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Mesektet | Not a Rectangle

by sidrow

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Description

mesektet
a premium portable board with misguided 40s mindset

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Details

Mesektet is a 12u, uniform-stagger board, with dedicated Gamer Keys and a 7u spacebar row, designed to be light enough for a daily commute and robust enough for a daily driver. It uses a modified tadpole mount for an even, gentle typing feel, and implements the latest S1 unified daughterboard parallel to the desk for an ultra-low USB-C port.

Because Mesektet was designed for portability and travel, its name and rear engraving nod to an ancient mythological commuter. (Note that in the revised prototype, the engraving has been moved to center over the USB port on the Gamer Row, vs. its original position behind the backspace key.)

Layout Options:
The 7u spacebar row supports 1/1/3/1/1, 3/1/3, and chad big bar, taking advantage of overlapping switch and stabilizer footprints to keep the plate and PCB hella clean:

Specifications:

Typing angle: 3º
Case materials: TBD, but aluminum and POM are being tested for the top case, and acrylic and PC for the bottom; I'd also love to offer an all-acrylic or all-PC option
Plate options: POM will definitely be offered; others TBD—vote for your favorite(s) in the IC form!
Mounting: Modified tadpole (see below)
PCB: Solder PCB + S1 UDB; configurable with QMK, VIA, and VIAL
Front height: 19.6mm (measured from the inside edge of the front bezel, where the cutout for the switches/caps begins)
Weight: Approximately 0.62 kg (1.36 lb) built—a breeze to carry in your backpack, briefcase, or bag
Other features: Cherry lip; Xonledge (with clearance cuts for stabilizer screws/clips); AKB bumpons

Modified Tadpole Mounting?
Right, so, as you probably know, tadpole mounting uses silicone pins to compress the switch plate (or PCB, in a plateless implementation) against the top case, with the thick end of the silicone pins acting as bumpers between the plate (or PCB) and bottom case. Mesektet refines this design by adding o-rings around the tadpoles on the top side of the plate, with corresponding cuts in the top case to ensure the o-rings have the same degree of compression as the tadpoles. It looks like this:

Similar to the way burger mounting improves on a traditional top mount, this change retains the ease of assembly and even typing feel of a tadpole mount, but better isolates the plate from the top case to eliminate collision noises between the two and improve the board's acoustics.

Current Status (as of January 22, 2024)

Note: I'll be regularly updating this post/thread, but if you want to get pinged for updates as soon as they're available, please join the 40s Discord server and grab the Mesektet role for access to the IC channel.

The IC form is open—click the big link above! (or here!)

The small "friends-and-family" or "founders' edition" style run completed delivery in early November 2023. Feedback has been very positive; thanks everyone who took a chance on this board early on!

However, managing the F&F/FE run out of my apartment was not fun, to say the least, so I'm reaching out to vendors to get some help with the group buy.

For the full update history and to-do list, refer to the next post in this thread.

Group Buy Details

Vendor: TBD

Pricing: TBD (but based on the quotes I've received so far, I believe this will be a budget-friendly board)

GB Dates: TBD

Quantity: TBD (MOQ is tentatively 30 units, but I'd be delighted to go higher!)

Media

Stay tuned! This section will get filled out eventually. (In the meantime, sorry about my phone camera and the terrible lighting in my apartment.)

Acknowledgements

I'm sincerely grateful to all of the following people, whose help in one form or another has made this project possible:

My fiancée, for believing in this weird little board, and for everything really
keebnewb, for going above and beyond to design and revise the PCB
Sleepdealer, who took the PCB across the finish line and converted it to RP2040
OCM, for the fantastic engraving and PCB silkscreen
BadCactus, for fielding way too many of my unsolicited neurotic DMs to count
My manu rep, who is unreasonably responsive, helpful, and friendly
Eiiti Wada and PFU Limited (HHKB), Ziptyze (Zlant), Trash Man (V4N4G0N), Fraser (Stag42), Geon (tadpoles), James from AKB (AKB bumpons), and Xondat (Xonledge), whose designs have influenced or been directly incorporated into Mesektet
The F&F/FE buyers, for their early support and tremendous patience with the hurdles we encountered
Too many people to list, for their kindness and encouragement while I floated the prototype for the past year-plus