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joric edited this page Dec 13, 2025 · 1 revision

There are 3 versions of Jorne (all versions are 44 keys, RGB, MX spacing):

The main idea behind Jorne is that it turns into Corne (same schematic/dimensions) if you snap the extra keys off.

2.1 vs 3.0

3.0 was added as a courtesy to Foostan just to have an option. I strongly recommend 2.1.

  • 3.0 is more expensive, 3.0 PCB is not reversible so you need two different designs, it's about 2x the price.
  • 3.0 needs two LED types which is also more expensive. SK6812MINI-E are easier to solder, but not by much.
  • 3.0 south-facing switches are questionnable. Most RGB caps have legends on top so they don't work with south facing switches. Using opaque caps with RGB is dumb (they block most of the light). Front-printed RGB caps are pretty rare.

Bill of Materials

Aliexpress Saver shipping is combined with the Standard shipping now, so use Saver where possible to get everyhing at once.

Picture Component name, description and buying instructions Need Store
Pro Micro Pro Micros (18mm wide, need 2). Black MicroUSB (recommended) and blue USB-C are compatible with the Spring pin headers, purple USB-C and blue MicroUSB are not (holes >0.85mm). Large blue USB-C don't support C-C cables. I also recommend Supermini as a wireless controller. 2 Aliexpress
OLED White OLED screens, 128x32, cost about $1.50 a pcs. Also see nice!view display on Aliexpress here. Also see Displays article. 2 Aliexpress (Great-Wall)
Headers 3.5mm pin headers to hotswap displays and Pro Micros. Optional. Also see Sockets. 2 Aliexpress ($2.99/5) Aliexpress ($4.99/10)
1N5819 SOD-123 1N4148 diodes (LL4148 substitute in SMD package). You can use large 1N4148 in SOD-123, they're much easier to solder. 44 Aliexpress (Yanxy)
TRRS TRRS sockets, PJ-320A. About $1.32/20. See pinout here: TRRS. 2 Aliexpress (black) Aliexpress (white)
Buttons DIP 3x6x4.3mm tactile button. Also side buttons if you prefer those. 2 Aliexpress (black/white)
TRRS Cable TRRS Cable, Angled, 30cm, $0.69 a pcs (15 cm may be a little bit too short). Note that any TRS 3-pin audio cable is ok, so this is optional. 1 Aliexpress (search)
Bumpons Black 3m bumpons for legs (8x2mm), also clear ones, they sell for about $1.30/100 pcs. 10 Aliexpress (search)
M2 screws Cap head hexagon screws. Use M2 6mm (28 pcs) for the keyboard. Optional screws for tilting/tenting are M5 (2x30mm + 2x16mm). 28 Aliexpress ($1.70/50) Chrome Countersink Laptop
M2 standoffs M2 Standoffs, 8mm for 1.5mm plate (or 6mm for 3mm plate) - 10 pcs, 10mm for OLED - 4 pcs. Nylon hexagonal standoffs are too thick for PCBs, don't buy nylon. 14 Aliexpress ($1.24/20) Aliexpress (inserts)
SK6812MINI Jorne V2.1 only. Small 3.5x3.5 mm 3535 LEDs SK6812MINI. Pinout is NOT compatible with reverse mount SK6812MINI-E (rotated by 90). 56 Aliexpress ($9.54/100)
SK6812MINI-E Jorne V3 only. Small 3.5x3.5 mm SK6812MINI-E 3535LEDs (reverse mount). Per-key only (need 44). 44 Aliexpress ($7.68/50)
WS2812B Jorne V3 only. Large 5x5mm WS2812B 5050 LEDs (planar SK6812MINI-E like pinout). Ambient only (need 12). 12 Aliexpress ($3.45/50)
Kailh Kailh hotswap sockets for the hotswap version. Optional, Cherry (hotswap) versions only. Jorne doesn't support Choc sockets, only MX ones. Cost $0.10 a pcs. 44 Aliexpress (black) Aliexpress (white)
Cheapest silent 3-pin switches (I only use silent ones) by Outemu (180 CNY ~ $27 for 200 pcs ~ 13 cents a switch on Taobao, $45/200 ~ 22 cents a switch on Aliexpress). Silent grey is tactile, silent white is linear (recommended). 44 Reddit Taobao Aliexpress Aliexpress (cheaper)
Cheapest non-silent 3-pin MX switches ever, marked YUSYA. $6.15/110 ~ 5 cents a switch. Price may vary. There are other cheap noname switches, like CONTENT. 44 Aliexpress (YUSYA) Aliexpress (CONTENT)
Cheap Kailh LP (Choc, CPG1350) switches. I like red ones (yellows are too heavy, browns are too scratchy considering reduced travel). They costed $0.35 back in 2018, now the price is $0.55-0.75. They need 1.2 mm top plate to snap onto (or no plate). 44 Aliexpress KPRepublic MKUltra Aliexpress (superlight)
ABS Cheapest backlit MX keycaps, white and black, you can buy them in bulks for about $5 a 104-key set (order by price and free shipping) 1 Aliexpress (direct) Aliexpress (search)
Optional DSA MX keycaps (Cool Jazz), many colors including translucent black, ~$0.20 a cap 44 Aliexpress (color) Aliexpress (black)
Optional expensive MDA VoID, MX keycaps with 1u Raise/Lower, made especially for 40% keyboards, $78 + shipping (use https://zenmarket.jp for shipping) 1 Booth.pm
Cheap Kailh LP Keycaps from Kailh, they sell in bulks, $15.99 a 60 pcs/lot ~ $0.26 a cap. Transparent choc keycaps are more comfortable but they're NOT Choc spacing (larger than 18x17 mm), so they won't fit Ferris etc. Buy black or white keycaps for Choc spacing (white are rather yellow-ish so maybe only buy black ones). 44 Aliexpress (various) Aliexpress (backlit)
Optional expensive MBK choc (LP) keycaps (Corne-ish Zen uses them). Choc spacing (17.5x16.5 mm). 44 SplitKB Littlekeyboards Boardsource
MBK Clone choc keycaps (Chocfox), Cost $25/50 pcs. Official dimensions are 16.5x16.5mm so they DO fit choc spacing boards (18x17mm PCBs), see chocfox site. They are square, so there are 1mm horizontal gaps on choc spacing, a bit worse than MBK. 1 Aliexpress Chosfox

