Introduction¶
Overview¶
Doddle. British slang for something easily accomplished.
Nowadays there is a big space in the hobby for what has been called “plain-style” PCBs, such as Maarten’s Plain-C and Upas’s AN60-C, which most common characteristic is the limited layout compatibility and features, in order to make an easy-to-build PCB.
Unfortunately only ANSI versions are available as ISO layouts are often discarded for the little parcentage of the hobby it represents; because of that, I have been receiving many requests from our fellow european clackers to make a plain ISO 60% PCB. Some weeks ago I reached out to Jae, from TopClack, who is an open advocate of ISO compatibility, and he suggested the compatible layouts.
Contributors¶
- Jae from TopClack, who helped immensely at the design stage, choosing the layouts and doing the EU distribution (even covering shipping expenses);
- All the backers from the IC page, who showed interest and backed the early prototypes.
Features¶
The Doddle60 is a plain-style, limited compatibility 60% keyboard PCB designed to be compatible with “poker-style” universal mounting points. Despite the PCB’s simple nature, it has quite a handful of features:
- Flex (“release”) cuts;
- USBC connector;
- ESD protection on data lines;
- TVS (Transient Voltage Suppression) on power lines, protecting the PCB from voltage spikes;
- Full digital power rails isolation and filtering, stabilizing MCU voltage and avoiding power bugs;
- Data lines differential pair impedance matching through differential-coupled ferrite core choke;
- Cable shield discharge protection;
- Overvoltage and overcurrent protection;
- Current inrush protection from metallic cases;
- ARM STM32F072 processor; all unused pins are broken out so that the user can expand the PCB in any way;
- Universal screw holes “Poker 60%” format, making it compatible with most 60% cases;
- First backers will get a version in which “pre-Alpha revision” is expressly written.