Another single-switch circuit board

[mtl]

Hey that looks great! I'm happy they worked out for you. I see you used surface mount resistors and through-hole diodes. Any particular reason for the mix? How did the LEDs work out? In any case.. very nice!

[flabbergast]

Thanks! I'd have done SMT diodes as well, but I didn't have any lying around (and I had SMT resistors and through-hole diodes...).
LEDs work pretty well - although so far I haven't programmed any pretty effects for the matrix beyond testing that it works
Also - these particular amoebas are missing some silkscreen and the 'DT' logo, because OSH Park had a slightly botched batch. They handled it very professionally - informed everyone from that batch that there's a problem even before I received the boards, reran the whole panel and sent replacements. But this took another month, so I used the non-perfect ones for this

[Halvar]

Wow, so these are available for purchase? Or did you get prototypes from mtl?

[flabbergast]

mtl shared the design on OSH Park, and it is super easy to order some from them (EU friendly, no hidden costs, bubble envelope marked for $10 regardless of the order). Also high quality (well except than one botched batch, but this is rare - I ordered quite a few things from them over the years with no problems).
The only thing is that no money goes back to mtl

[mtl]

This project was intended to scratch an itch, learn something new and a fun challenge, so I never wanted to earn anything back from it. Thank you, though.

I haven't ordered a large enough quantity to build a keyboard yet, primarily because I'm not yet sure how many I'll need. If there's sufficient interest in a group buy to get the price down, then I would be onboard and willing to organize. I'm in the US so the shipping and import duties abroad may offset any bulk discount, however.

[virual]

http://sketchpunklabs.tumblr.com/post/1 ... d-reusable

I received 6 boards the other day. I'm hoping to make it so that the switch and wires are removable, no soldering. So far I have a good pin connector that allows the switch to be removable from the board. There is even a smaller one they'll work for the leds.

For the wires I thought about taking apart terminal blocks and using that to connect the wires, but the pins are to big to fit into the board. Now i'm playing with header pins, if I remove the plastic and solder them to the board, it might be a good option just have to sacrifice a bit of height to make it work. Just curious if you guys have any ideas about going this route.

I have many things planned, want to 3d print the top panels and case. Was planning on using a joystick for mouse movement, even a rotary encoder to create a scroll wheel. Other things I want to do is add a layer that can be user programmed, usb hub embedded and if possible bluetooth. Want to build the thing in phases, but for now I want a 2x2 matrix with the joystick then move up from there.

[dasGnome]

Hey all, sorry for the necro, but I didn't see any recent posts about this.

I have recently built a board using the Amoebas, but I am stuck on finding a non-frustrating way to create the tiny bridge wires. I'm having trouble stripping the ends and preventing them from getting bent out of shape because the sections are so small. This is a big board (124 switches), so I'd rather find a repeatable workflow to save myself the headache.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

[Lanrefni]

Hey all, sorry for the necro, but I didn't see any recent posts about this.

I have recently built a board using the Amoebas, but I am stuck on finding a non-frustrating way to create the tiny bridge wires. I'm having trouble stripping the ends and preventing them from getting bent out of shape because the sections are so small. This is a big board (124 switches), so I'd rather find a repeatable workflow to save myself the headache.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

Have you tried magnet wire? The enamel melts off the wire when you touch it with a soldering iron thus allowing the solder to flow onto it.

[dasGnome]

Hey all, sorry for the necro, but I didn't see any recent posts about this.

I have recently built a board using the Amoebas, but I am stuck on finding a non-frustrating way to create the tiny bridge wires. I'm having trouble stripping the ends and preventing them from getting bent out of shape because the sections are so small. This is a big board (124 switches), so I'd rather find a repeatable workflow to save myself the headache.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

Have you tried magnet wire? The enamel melts off the wire when you touch it with a soldering iron thus allowing the solder to flow onto it.

I have been using regular 34 awg hookup wire. This was also suggested on reddit, so I've ordered a bunch to try it out. Thanks for the tip.

[Quartz64]

I've organised a small groupbuy for Amoeba 1U and 2U PCBs from JLCPCB.
Reseived the order on 21.12 (express shipping to Russia took 16 days):

There were 1500 Amoeba 1U PCBs on 50 5x6 panels ($33.47), 75 Amoeba 2U ($11.02), 10 Mitosis PCBs ($17.00) and 10 Lobot PCBs ($4.60). Shipping cost was $45.33.
I've ordered the wrong diodes. SOD-123 doesn't fit, I need SOD-323:

[kohlerm]

Is there a gerber file for those 5x6 panels?
Or how do I order a panel of the amoeba switches?

[Findecanor]

The Amoeba is available in 5×6 also from Keebio.
I was a bit disappointed when I saw that there is 1u spacing only on the horizontal, not on the vertical. The rows will have to be broken apart.

I don't know of any store in Europe that has it — If anyone does, please let me know as well! (I'm not in the mood for paying 30€+ for a 5€ item. Stupid customs fees ... grumble grumble)

[Quartz64]

You can organize a group buy if you have a local PCB manufacturer. About 3 month ago producing 1500 Amoebas (50 5x6 panels) at Chinese jlcpcb.com was about $75 including shipping, cheaper than producing them locally (in Moscow), but I didn't have to pay a customs fee.

[Quartz64]

Is there a gerber file for those 5x6 panels?
Or how do I order a panel of the amoeba switches?

With jlcpcb I just had to select panelized production and choose X by Y size.

[Bendim]

The Amoeba is available in 5×6 also from Keebio.
I was a bit disappointed when I saw that there is 1u spacing only on the horizontal, not on the vertical. The rows will have to be broken apart.

