JJ40

After the (personal) success of the Neopad, I decided to build a full keyboard. I've always been charmed by ortholinear, and after lurking on r/olkb I decided to go for a small form factor to get creative with layouts!

Obviously, the go-to built is the Planck, but I didn't know I would feet comfortable with this kind of layout. So, as always, I decided to start with a cheaper version to try myself into this new non-staggered world.

I bought the JJ40 v1.5 PCB from KBDFans, Gateron's blue switches for satisfying clickety-clack, and DSA blank keycaps for a e s t h e t i c pleasure.

The layout I choose is the 4x12, no 2u spacebar so I will take full advantage of every key slot.

For the "case" I continued the saga of "ultra DIY" which started with the Neopad (is it already a saga after only 2 episodes?). I had a 9mm wooden plate around so I cut it the size of the keyboard and drilled the holes for the screws. Absently I made them too big and I had to put washers to prevent spacers from falling inside. Here's a photo after (a lot of) sanding.

I used M3x6mm spacers to merge the PCB and the bottom plate. The final result was a little too high to use on my desk, but I find it very comfortable to use placed on my legs while sitting in front of the monitor. In that position my shoulders are relaxed and I can type comfortably for quite some time.

In the end, I placed keycaps and scratched roughly the F and J ones. In that way, I can find them without looking.

For the firmware side, I choose to overwrite the preinstalled one with QMK.

I already have done a couple of updates of my custom keymap, but I am waiting to be 100% sure to have it on point before starting a pull request on QMK Firmware's GitHub folder. Until then, this is a draft:

*** Qwerty ***
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Esc |   Q  |   W  |   E  |   R  |   T  |   Y  |   U  |   I  |   O  |   P  | Canc |
|------+------+------+------+------+-------------+------+------+------+------+------|
|  Tab |   A  |   S  |   D  |   F  |   G  |   H  |   J  |   K  |   L  |   '  |   \  |
|------+------+------+------+------+------|------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Shift|   Z  |   X  |   C  |   V  |   B  |   N  |   M  |   ,  |   .  |   -  | Enter|
|------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|  End | Ctrl | GUI  |  Alt | Lower| Bksp | Space| Raise| Left | Down |  Up  | Right|
`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

*** Lower ***
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Reset|      |      |Alt+F4|      |      |      |      |   7  |   8  |   9  |   *  |
|------+------+------+------+------+-------------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      |Prntsc| Explr| Trmnl|      |      |      |   4  |   5  |   6  |   /  |
|------+------+------+------+------+------|------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      | Menu |      |  F2  |      |      |      |   1  |   2  |   3  |   +  |
|------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |   0  |   .  |   =  |   -  |
`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

*** Raise ***
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|      |   €  |   $  |   %  |   &  |   {  |   }  |   ~  |      |      |   `  |      |
|------+------+------+------+------+-------------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |   =  |   !  |   ?  |   (  |   [  |   ]  |   )  |   #  |   @  |   "  |      |
|------+------+------+------+------+------|------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      |   °  |   ^  |   |  |   <  |   >  |      |   ;  |   :  |   _  |      |
|------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

*** Adjust (Lower + Raise) ***
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|      |      |      |   è  |   é  |      |      |   ù  |   ì  |   ò  |      | Hue  |
|------+------+------+------+------+-------------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |   à  |      |Nxttab|Dskt D|Wndw D|Wndw U|Dskt U|Prvtab|      |      | Sat  |
|------+------+------+------+------+------|------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      | Brigt|
|------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |RGBtog|RGBmod|
`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

December 2023 update: I didn't use this keyboard a lot because it was too high to be comfortable to write for quite some time. This is mainly due to the "case" I made years ago.
So, I designed this model (STL on Printables and Thingiverse, Fusion360 .f3d file download) to be the slimmest case you can print for this keyboard and now it is way better and comfortable to type on.

Unluckly the orange was the only filament color I have now. Definitely not matching the keycaps LOL.
Should I try to paint it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