CAD renderThe Chinook
Slim membrane keys in straight columns, with Dvorak's letters.
Planned, with a free waitlist.
Planned price US$89.99 plus shipping
The Chinook is planned, not made yet. Its keypad needs moulds that don't pay off until enough people want one. Join the waitlist: no payment, and we'll email you once if it goes ahead.
FCC notice for the Chinook. This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
- Layout68 keys, ortholinear, Matrix-Dvorak
- LightingPer-key RGB, 68 SK6812MINI-E LEDs
- Ports4 × USB-C: 1 to the computer, 3 as a USB 2.0 hub
None of the Chinook pictures here are photographs: they and the 3D model are renders of the Chinook's design files. For a built the Breeze, see The Breeze V1's photographs.
About the board
The Chinook is the slim, membrane the Breeze: the 68-key Matrix-Dvorak keyboard with the Breeze's electronics, its USB hub and a light under every key, at a lower planned price. Where the Breeze has mechanical switches and keycaps, the Lite's keys are one moulded keypad, 10.95 mm from the case's underside to the key tops.
Each key is a hard plastic key top on a rubber dome. Pressing it collapses the dome, and a carbon contact under it closes gold pads on the circuit board. The key tops are translucent plastic painted black, with the legends laser-etched through, so they shine through: each LED lights its key's legend. Where a key has an Fn-layer legend, it sits below the main one.
Four USB-C ports sit on the back edge: one goes to your computer, and the other three are a USB 2.0 hub. The STM32F072 runs QMK, the same firmware as the Breeze, so the layout and the Fn layer are the same, and the free typing trainer on this site teaches both.
It snaps into a version of the Breeze's screwless case, printed in black nylon with its rim 1.07 mm lower, flush with the keypad. There is no top plate: the keypad covers the board edge to edge. Each keyboard is assembled by hand in Canada. None of the pictures are photographs: they and the 3D model are renders of the Lite's design files.
Specifications
- Layout
- 68 keys, ortholinear, Matrix-Dvorak
- Keys
- Membrane: hard plastic key tops on rubber domes, each dome's carbon contact closing gold pads on the board
- Legends
- Shine-through: laser-etched through black-painted translucent key tops
- Lighting
- Per-key RGB, 68 SK6812MINI-E LEDs
- Connection
- Wired, USB-C
- Ports
- 4 × USB-C: 1 to the computer, 3 as a USB 2.0 hub
- Controller
- STM32F072, running QMK
- Case
- Black nylon, screwless snap-fit: The Breeze's case, cut down flush with the keypad
- Top plate
- None: the keypad covers the board edge to edge
- Size
- Slim: 256.7 × 89.2 mm, 10.95 mm from the case's underside to the key tops (before feet)
- Assembly
- By hand in Canada
Shipping
The Chinook is planned, not made yet, so it can't be ordered and has no ship date.
Questions about an order: support@brisebois.xyz
Questions
- How is the Chinook different from the Breeze?
- The controller, the USB hub and its four USB-C ports, the per-key lights and the firmware are the Breeze's. The keys are not. The Breeze is mechanical, with Kailh Choc switches in hot-swap sockets under separate keycaps. The Chinook is the slim, membrane one: each key is a hard plastic key top on a rubber dome. Pressing it collapses the dome, and a carbon contact under it closes gold pads on the board. All 68 keys are one moulded part, 10.95 mm to the key tops, so there are no switches or keycaps to change, and its planned price is lower.
- See the Breeze
- Are the keys backlit?
- Yes. The key tops are translucent plastic painted black, with the legends laser-etched through the paint, and each key has its own RGB LED under its main legend, so the legends light up and the rest of the key stays dark.
- Is it a membrane keyboard?
- It works like one: each key is a rubber dome rather than a mechanical switch. Most membrane keyboards have a plastic membrane sheet under the domes; on the Chinook the domes press their carbon contacts straight onto gold pads on the circuit board, under hard plastic key tops.
- What is Matrix-Dvorak?
- The Breeze's layout: 68 keys in straight columns, with August Dvorak's letter order. The row your fingers rest on reads A O E U I under the left hand and D H T N S under the right, and the - = [ ] / \ keys sit in the two middle columns, where your pointer fingers take them. The free typing trainer on this site teaches it one letter at a time.
- Open the typing trainer
- Do I set my computer to Dvorak?
- No. Set it to, or leave it on, US English (QWERTY): the Breeze makes the Dvorak letters itself, so a computer set to Dvorak would move them a second time. There is nothing to install: plug it in by USB-C and it types.
- Can I change the keymap?
- It runs QMK, the open-source keyboard firmware, and every key and the Fn layer are set in it. There is no VIA or Vial: you change the keymap in the firmware source, build it with QMK and flash it. Hold Esc while you plug the board in to start its bootloader; that also clears its saved settings.
- The Breeze's firmware source and build guide
- What do the three extra USB-C ports do?
- They are a USB 2.0 hub inside the board, for a mouse receiver, a flash drive or anything else that draws little power. The keyboard and everything plugged into it reach your computer through the one cable, and take their power from it.
- Can I order the Chinook?
- Not yet. The Chinook is planned, not made yet: its keypad needs moulds that don't pay off until enough people want one. Join its waitlist: no payment, and we'll email you once if it goes ahead.
