jemmec/co60

KiCad design files for the CO60, an open hardware 60% keyboard PCB

CO60 PCB

The CO60 was developed out of the desire to produce a 60% PCB that appeals to many people and is readily available. CO60 is a portmanteau of Community and 60% keyboard.

Overview

The CO60 aims to meet the following design goals:

• Switches oriented such that the LEDs are South-facing, for compatibility with Cherry profile keycaps.

• USB Type-C support in both A to C and C to C configurations.

• QMK support.

• A variety of split spacebar configurations, including split 6.25U space and split 7U space.

• ESD protection circuitry, including data line protection and a polyfuse on the VCC line.

• Support for per-switch LED backlighting.

• Fits in standard 60% keyboard cases.

Supported Layouts

The CO60 supports the the following layouts.

Motivation

There are a number of 60% keyboard PCBs available today, so it is important to be clear about the reasons for developing a new one. This PCB is the only 60% keyboard PCB that, to the best of my knowledge, satisfies ALL of the following criteria:

• Support for MX switches oriented such that the LEDs are South facing, for compatibility with Cherry profile keycaps.

• Support for split spacebars, in both 6.25U and 7U configurations.

• USB Type-C connection that supports both A to C and C to C configurations.

• Open source hardware. This allows anybody to do a production run of the board at any point, and doesn't lock the design in with a particular vendor.

• QMK support.

• Based on an STM32F303 ARM MCU.

Obtaining the Files

This repository contains several submodules, which in turn contain KiCad libraries used in the PCB design. In order to clone the CO60 repository, and all of the library submodules, the following command must be issued,

git clone --recursive https://github.com/jmdaly/CO60.git

Acknowledgements

This PCB design would not have been possible without the help and previous work of a number of people. In particular, great inspiration has been derived from the GH60 project, and ai03's excellent open source keyboard designs. This includes the use of ai03's KiCad switch footprint libraries and his USB Type-C KiCad footprint libraries.

The Banana Split V2 PCB provided inspiration for some of the bottom row layouts. The Banana Split was the first 60% PCB to popularize the split spacebar layout, and the folks at The Van Keyboards deserve a lot of credit for this development.

The board outline libraries were created by amtra5, and full credit goes to him for their design.

There is an active keyboard design community on the MechKeys discord. The users there have been very helpful, and I've learned a significant amount about PCB design from them.