deskthority

Hey all,

Following all the great advices and tutorials available on deskthority, geekhack and reddit, I finally finished my custom 60%, kinda thumb-centric matrix board: La Gaufre!*
Here is the full album on imgur.


The why

A year ago, I started using the SpaceFn layout and quickly found it essential on a 60%. I started looking for compact boards with the `Fn` key available on thumb, or easy-to-get/cheap/easy-to-build boards with hasu's firmware (where the SpaceFn behavior is easily achievable). Unfortunately, I found none.
That made a great excuse to level up in my keyboard obsession love: making my own.

The layout thinking…

So, I started thinking about the layout. The basic idea was just having the Fn key on the thumb.
But we need to go deeper was kind of my moto.
So I quickly went for a matrix-style layout; then tried something like the TypeMatrix. I also went the non-sense way.

… And the chosen one

After a few testing thanks to cardboards (don't remember where I saw that idea on a forum thread but it's really cool), I ended up with this.

The idea is:

• 60% layout, exactly the same size as a Poker: let's try to put this in a Poker case!
• Moar keys on the thumb, especially the Fn key
• easy to get keycaps: any DSA ErgoDox kit fits
• no stabs is a plus, little easier to build

The making

I bought everything I needed a year ago, from keycaps to ohmmeter (that would be the first time I'd work with electronics except for school). Except for the plate. I couldn't find any place to laser-cut aluminium near me after months of searching here and there. This leads us to 2 weeks ago when I finally decided I'd do it with acrylic instead, because there is a workshop where cutting acrylic is possible nearby.

I tried my luck with CAD software but decided instead to go with swill's plate building tool: it did a really great job

Finally with all the stuff in hand, I was able to start making the board. Huge thanks to matt3o and lowpoly for their extremely useful posts (BrownFox, The Apple M0110 and build your own firmware). Nothing could have been made without them, as I had pretty much no idea what I was doing (ok, maybe a little).

Build log with photos. Be careful: you can easily see this is newbie stuff.

The cost

• Cherry MX red switchs: 50€
• Signature Plastics DSA keycaps: 45€
• acrylic plates: 25€
• teensy: 18€
• diodes, cables, adhesive feet, screws and all: surely no more than 10€

Cost me a lot more (easily 100+€) for all the initial tooling and trying different stuff but in the end the keyboard is worth 160€ of materials.

The end

There are still a few stuff to fix: mostly, the board is really tall. Not much room for the teensy and extra large adhesive feet don't help. Some keys are too close from each other so I'll have to unglue them.

All-in-all the board is alive and usable so I'm really happy with the result


*: gaufre is the french word for waffle.

Well done. Welcome to the DIY Keyboard Club! Your wiring looks uncannily similar to mine in the Poker/HHKB hybrid steel 60% I built a couple of years ago with Matteo. I'm glad it's hidden away under opaque metal in mine! It's a chunky little board too. Getting them thin is the hard part. I reckon the best way is to start from a fresh design of case, and build inwards instead.

How well does acrylic hold up to a good session of fast typing? 60% is less demanding than larger formats like TKL in that respect. There's not as much to flex.

Nice build, looks very clean. Where did you order the acrylic plates?

Muirium wrote: ↑Well done. Welcome to the DIY Keyboard Club! Your wiring looks uncannily similar to mine in the Poker/HHKB hybrid steel 60% I built a couple of years ago with Matteo. I'm glad it's hidden away under opaque metal in mine! It's a chunky little board too. Getting them thin is the hard part. I reckon the best way is to start from a fresh design of case, and build inwards instead.

How well does acrylic hold up to a good session of fast typing? 60% is less demanding than larger formats like TKL in that respect. There's not as much to flex.

Thanks! I actually didn't type a lot on it (didn't have the time to yet :p), but from my littttle testing it does not flex... too much. For no flex at all I'd have to add 2 or 3 screws on the keyboard borders.

hargon wrote: ↑Nice build, looks very clean. Where did you order the acrylic plates?

Thanks Made them in Leroy Merlin (a french DIY store), they have some sort of fablabs where you can come and use all kinds of machines.

It looks like the acrylic plate is sturdy basing it on its thickness. The best thing about clear acrylic is you can add LED lighting on the sides and the light will scatter all throughout the plate. If you plan to adjust the spacing of your keys, you can do it in such a way that the acrylic plate is visible between keys. With the LED light your keyboard will look great.

assembly and pcb

Thats a beautiful keyboard! Love the key alignments!