One thing that I’ve really enjoyed seeing; is the community grow, which has brought so
many options, in particular budget DIY options.
And one vendor that has really really impressed in this regard is Keebio, offering a range
of very interesting keyboards.
And perhaps one of their most popular products is the Iris split ergonomic keyboard.
So today we’re going to do a double build with two Iris’.
While Keebio do have plates and cases, my good friend Laser Ninja who is based here
in Sydney Australia, laser cuts a bunch of stuff, including cases for the Iris.
So here’s the package I got from Laser Ninja.
I got a couple of Pro Micro’s which you will need to power the Iris.
Then I have 2 Iris cases, one for myself, and another for someone I’m building it
for.
I already have an Iris PCB set, so the package came with just the one pair, in which he got
from Keebio.
And included, we have the diodes.
2 TRRS jacks to connect the two halves.
2 reset buttons.
And 2 4.7k resistors.
You can also get the LED support add-on kit, which includes 2 MOSFETs, and 2 resistors
for said MOSFETs.
Alright so here are the Iris PCBs.
The ones I have here are the Rev. 2.5 ones.
These are both MX and ALPs compatible which is cool to see.
And these are identical, so there’s no left or right PCB, as you can solder to either
side of the PCB.
And I’ll use the left side PCB as the master, therefore the right side is the slave side.
First step is to put in the diodes, in which there is one for each keyswitch.
To do this, you bend the pins like so, and you’ll have a black bar on one side, which
is the cathode pin.
And then on the PCB, you’ll have these spots which are labelled with a D for diode.
And the square pad is for the cathode pin.
Bend the pins outwards on the other side to keep them in place for soldering.
And yeh it’s just simple through hole soldering.
I’ll link tutorials in the description below if you want to learn how to solder.
Next we’ll put in the TRRS jack.
The reset button.
We have the 2 resistors that will be put on just this master side.
So the slave side will not have these on there.
If you want to add LEDs then you have to have the LED support add-on kit that includes 2
MOSFETs and 2 resistors.
You put in the resistor here, and then for the MOSFET put solder on one pad, hold it
in place, and then solder the other two legs.
Like many budget PCBs, the Iris requires a Pro Micro to drive it.
However for now we only want to solder in the headers, as the Pro Micro goes on at the
very end.
Again, leave the Pro Micro until the end.
Some people use tape to hold it in place, but I like to just use the actual controller
to line it up.
Everything you do to the left side, you do to the right side, but on the flip side instead.
With the only exception being the 2 resistors that go here.
But yeh, at this stage, you should have something that looks like this.
Now to open the first case from Laser Ninja.
He is a friend of mine, so I don’t want to sound like an absolute shill, but I am
impressed with how this was packaged, with all the contents in separate bags and stuff.
So we end up with the acrylic base plates, the mid pieces, and then the top mounting
plates.
This is a matte black plate, which is glossy on the other side.
And for the switches, we have some 62g Zilent’s, which are basically silent versions of the
well known Zealio’s.
So they’re tactile switches, which have dampeners on the stem.
These 2 switches here are located right under the Pro Micro, so the switch pins will need
to be trimmed down to give the Pro Micro enough clearance.
I also like to add a bit of electrical tape just in case.
Before you solder the Pro Micro, you should test it and flash it, because if they are
dead, these are an absolute pain to desolder.
I’ll have a video linked that goes through the flashing process.
And for the other PCB, you have to flip the Pro Micro, so it looks like this.
The person I’m building this for also wanted underglow lighting, so here I have a WS2812B
RGB LED strip.
The spacing on this particular strip isn’t great, so I can only fit 3 in a row.
But the ones sold on Keebio are much more tightly grouped.
So i’ll put in 2 rows, which in the end makes for a more even light anyway.
I got pretty lazy when filming, so I’m just going to explain with my finished pieces.
First I’ll start with the master side, which is my left hand piece.
For this, we will need to make some connections with wires, which involves stripping the ends
of the wires, tinning them, and then soldering them in place.
If you don’t know how to do that, I’ll link a tutorial in the description.
Okay, so the direction of the strip is shown with these arrows here.
So at the start of the line we need to wire Din to RGB on the PCB.
Again, that must be at the start with the first LED.
And then we can wire the 5 vault to VCC, and the ground to ground.
These 3 wires are only a bridge to the other strip, so don’t worry about that if you
only have 1 strip.
But as you can see, it’s just extending it.
And then right at the end, which will be the last LED on the line, we wire Din to Extra
Data.
Now to the slave side.
This time the strip starts from the bottom, as you can see with the directional arrows.
So again, we connect Din and Extra Data.
Then we have 5 vault to VCC, and ground to ground, just like with the master PCB.
