DT68A Project

[Okeg]

This is a (hopefully) more determined continuation of this thread: http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/desk ... t4651.html

I will try to step in as a manager of this project *brings out the whip*, however: I do not deserve any credit for the actual design work, if you should thank anyone, thank matt3o who's working his ass off in this thread: http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/refi ... t5266.html

Now onto the keyboard:
In the title i've just referred to the board as "DT68A"(DeskThority 68-key Alps) This is so that we can have a project name instead of saying "that alps keyboard" all the time.

Regarding the board itself; there hasn't been all too much work on the Alps board itself, except for what that is mentioned in Matt3o's thread. Hopefully this will change soon.

Stay tuned!

[matt3o]

Okay we have 3 options here:

1) make a 15x5 layout with all keys lower than 2u such as this


PROS: Signature Plastics has all the molds for that and we could make a 65% layout
CONS: No standard keys, you can't use your old ALPS keycaps for it. No ISO layout possible.

2) make a 60% standard layout (poker like)

PROS: you can use any standard ALPS keyboards for keycaps
CONS: no 65% layout

3) make a 65% 16x5 layout

PROS: ISO layout possible. It should be possible to recycle your old alps caps. maybe not 100% fancy but should be doable (maybe we miss the right shift?).
CONS: we need a lot of stabilizers. We would need a lot of new tooling from SP (so a very high volume of orders) if we want to produce new keys

no easy answer here.

[pasph]

old boards often have weird layouts so with old caps it's hard to cover a modern kb
I'd go with option 1) and at the same time rise funds for new tooling for future projects (75%, TKL) and try stabilizers alternatives