• Lil Chonky Bois.
• Hot Swap
• Extras
• BOM
  • General
• Images

Lil Chonky Bois.

Lil Chonky in ALps and MX version.

This is the case design for the Lil Chonky Bois, the successor of the original Chonky Boi, which has been moved to the archive. The Chonky Bois come in different flavors, i.e. wired and wireless. The wireless version accomodates the bluemicro840 v1.x and the bluemacro840 v1.x. Rumor has it that the Nice!Nanos are going to be in stock again in the nearnear future, when I can get a hold of a couple, I will update this repo with a holder for the nice!nano, providing the original promicro holder will not suffice. Furthermore, MX hotswap and ALPS mountplate versions are provided.

Hot Swap

Having started with handwired alps keyboards, repurposing AEKII switches, I turned my nose up to hotswappable keyboards. This was wrong, like very wrong. What I did not know at the time was how rich and diverse the MX switch landscape had become. At the time I only had silent white alps and if I looked far and wide on the internet, maybe, just maybe I could find a batch of affordable blue or orange alps. Three types of switches was managable.

When I made an MX version I quickly fell into a rabbit hole of blues (yuck), browns (oof), yellows (hello), glorious pandas (wat) and black inks (fuyooo) and I have barely scratched the surface. No, like lubing and filming your switches, I now consider hotswap to be mandatory for any keyboard enthousiast. I manage to solder a set in roughly two hours and my back hates it, if I see a nice switch set on ali (I see you tecsee purples) I do not want to think about breathing soldering fumes for another evening. No, I want to think about the taste of krytox 205g0 on my fingers instead ! /s

Extras

Fo conveniece, several wrist rests are provided in a separate blend file, the gel version has also been exported as an stl. Please note that I am using some weird rubber feet I found in a craft store, sold by the pound and you will need to accomodate accordingly.

BOM

General

type	amount	dimensions	link
knurled inserts	12	M3 x D5 x L4.0	ali
m3 screws	6 or 8	flathead or roundhead	ali
Kailh hotswap sockets	34		ali ymdk
switches	34	glorious pandas (tactile), gateron inks (linear) or kailh box blues (clicky) or…	ali ymdk
switch lube and station	n/a	Optional, but if you are not lubing your switches, why are you here ?	ali ymdk
1n4148 diodes	34		ali
grippy rubber	n/a	To keep the kb from sliding, harder to find than I'd like to admit	ali
color coated copper wire		Optional, but the color coding and the thin wires really suit this project	ali
keycaps dsa/xda	34	30x1u and 4x1.5u	ali ymdk
WIRELESS
bluemicro840 v1.x/bluemacro 840 v1.x	2	do not mix micro and macro
micro reset switch	2	hardware reset switch; boards need double click to be put into dfu mode	ali
jst connector	1	1 4-pin male and female; optional, disconnecting the botplate is a quality of life option.	ali
WIRED
TRSS connector	2	stereo, check your local electronics store
Pro Micro MCU	2	Elite-C (usb-c) or teensy 2.0 (usb-mini) are viable alternatives	ali
ALPS
Alps no name clone		Still waiting on delivery,so untested as yet. Get an old apple AEKII on ebay instead.	ali
MISC
Gel wrist rest	2		ali
Crimp tool

• 30x dsa 1u keycaps, 4x dsa 1.75u keycaps https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32850729893.html
• 2x pro micro https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32768308647.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dS8z6Py
• 1x sticky grippy rubber mat. https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4000013831045.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d6xGt3Y
• (optional) color coated copper wire. untested link of a product that looks like the one I am using: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001321847977.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.665f679fQf9Wr3&algo_pvid=39d5a03a-f154-49a6-99ae-430757534207&algo_expid=39d5a03a-f154-49a6-99ae-430757534207-34&btsid=0b0a556616228166325978017eb0fb&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Images