I don't know of any store in Europe that has it — If anyone does, please let me know as well! (I'm not in the mood for paying 30€+ for a 5€ item. Stupid customs fees ... grumble grumble)

@Findecanor german shop keycapsss has it.
https://keycapsss.com/keyboard-parts/pc ... switch-pcb

Thank you mtl for creating and sharing it.

[Findecanor]

[@Findecanor german shop keycapsss has it.

That's a nice shop you have there. I found out about it for the first time only a week or so ago.
Thanks!

[c099]

I'm confused. Should I buy diodes in sod-123 or sod-323?

[kohlerm]

BTW I've got https://keycapsss.com/keyboard-parts/pc ... ckets?c=14 from keycapsss in the meantime. Supports hotswap sockets Still slowly working on a new build, cannot yet tell how well it works.

[c099]

BTW I've got https://keycapsss.com/keyboard-parts/pc ... ckets?c=14 from keycapsss in the meantime. Supports hotswap sockets Still slowly working on a new build, cannot yet tell how well it works.

Thanks for sharing this! I wish there's a black version. Anyway it looks very cool.

[vandr0iy]

Hi everyone!

n00b question here: how hard would it be to create a design similar to the original amoeba - but with the SMD mounting points that support the SK6812MINIs (like the ones on the CRKBD) instead of the regular LEDs?

[mtl]

I designed a revised amoeba a while back with support for SMD RGB LEDs like that and Kaihl switch sockets. Had a few prototypes made. I think where it left off was it would technically work for a single key switch, but I wasn't sure it would be feasible to wire up a matrix of them due to the need for more wires between each PCB. Will look for the design and try to post some pictures.

[mtl]

Here are a couple of renders. The LED these were designed for is the SK6812MINI.

amoeba-royale-1.png (78.72 KiB) Viewed 24995 times

amoeba-royale-2.png (73.06 KiB) Viewed 24995 times

If there's any interest, I could try to resume work on it. But as mentioned in the previous post, it may not work out great to try to wire up a whole keyboard of these.

A little more detail on the connections: R and C for row and column, of course. + and - are power for the LED, and OUT/IN are the signal lines for LED control. Within a row, there is no need to connect the +/- lines going up to the row above or down to the row below. (So left to right, the PCBs would connect easily.) The top/bottom pads (other than C) would only be used at the end of a row to connect to the subsequent row above/below.

One quirk was that every other row would require the LED to be rotated 180 degrees and invert the meaning of OUT/IN and +/-, which would be easy to screw up during assembly.

[Loligagger]

I'd be interested in an amoeba that supported kailh hotswap sockets, but without the RGB support personally. I'd rather have a few redundant column pads. Also wouldn't that hole for the anode of the through-hole diode interfere with the switch?

[Findecanor]

I'd be interested in an amoeba that supported kailh hotswap sockets, but without the RGB support personally. I'd rather have a few redundant column pads.

Scroll up to the next link.

My own difficulty with the Ameoba is that it doesn't have 3/4" spacing on the vertical. But I suppose what I really wanted was two 2×2 boards.

[Loligagger]

Ah, glazed over that for some reason. Though the vertical dimension of the amoeba only being 16mm means it'll fit in tight spots for boards like the dactyl. Could the hotswap socket even fit in the same 19mm x 16mm footprint without interfering with the other pads?

[mtl]

I've made some updates that hopefully improve the design. In this revision, redundant column pads were added to the top and bottom. (Thanks, Lolligagger!) Also, pins were added to support both left-to-right and right-to-left LED data flows across a row. This will allow for the LED to always be mounted in the same orientation, which will simplify assembly and should reduce the possibility for wiring errors. Finally, the pins for data-out on the top and data-in on the bottom were removed. This removes some flexibility but seemed to be the right compromise.

amoeba-royale-2.png (62.98 KiB) Viewed 24886 times

amoeba-royale-1.png (73.24 KiB) Viewed 24886 times

Dimensions are 18.8 mm wide by 18.3 mm high.

I hope to create a wiring diagram to show how these would be connected in a matrix.

[mtl]

Here is a wiring diagram, not showing the column data connections needed at the ends of each row:

amoeba-2.0-wiring-diagram.png (181.76 KiB) Viewed 24854 times

[mtl]

Below is a pinout for the 2.0 design. I've ordered some prototypes to see if any other changes need to be made. Also may take a shot at creating a panel to have more control over where the mousebites end up.

amoeba-2.0-pinout.svg.png (106.88 KiB) Viewed 24766 times

[Reinhold]

Below is a pinout for the 2.0 design. I've ordered some prototypes to see if any other changes need to be made. Also may take a shot at creating a panel to have more control over where the mousebites end up.

Oh wow, that 2.0 design looks slick, I would definitely buy a bunch of those if they became available some day (actually registered here just to post that).

They look like a perfect fit for any ergo keyboards like Dactyls etc., with support for Kaihl hotswap and RGB LEDs.
Also, nice job on signaling each pin's designated usage with a minimalistic design, really cool!

[mtl]

Thank you! I plan to release the gerbers and sources. However, there are a few issues that need to be worked out:

• To make use of the Kaihl switch sockets, one really needs to use the screw mounts on the left and right sides to stabilize the PCB when a switch is inserted or removed. I don't think I've seen anyone use them before with the 1.x series.
• A 2u version needs to be created to support stabilized keys, as the screw mounts on the 1u would interfere with the switch plate stabilizer cutouts on 2u (non-space bar) stabilized keys.
• On the second prototype run, the SK6812MINI cutouts were made with too coarse of a drill bit and thus were too small for the LEDs to fit into. OshPark says the finer milling bit is not guaranteed, so the Amoebas would need to be manufactured with tighter tolerances, perhaps at a different fabricator.

All that said, if anyone has thought through the mounting issue and is eager to use these, please speak up and I will work on publishing the design.