And these 3 wires are again just a bridge to the other strip.
And that’s all there is.
So in the end this is what my PCBs look like.
I’ll put the full res photos in the description if you want to have a look.
Most of the empty spots are just for in switch LEDs, and the pairing resistors, but since
LEDs are an absolute pain, I skipped those.
Now to put it all together.
We have a satin ice snow base plate, which will let that underglow lighting shine through.
And we have solid black mid pieces.
This utilises a simple sandwich case design.
So we have screws on either side, which screw into the standoffs in
the middle.
To give the keyboard some angle, there’s a range of legs available at different lengths.
I just have a couple of different heights, and these screw into the actually pretty nice
metal and rubber feet.
And here’s the other one, with the exact same process, but without the underglow lighting
because I couldn’t be bothered.
The Iris uses the QMK firmware.
So we can download an available default hex file.
Or you can use something like QMK configurator, and create your own custom layout, which is
what I recommend anyway.
You can watch a separate video of me configuring my Iris if you want.
And here are the two Iris keyboards all done.
Kind of.
And straight away, these will be an eye catcher to most people unacquainted with these types
of boards, because of how unique they look.
First we have the black case with the translucent white bottom, with the DSA 2049 keyset.
Honestly, this keyset only made this more difficult to use because I don’t have any
visual cues now, but it looks pretty cool nonetheless with these pretty soft colours.
Perhaps something not as strong as black would have been better for the case, but I still
like it.
Now for the other one, I was going to put on some blank clear DSA keycaps on this, but
they didn’t come in time, but I really dig how this looks.
In fact, I wish I just went with a clear base plate, instead of this translucent white piece.
It’s just cool to be able to see the PCB, and all the components and stuff.
So actually typing on it.
It was, well is, very very difficult for me.
I don’t really have the time or patience to actually give it a real good try over an
extended period of time, so trying to adapt to this columnar stagger layout was too much
for me.
I already struggle quite a lot with ortholinear boards, so yeh.
Anyway, this is regarded as an ergonomic keyboard.
So first we have the split nature of it, which allows for more natural arm and shoulder positioning,
as it can be spaced out.
And that allows us to also angle the pieces, for better wrist positioning.
And then we have the tented aspect which again, just provides a more neutral position.
I’m not sure on what tenting angle is suitable, but I guess it varies from person to person.
But since I do like to rest my wrists on the table because I’m lazy, some of the steeper
angles are a bit too much for me.
As said, this has a columnar stagger, so the columns are all aligned, but we have a slight
stagger with the rows, which makes sense for the lengths of our fingers.
It’s basically a split 60% kind of board.
The purple keys are the letters and numbers, and then we have our modifiers that flank
both sides as per usual.
Below that, we have the thumb clusters.
I have all 1U keys, but these two keys here can be a single 2U key instead.
Personally, the three bottom keys are very easy to use, but the top key on both sides
are pretty tough to reach naturally with the thumb.
But I’d rather have it as an extra key anyway, rather than a singular 2U key.
Everyone is different in how they use their keyboard, so that’s why I think it’s imperative
that you create a custom layout for this.
For example, by default, the spacebar is on the right thumb, but I always use my left
thumb for that.
And then I personally use caps lock a lot, while others don’t.
But I think those who have a better typing technique will truly benefit from this sort
of keyboard.
I personally just use 3 fingers on my left and 2 on my right, so I have to move all over
the place anyway, which isn’t the best for ergonomics.
But yeh, you’d definitely need some time to adapt to this, and get the best out of
its ergonomic design.
These 62g Zilent’s are quite the relaxing typing experience.
They’re super quiet as you could hear, and really the background noises drowned it out
a bit.
They’re reasonably tactile, especially for an MX style switch, while also being quite
light on the fingers.
As for the other board, this was just a case of not having enough of a particular keyswitch,
so I had to be a bit creative to fill it all up.
Overall, it’s a very unique product that has been made more accessible by Keebio.
It takes a bit more work to get to the finished product, so there’s more soldering involved,
since it’s just a bare PCB, but it’s not really difficult, it just takes more time.
And then there’s creating your own layout and flashing it and all that, but again, that’s
pretty easy as well.
I’m super delighted with the acrylic cases from Laser Ninja.
They were well packaged.
Well designed.
It’s very easy to put together, with its sandwich case design.
And the tenting legs are also very simple, yet effective, with a range of heights available.
So big props to him.
And last of all, it’s good fun putting it all together, and it actually felt quite rewarding
in the end.
If you happen to be in Melbourne, there will be a mechanical keyboard Meetup, run by my
friends at DailyClack, on the 15th of September, and I’ll be giving this clear Iris away
as part of their raffle.
So definitely come if you can, and I’ll put the link in the description for more info.