Synapse
An exploded 60% with a rotary encoder, a brass weight and its own PCB.
Synapse is a keyboard designed end to end: the layout, the case, the board, the brass weight and the renders. It is the most physical thing I have made, and it reads differently from software. Tolerances do not forgive.
Board to object.
Scroll to take it apart. Every switch sits on a footprint traced from the real PCB, every keycap on the layout measured from the top render. Inside, plate and PCB float on foam gaskets over a bottom full of case foam, with switch foam between them, so the board gives a little under each keystroke. Type to feel it.
Press any key.
This is the production board. Type on your own keyboard and the matching switch lights up, the row and column carry the signal to the controller, and the HID usage it would send appears below. The matrix assignment is illustrative; the footprints are not.
- Matrix
- R· · C··
- HID usage
- ··
- Encoder
- wheel over it
- Presses
- 0
Type anywhere. Click the board to capture Space and arrows too.
Drawn, then rendered.
The vector layout was rebuilt from the orthographic render. Drag across to compare the drawing with the product.
Three finishes, one object.
Forest green with cream, grey with white, burgundy with black. Same case, same brass, different temperaments.
The parts you only see when you turn it over.
Nº 001
Dimensions are derived from the layout at the standard 19.05 mm key pitch. The renders are the reference; the PCB is the production layout.
- Layout
- Exploded 60%, 63 keys
- Encoder
- Rotary, knurled knob
- Indicators
- 3 LEDs, stacked under the knob
- Spacebar
- Split, 3u + 3u
- Arrows
- Cluster dropped by 0.25u
- Case
- Two-piece, ≈ 337 × 123 mm
- Weight
- Brass, engraved “Synapse Nº 001”
- PCB
- MX-style footprints, USB-C
- Mount
- Gasket: plate and PCB rest on foam strips
- Dampening
- Switch foam, case foam in the bottom
- Renders
- KeyShot