Low Rider (also known as Low Writer) was the second PCB designed for the MiniVan keyboard. It was a completely new PCB ( of its predecessor TheVan44) and received several interesting revisions over the years it was produced.
¶ Design
The Low Rider PCB is covered in a deep purple solder mask with white silkscreen. The front of the board contains no components. The silkscreen on the front includes the name of the board in script as well as a silhouette of a low rider car. The back of the board is where all of the surface mount components and USB port are located as well as a silkscreen with labels for all component locations. The new name of the board - "MiniVan" - followed by the revision number was silkscreened onto the back along with the words "Designed by TheVan Keyboards"
All switch positions were equipped with through-hole pads for in-switch LED lighting. Switches were oriented with north-facing LEDs (changed from south-facing on TheVan44). A reset button was positioned along the right edge of the bottom of the board. Holes were added to the board to allow installing PCB-mount stabilizers for the spacebars (TheVan44 required plate-mount stabilizers). PCB-mount switch leg holes were included for every switch location, resolving an issue that TheVan44 Rev 2.0 and 3.0 owners experienced where the plastic legs of PCB-mount switches had to be clipped in order to install the switches into certain positions.
¶ Layout
The following MiniVan PCB layouts were supported by all models of the Low Rider PCB: Standard, Arrows, Southpaw, Southpaw+Arrows, 425 Spacebar
Additionally, the Rev 5.0 PCB added support for the "JISVan" layout - named after the the custom HuB profile JIS/ISO-style Enter key
¶ Revisions
There were 3 revisions of the Low Rider PCB. Initially sold with round 4 Minivan kits, the board received the PCB revision number a 4.0 (following TheVan44 Rev 3.0).
¶ Rev 4.0
This was the first MiniVan PCB to add support for the Southpaw layout. Like TheVan44, it still used mini USB as the connector for the USB cable. It was included with round 4 MiniVan kits.
¶ Rev 4.1
Although it is considered a "minor" revison, the 4.1 boards received a very notable update from previous boards. The mini USB port was replaced with a USB C port, making this the first USB C PCB designed by TheVanKeboards. However, the circuit was not designed properly to handle reversing the connector and thus the keyboard would only work if the USB C cable was plugged in with the correct orientation.
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¶ Rev 5.0
The last revision of Low Rider PCBs resolved the USB C circuit issue found on rev 4.1 boards, which meant that the USB connector could finally be inserted either way. The boards also included a minor layout update. An extra switch location was positioned sideways between the keys on the far-right of the middle rows. This location was added to support a custom JIS/ISO-style Enter key that was planned to be produced in HuB profile. A set of holes for PCB-mount stabilizers were located above and below the switch. An STL file for 3D printing the JIS Enter was released for users who wanted to print their own.
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