KinTwin

KinTwin is a fork of KinBP. It is a drop-in replacement of a controller and thumb cluster PCB boards for Kinesis Contoured keyboards.

Goals

• Replace stock firmware with QMK open source firmware
• Show clear and concise BOM (bill of materials) required for the upgrade depending on Kinesis keyboard model

Included PCBs

Warning
I have recently updated the design of thumb cluster PCB from v1.0 to v1.1 The changes are cosmetic and should not affect functionality, but I did not order the new boards to be able to confirm that they still work.
Changes include:

• moved silk screen of the FPC connector pad to the correct side
• changed mounting holes of the FPC connector pad to be plated

Comparison with KinBP

• The controller board is a simplified version on KinBP board. It uses WeAct Studio STM32F401 development board
• KinTwin controller board uses only FPC connectors to interface with other PCB boards. In that regard it has the same design as stock Kinesis Advantage II
• KinTwin controller does not support 10-pin 2.54mm headers which are used to connect the controller to thumb cluster boards
• Similar to KinBP repo, KinTwin includes PCB boards for thumb clusters. They are functionally identical to stock Kinesis Advantage II. Unlike KinBP, these PCBs are not reversible (hence there are 2 of them). Also, similar to stock boards, they use through-hole diodes and FPC connectors
• The controller board was originally designed in KiCad by DmNosachev. KinTwin controller board is a clone of KinBP which was slightly modified by removing extra connector pads.
• Thumb cluster boards were designed in Sprint Layout 6.0

Controller compatibility with top row PCBs, keywell PCBs and thumb cluster PCBs

Keyboard Model	Top row PCBs	Keywell PCBs	Thumb cluster PCBs
KB600 (Advantage II)	Yes	Yes	Yes
KB500 (Advantage)	Yes	Yes	No *
KB13x (Essential, Classic, Professional)	Yes	Yes	No *
100/110/120 **	No	No	No *

* These keyboards require custom thumb cluster PCBs which are provided in the repo
** You are likely not going to find these keyboards in the wild. They are 20+ years old

BOM (common for all models)

Name	Quantity	Image
3mm Blue LED Diodes (DC 3.0V-3.2V (IF=20mA) / 0.06 Watts / 2pin)	4
430ohm (For DC 6-12V) 1/4 Watt Metal Film Resistors	4
STM32F401 development board	1
Controller board	1

BOM (for model KB600)

Name	Quantity	Image
13-pin straight FPC connectors	6

BOM (for model KB500)

Name	Quantity	Image
13-pin straight FPC connectors	8
Left thumb cluster board	1
Right thumb cluster board	1
FPC flexible flat cables (FFC1.25-60mm)	2
Diodes (1N4148 DO-35 IN4148) for thumb cluster PCBs	12
Keyboard switches for thumb cluster PCBs	12

BOM (for models KB13x)

Name	Quantity	Image
13-pin straight FPC connectors	6
13-pin angled FPC connectors	2
Left thumb cluster board	1
Right thumb cluster board	1
FPC flexible flat cables (FFC1.25-60mm)	2
Diodes (1N4148 DO-35 IN4148) for thumb cluster PCBs	12
Keyboard switches for thumb cluster PCBs	12

QMK Related Topics

Read about the custom QMK layout which I have designed here