johnplanow/avlokbd

Avlo44 Keyboard

Avlo44 is a 6x3+4 column-staggered, split, unibody keyboard.

Inspired by the Kyria, Reviung41 and Lily58, it was designed with the following goals in mind:

• Goal: Easy to carry around the office with my laptop when I have meetings.
  • Choice: Unibody design. I like split keyboards, but they can be awkward to pick up and carry around.
  • Choice: Wireless. I intend to install a nice!nano on the board eventually.
• Goal: Minimize keymap customization and learning curve for everyday office work and programming.¹
  • Corollary: This means 3x6 with dedicated keys for all Mac modifiers. I don't find a worthwhile tradeoff in fewer keys.
  • Choice: 44 keys in a 6x3+4 layout.
• Goal: Experiment with an aggressive column-stagger, especially for the pinky. This seems intuitive to me, given my pinky is significantly shorter than other fingers.
  • Choice: The column-stagger is lifted directly from the Kyria. All credit to Thomas Baart for its design.
• Goal: Ease of assembly
  • Choice: Through-hole diodes were used instead of surface-mount. Initial revisions still have surface-mount LEDs because I didn't care enough about backlighting to invest additional effort into them.
• Goal: Fun stuff!
  • Choice: I included an OLED, which has always been more fun than functional for me, because it's relatively easy. I will probably add a rotary encoder in a follow-up revision.

Future plans:

• 4x6 variant:
  • I have a PC used mostly for gaming. I'd like a dedicated number row for this¹ paired with the aggressive column-stagger.
• Breakaway sixth columns (for a 3x5 variant), as requested by someone when I first posted the Avlo44.
• Choc switch support, as requested by someone when I first posted the Avlo44.
• As mentioned above, I'd like to experiment with a rotary encoder.

Footnotes

¹ In my experience, there is an inflection point as one reduces the number of keys, where there is a drastic increase in the complexity of keymap customizations (combos, layers, mod-taps, etc.) I think this inflection point depends on application: general office work versus programming versus gaming. In all cases, moving beyond it requires significantly more time/energy to adapt, tune, etc.