The Iris Build Begins!

In the past few months, I built an Ergodox and Planck keyboard. While I loved some features of both, I decided for various reasons that neither quite suited my needs.

I’m excited to begin building the Iris, and I anticipate it should go pretty quickly.

This build is specced out as follows:

• Kailh Low Profile Choc Switches  (Red)
• Kailh Low Profile Keycaps – With Legends
• Iris Plates (Choc/Kailh Low-Profile only) Aluminum PCB Plates – Black/Aluminum)
• Iris PCBs (Kailh Low-Profile White)
• RGB LEDs – SK6812 – WS2812B compatible 
• Pro Micro – 5V/16MHz – Arduino-compatible ATmega32U4
• Elite-C – USB-C Pro Micro Replacement – Arduino-compatible ATmega32U4
• TRRS Cable

The Choc switches and keycaps are from NovelKeys, and the rest of the parts came from Keebio. I was planning to use some frosted acrylic mids, but they were sold out so I will be 3D printing them from translucent filament instead.

One of the nice things about the Iris is the affordability of its parts. Even with the upgraded Elite-C controller, I was able to keep my cost of parts below $140, compared to say, an Ergodox, for which you could expect to shell out $200-300. In addition, the option to use all 1U keycaps (at most, adding two 2U keycaps) makes it easy to source them from most common sets.

UPDATE (Dec 3 2019)

I ended up putting the Iris build on hold due to some soldering mistakes on my part, but I will be reusing the choc switches and keycaps, and converting this to a Kyria, after winning a raffle on the /r/ErgoMechKeyboards subreddit. Thanks to Thomas Baart for the giveaway!