3 ms·
Most of this is just cheap design on part of the ergomech community. It's not that hard to add some protection. E.g. some keyboards use a Schottky diode on VCC
by microtonal 3y ago
Most of this is just cheap design on part of the ergomech community. It's not that hard to add some protection. E.g. some keyboards use a Schottky diode on VCC for reverse polarity protection and ESD protection diodes to protect the data lines:
https://github.com/zsa/docs/blob/master/Ergodox%20V5-L.pdf https://github.com/zsa/docs/blob/master/Ergodox%20V5-L.pdf
Of course the design requirements of USB would be different, since you'd always plug/yank the cable on a machine that is on, rather than protect against doing this accidentally sometime. Given that, it probably made more sense to completely avoid the issue.
- crote 3y agoIt's more an issue of ESD protection being kinda tricky on DIY boards due to the need to stick with THT parts. When you're building a $200-$300 keeb, a $0.05 diode doesn't really all that much price-wise. ESD protection diodes also don't really solve the problem. They are intended for short-duration high-voltage low-current spikes, not long-duration low-voltage high-current ones. Definitely better than nothing, though!