CRF-003: KB-1

The making of a custom keyboard in the style of Teenage Engineering's OP-1.

Quadra

Aug 13, 2024 — 3 min read

The KB-1! The latest Paradiso Craft video features my homage to the lovely designs of Teenage Engineering, in particular the OP-1. I made it as a gift for my friend Galen, who makes music for many of my videos and has a classic OP-1 himself. We have a lot of late-night design discussions/tangents/rabbit holes and Teenage Engineering design choices are a perennial favorite.

Design

At its core, the KB-1 is just a 60% size (no F-keys, no numpad) wireless mechanical keyboard that I put new customized keycaps on. The keycap legends are inspired by the typography and colors of the OP-1. You can see me designing them in the video and you can download them for yourself at the bottom of this post.

Dye Sublimation

I used a process called dye sublimation to apply the legends to the keycaps. This requires a special kind of printer I don't have, so I sent my designs out to Wow Imaging and then used a flat iron, some silicone, and some Kapton polyamide tape to transfer the legends onto the keycaps.

Materials

Materials used (you can get a lot of this off of eBay):

NuPhy Air60 v1 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard: This is what I already had on hand (there's a v2 out now too), but any ANSI-layout keyboard (if your Enter key is not an L-shape, you're good) with Cherry MX-compatible switches should work fine. $90+ depending on model.
DEADLINE Studios DOYS Keycaps: For a 60% keyboard, I got 2 A Kits and 1 MOD Kit in White. WhatGeek says this combo will work for 60%/65%/75%/TKL keyboards, and 2 A kits + 1 B kit + 1 MOD kit will be good for 96%/98%/100% keyboards. About $80 with a discount code.
High Temperature Silicone Rubber Sheet: I used the 1mm thick sheet linked here. You only need a few square cm. This was about $10.
Polyamide (Kapton) Tape: This is a high-temperature (or low-temperature) material commonly used in electronics and spacecraft...I got a 10mm wide roll so it wouldn't overlap the edges of the keys. About $9.
High Temperature (230°C/450°F+) Flat Iron: Mine is a ConAir Infiniti Pro I got off eBay for around $20, though I'd recommend looking for a flat iron with an actual temperature readout.
Dye Sublimation Printing On Demand: If, like me, you're not about to invest in a dye-sub printer, you can send your designs out to outfits like Wow Imaging to get them printed. I got a few sheets made for about $15.

I had just replaced my well-traveled Air60 v1 with the newer Air60 v2, which has several improvements I wanted, like QMK/VIA support and better feet. The old keyboard was still in great shape so when I saw the DOYS keycaps, I knew I had to make this thing as a gift for my pal Galen. He makes music for a lot of my videos and has a classic OP-1 and a bunch of Pocket Operators.