My brain can't make low-keycount boards work, personally.

Ended up designing a 64-key one with displays: https://github.com/tzarc/keyboards/tree/main/Djinn -- can't see myself going any fewer than that.

https://wiki.ai03.com/ is what a lot of people use. Though it's probably easier nowadays to use an RP2040-based ProMicro form factor daughterboard so you only need to handle key placement.

Firmware... QMK: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/ || https://docs.qmk.fm/porting_your_keyboard_to_qmk

Disclaimer: I'm a QMK Maintainer.

As one of the QMK Firmware maintainers, it's great to see you're going ahead with the customisable side of things even on the input side.

Might I suggest engaging with QMK early so that we can avoid the usual manufacturer "hey can you merge this, we've shipped already and forgot to raise the PR until now"?

Absolutely! We’ve been chatting with Jack Humbert, and he’s actually been prototyping an ortholinear keyboard module for the Framework Laptop 16. There are likely some photos of it in press articles about the event today.

An ortholinear keyboard? Wow, that’s my dream. Do you have the link? (and when will you eventually ship to Belgium?)

We announced today that we’re opening preorders for our new products this summer in Belgium (and Italy, Spain, and Taiwan).

are there any ETA for Romania?)

Is there a chance you could have individual scissor switch key modules made for DIY ergonomic layouts on a custom PCB?

The height limitations of the 16" laptop are too low for low-profile discrete mechanical switches.

Kailh makes a scissor switch module but I think it's still too thick. http://www.kailh.com/en/Products/Ks/NotebookS/

That is a really interesting idea and something we'll explore.

Thanks! I use a 46-key ergo layout (Mitosis) that would be perfect for a laptop and have always itched to have it integrated into the computer.

If you folks and Jack manage to make the OLKB module a reality, you'll have me vendorlocked for life. I think I'd go so far as buying 3 of those modules just to be extra sure that I'm set with replacement parts.

Uh... completely unrelated question: have you laid out any plans regarding module backcompatibility on future boards?

And do you know for the Framework Laptop 13 ?

If you make an ortholinear keyboard for the 13er, you'll have my preorder immediately.

(I have no interest in big laptops. The 13 is probably the physically biggest laptop I've owned in a very long time.)

an ortholinear laptop keyboard?????? yes please.

That's great news, any chance for an orthostaggered module as our fingers have different lengths for a linear one (or maybe that's what you meant with just terminology slip)

Joining the chorus clamoring for this <3

Just take my money already

We've actually already started contributing :)

https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/pulls?q=is%3Apr+sort%3Au...

Just a heads-up, missing a few; https://golem.hu/boards/ seems to be a bit more complete.

I would love to see a split or ergonomic board with electrocapacitive rubber dome switches. I can't go back to the way mechanical feels, but would appreciate some ergonomics.

I have a Corne with purple Kailh Chocs for traveling, technically mechanical but they’re scissor switches so it feels like typing on a laptop if that’s the kind of experience you’re looking for

Not sure I understand correctly. Are you referring to membrane keyboards (rubber dome keyboards)? Why do you prefer these over mechanical keyboards?

My board of 3 years now has Topre clones and they feel vastly smoother than mechanical keys

This is nice but the aspect ratio is skewed on a lot of the photos that I looked. Again just a heads-up.

None that I'm aware of. And I don't plan on running one of my own -- too many other things going on.

That said, I ended up creating a Discord months ago after a whole bunch of people were going to run their own GB, needed a place to "host" it... never eventuated due to the COVID logistics problem.

I assembled mine by hand.

I'm not sure a lot of PCB assembly houses would like reversible PCBs.

Full disclosure: I started my foray into split keyboards with an Iris.

...but it didn't have all the keys I wanted, thus the Djinn.

In a week or so, QMK will pick up a whole bunch of new support for pointing devices -- Djinn's open-source, so if you're keen you can swap a display out for a Cirque touchpad for instance.

Right now, none really -- it's a hardware enablement testbed, and really only shows a handful of information, such as Caps/Num/Scroll and what layer you're using.

With QMK we get a lot of requests for "how do I display this", "how do I show that", so it's more a case of making sure it supports most of those scenarios.

Sadly with the silicon shortages, not a lot of people are getting the chance to build them... I'm sure we'd see some interesting usages if/when this display stuff becomes a bit more mainstream.

Oh hey, that's me!

How would I get the boards?

At the moment I'd advise against it somewhat -- the silicon shortages have basically made the MCU and a couple of other parts unobtainable.

That said, I got mine from everyone's favourite PCB manufacturer: JLCPCB.

All the parts can be found on the BOM: https://github.com/tzarc/djinn/blob/main/Rev2a/Djinn-BOM.md

I see the parts list but are there build instructions anywhere?

Not really; it's a case of soldering on the parts as per the iBOM: https://github.com/tzarc/djinn/blob/main/Rev2a/bom/ibom.html

Only a couple of parts are actually dependent on the side you're soldering (and are listed on the parts BOM), virtually everything else is aligned in such a way that it can be soldered onto either side.

So.. why the screens?