling up at the end of it.
Having a disc and belt sander certainly does help a heap with making everything much faster.
With all the equalling out, I ended up with about 11mm bezels, so I’m pretty happy with
that.
Priming the case is super important as it helps the paint stick to the case.
But more importantly, it helps fill in all the gaps and scratches.
The worse it is, the more times you’ll have to prime and sand.
The person I’m building this for wanted the case to be a nice simple white.
With painting, patience is the number 1 thing.
You just gotta be patient, as a mistake can bring you back an hour or sometimes a day,
so just take your time.
For the keyswitches we have Aliaz silents.
These are 70g ones, and are tactile switches, and like other silent switches, these have
the little dampeners on the stem to of course dampen
the sound.
The last bit is to solder in the Pro Micros, which powers the Viterbi.
But before that we have to flash them to ensure they work, because desoldering Pro Micro’s
is one of the most difficult things possible.
To learn how to flash the Pro Micro’s I’ll have a link in the description.
Being a split keyboard, we have our master side, and our slave side.
So my left PCB will be my master, and will have the Pro Micro with the components facing
down.
And the right side will be my slave, with the Pro Micro facing the other way.
The keycaps I have here are just a temporary set, until the owner gets the actual set he
wants.
For now we got this completely 1u DSA keyset in white and blue.
And to finish it off, just a little surprise for ya.
So I wasn’t sure on how I would join the two pieces together, but I wanted something
different.
There wasn’t a hole lot of space in the bezels, so I got these 5mm neodymium magnets
which fit nicely into the corners, instead of using screws.
And they work pretty well.
Ideally I would have a few more magnets around the sides, but the bezels aren’t really
thick enough, so yeh.
The hold is pretty good though, like they won’t separate out of nowhere, but I definitely
would have liked a bit more strength.
And having those completely hidden, it allows us to have this super clean aesthetic.
I’m really happy with how it actually looks.
I went for a high profile design, so there needed to be bezels to cover the keyswitches.
And I do like me some healthy bezels to give it some substance and a good physical presence.
Alright, so to the actual keyboard.
This is a 70% split ortholinear keyboard.
So we have exactly 70 keys, in a grid layout.
So it’s pretty sizable, being bigger than other popular split ortho’s like the Let’s
Split, and Nyquist.
And I really do like the size.
It gives us room for everything that we need, like dedicated arrow keys, all our mods, and
nav cluster keys.
We can also have 2u keys in the corners here, but we opted to just go with all 1u keys.
So it actually wasn’t that difficult to use for me, since I wasn’t really using
any layers, because we have everything I really need.
It’s only the ortholinear nature that I had to adapt to as always.
But honestly after a few hours of use, it’s not so bad.
The 70g Aliaz keyswitches were fun to play with as well.
I do like silent keyswitches, with their dampened feel, and of course quiet output.
The tactile bump is pretty decent as well, being quite smooth and prominent.
The only other silent tactile I’ve had proper experience with are the Zilent’s, and it’s
always difficult to compare them without being side to side.
Plus the case and plate always make a big difference to both the feel and sound, because
they’re still quite audible in this.
Overall, I’m really pleased with the final result.
It’s definitely not perfect, as most of the cuts are just freehand, and the white
finish isn’t completely even.
But yeh, still happy.
I do enjoy using split keyboards, but the ortholinear nature just isn’t for me personally.
But I know the owner will be absolute fine with it.
Again, big thumbs up to Keebio for having these fun unique PCBs to play around with,
and just giving us more layout options.
It gives me the chance to experiment like with the magnets, and just make what I want
to make.