Note you cannot hotswap Chocs (Kailh LP) switches on Jorne, there's no PCB for Choc sockets, so soldering only.

If you want Space Invaders switches, someone discovered 2408 new old stock NMB keyboards in Germany, bought out the lot for 2408 eur. All keyboards except ~2% use Hi-Tek 725 Space Invaders (2 and 3 generation). Shipping space invaders keeb to europe starts from 30 EUR + 20 EUR for the keeb ~ 50 EUR total (GH), join discord here: https://discord.gg/9FTQhfV7uq

PCB Manufacturers

You can order PCBs in the sanctioned countries:

JLCPCB

Upload the selected gerber file, 5 pcs, black mask, default settings for the rest (FR4, 1.6 mm, 1 oz).

Costed $13.15 total for 5 pcs ($4.00 PCB + $4.80 fee + $8.73 shipping - $5 coupon) in late 2019 ($9.88 in early 2019).

Costed $13.96 total for 5 pcs ($4.00 PCB + $4.70 fee + $10.26 shipping - $5 coupon) in late 2019.

Costs 13.50 + $14.98 for shipping for 5 pcs. Also they ask for extra money: "The order info shows that there is one design, but actually, there are 2 different designs in your file". Note you will need reverse mount MINI-E LEDs for this one (and WS2812B for backlighting).

You may select panel by customer, 2 designs so you will be charged extra $4 automatically without emailing back and forth (Feb 2021):

10 reversible PCBs (2.1) cost $15.10 (Feb 2021):

5 reversible PCBs cost just $9:

Issues

Since Mar 9 2021 they ocassionally want charge extra $6 for "3 designs", depending of the reviewer:

Don't pay them! Say there's one design, and they need to look once more, it usually helps. They can't charge money if there are common connections between segments.

AllPCB

Makes aluminum plates for cheap ($1.7 a pcs plus shippping). Read more about aluminum PCBs here: https://www.allpcb.com/pcb/aluminum_substrate.html

New! You can now order aliminum plates on JLCPCB!

It's the very same material keeb.io used in nyquist plates. They are NOT REVERSIBLE so you'd have to order left and right plates separately (they are 1.5mm raw aluminum on one side and 0.1mm dielectric layer with copper and mask on the other side). I only have design files for the FR4 substrate so you'd have to do the aluminum version yourself.

Soldering

See https://github.com/joric/nrfmicro/wiki/Soldering for the soldering equipment

Side View

PLEASE REFER TO THIS PICTURE BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS, GRID IS 1x1 mm.

jorne_standoffs

  • WARNING! Don't use 1.5mm acrylic for the top plate, it's too fragile. Use FR4, steel or aluminum.
  • Don't use 6mm standoffs for 1.5mm plate because they are too short! Use 8 mm standoffs.

