Hello to all keyboard enthusiast here on the Fédiverse.
For the longest time, I have used a TypeMatrix 2030 as my daily driver, most of which was spent daydreaming of finding a close approximation that would be mechanical. Failing to find one, I procrastinated in researching how I could build my own, which was an error.
Now, my good old TypeMatrix is showing signs of dying, and I still don't have even started on its mechanical replacement. So, I would like help and counsel on how to make one.
I don't need it to be identical, (I don't need the rightmost column on the actual TypeMatrix, for example) but I DO need the middle column with "del", "backspace" and "enter" keys.
Would anyone be willing to help me, please?
Going completely in the other direction from the "lazy" side, you could recreate the layout in the KLE keyboard layout editor, have a top and bottom plate cut at xometry or another vendor, either handwire or design a PCB and have it made by JLCPCB or another vendor, and use blank keycaps or see about making/procuring custom legends. 5u spacebars are a rarity (and 5u x 1.25u are basically not a thing), but if you're willing to split it into a 2.75u and 2.25u, then you could use the shifts from any random 104-key XDA set. Don't quote me on this, but glancing at the 2030 there, I think a non-sculpted blank 104 set would work fine if you did that. 4@2u, 1@1.75u, 2@1.5u, and 1@1.25u once you bump the f-row up to being proper 1u keys. If you wanted to go half measures, you could get a cheap dye-sub XDA set as well as some blanks, and have your most of your 1u keys be accurate and maybe even a couple of the larger ones.
I effectively don't care if the spacebar is split, nor if it is 1u tall instead of 1.25.
All this is interesting info I will-have to study. Thank you.