See https://github.com/joric/nrfmicro/wiki/Sockets

Build guides

See Corne (Helidox) build guides (the PCB is the same, except pinky key that can be snapped off).

Diodes

I use S4 (1N5819), got a LOT of them from nRFMicro. The cheaper substitutes would be T4 (1N4148) or M4 (1N4004) diodes.

Diodes are polarized components, they have a specific orientation that has to be connected properly in order to work.

Untitled-1

The key (a spot or a line) on the diode should match the key on the footprint, e.g. it's a black ring on the LL4148 diodes:

diodePosition

Pro Micro

TL;DR: footprints are ASYMMETRICAL. One of the pro micros is shifted one row of pins closer towards the edge.

assymetry

Solder OLED jumpers from the face side only. Do NOT solder OLED jumpers from the back side, this is the same as shorting VCC and GND together.

LEFT half is different from RIGHT half. LEFT half is flush with the edge, RIGHT half is shifted 1 row of pins to the right. Controllers must be installed face down.

Untitled-1

Remember, desoldering is much harder than soldering, so think twice before you solder something with many legs.

TRRS

  • Q: Do I need a TRRS (4-pin) cable?
  • A: FUCK NO. Unless firmware forces i2c communication (which is NEVER), we only need 3 pins - DATA, GND and VCC.

Since Helix (2020) all splits use duplex serial, so 3-pin cable is enough. The pinout is counterintuitive, so here is a picture (we need pins 2, 3 and 4 - DATA, GND and VCC):

trrs-update

Note that on some Ergogen keyboards (e.g. A.Dux) the narrow ("Symmetrical" TRRS) footprint shorts Sleeve and Tip so we need TRRS there, see issue #15.

TRS connectors short together DATA and I2C, but it doesn't affect data transfer because I2C pins are normally floating on Corne (unless you solder I2C resistors to use I2C firmware, which also means losing OLED).

Note that TRS/TRRS don't support hotplug, there's no safe way to reorder the pins so just power off the keyboard beforehand.

RGB LEDs

You need different LEDs for different versions (you have to solder ambient LEDs first, they use the same strip):

  • Jorne V2.1: all leds are the same SK6812-MINI, you need 56 (12 ambient + 44 per-key).
  • Jorne V3: 2 types of LEDs: 12 WS2812B (ambient) + 44 SK6812MINI-E (per-key)

LEDs are chained, order can't be skipped without a jumper wire. Jorne adds LED 28 on the pinky key, LED mapping:

Use 220-230C for soldering or you overheat and kill the LEDs. Educational video:

There are also reverse mount SK6812MINI-E (with E) - they are easier to solder but they won't work on Jorne 2.x. You WILL however need them for Jorne V3 (the version with two non-symmetrical PCBs laid out on a single sheet). Also Jorne V3 needs large planar 2812B LEDs for backlighting.

SK6812MINI

Jorne V2.1 only. Note reversible PCBs are much cheaper than 2 different PCBs for V3.

  • SK6812 3535 BL 3.5mm LEDs, 12 (6 per half) for ambient, 56 for full RGB ($9.74 for 100 pcs)

SK6812MINI pinout is different from WS2812, it's rotated by 90 and pins don't reach the pads in this position. Here's how SK6812MINI looks on a WS2812 footprint (flipped to see the pads):

image

SK6812MINI-E

SK6812MINI-E is much closer to WS2812B than SK6812MINI, the pinout is the same, there's no 90 degree rotation.

Jorne V3-only (version with 2 different PCBs, left and right, laid out on a large sheet).

  • SK6812MINI-E Reverse-mount LEDs for switches, need 44 (Jorne V3 only)

You may also use SK68128MINI-E to replace large WS2812s but you'd need a lot of solder because there's about 1 mm gap from the pins to the board (or just bend the legs):

image

WS2812B

  • WS2812B large 5mm LEDs for ambient, need 12 (Jorne V3 only)

Don't overheat top-mount WS2812 if you're using a fan either, or you end up with something like this (it still works, but it doesn't look too well, maybe just use an iron, pins stick out a little bit).

image

Use brackets on the PCB to determine the LED key position:

1_dyQd48yS4ZIOwrYtzsgOBQ

Note that old LEDs with a large chip may light up if there's no data so better buy new ones (video):

References

Guides

Keyboard Editors

Miscellaneous

Split Keyboards

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