Building my first custom keyboard

Bhuyakasha · 28 Sep 2014, 15:29

The Nedo I

I'd like to start off by saying that I'll try to document my progress in this thread as extensively as possible, so expect lots to read. I will also be updating this pdf file https://www.dropbox.com/s/mrwpp18voc9yy ... x.pdf?dl=0 in which I write all my notes to self. This will be a bit messy and will include Dutch at times, but there you will be able to check on my total progress if you like.

Introduction
I got into mechanical keyboards a year or so ago and bought the most standard of keyboards, the CMStorm QFR with MX blues. I still really enjoy it a lot, but I want something a bit more portable and get rid of all the keys I don't use. Lurking http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards a lot lately has got me excited to create my own.
What I want from my keyboard is to look very clean and minimalist. I'll spend this first post mostly on designing the keycap layout and some plans for buying things.

General design
I would really like a dark wooden top plate on my keyboard. Also, for the keycaps I will want them to be blank, this is also convenient because of the nonstandard layout. Probably something like dark green or blue would be nice. Maybe I'll even go more exotic with yellow or orange. The case will probably be under the keys rather than around the keys if you know what I mean. This is still open for discussion but it doesn't really make sense to make the keycaps as small as possible and then make the whole thing a lot bigger again. But maybe I'll change my opinion on this.

So let's design a keycap layout
First off the keys I will want to get rid of.

Pgup pgdwn - these will probably still be coded as pgup pgdwn but used as volume control keys.
Ins - who the hell needs insert?
F1 - asking for help is for plebs. /s
F3, F4 - literally never use these.
F12 - this one is sometimes used but not really necessary.
Prtscr - same as F12.
Fn - I only use this for volume control, so it's more logical and convenient to just make separate keys for the volume control.
Right Alt and Ctrl - Sometimes used for ctrl-alt-del, but not really necessary.
Right Windows - Nope
Scrlk - I don't even know what this does.

So with this in mind I came up with a few layouts that both get rid of most of these keys and get rid of the 16th column.

First draft version, ugly photoshop! This has a 5.25u spacebar, which I fix in the next designs.

Now with 4u length spacebar.
Editor link: http://tinyurl.com/kywf8xe

Third version in chalk, this design has a 6.25 spacebar as well as a better arrow layout, drawback is that the volume control keys are not nicely grouped.
Editor link: http://tinyurl.com/6-25space

Fourth version, this has a smaller left side, but a grouped volume control and two extra keys. I don't like it very much yet.
Editor link: http://tinyurl.com/altctrllayout

I think I like the third version best as of right now.

Where to buy stuff?
I've done a bunch of research on where to buy stuff.
Soldering
I already bought some cheap soldering stuff and 500(!) diodes from http://banggood.com.
Keycaps
I'll either get them from eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Green-Cherry-MX ... 1c2f85d035 or from pimpmykeyboard http://keyshop.pimpmykeyboard.com/produ ... ank-sets-1 if I decide on DSA caps.
Switches
Getting these from the 7bit groupbuy: http://deskthority.net/group-buys-f50/c ... t2760.html. Most likely tactile grey.
Laser cutting
Not sure on where to do this yet. Will be pretty expensive though. Might be nice to groupbuy some stuff.
Teensy
Possibly from pjrc: https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy.html.
Haven't really done any searching for this one yet.

Alright that's it for now I think, let me know what you think!

Daniel Beardsmore · 28 Sep 2014, 15:36

You use Windows, and never use F3 (find/find again) or shift+F3 (find previous)? Interesting.

(F4 lets you edit the address in address bar in Explorer/File Explorer, but Ctrl+L does the same as well as focusing it for you for ease of overwrite.)

Muirium · 28 Sep 2014, 15:45

Buddhists Alt+F4.

matt3o · 28 Sep 2014, 15:54

I'm very familiar with the 4th layout. beware or the backspace position, I find it a bit uncomfortably to the right

Bhuyakasha · 28 Sep 2014, 16:40

matt3o wrote: ↑I'm very familiar with the 4th layout. beware or the backspace position, I find it a bit uncomfortably to the right

Heh, I might have been inspired just a tiny bit by this post of yours (read: blatantly copied) for that last layout. http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/cust ... t5663.html
Loved your brownfox tutorial as well, found lots of useful stuff in there.

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: ↑You use Windows, and never use F3 (find/find again) or shift+F3 (find previous)? Interesting.

(F4 lets you edit the address in address bar in Explorer/File Explorer, but Ctrl+L does the same as well as focusing it for you for ease of overwrite.)

Holy shit, I did not know those things. I am very used to using Ctrl+F for the F3 one though and I don't care too much for the F4 one. Also, I will most likely simply code them as F3 and F4 and just set them as previous and next track in my hotkey settings in Mediamonkey.

chzel · 28 Sep 2014, 18:54

Also, tactile greys?Have you ever tried them?
They are mighty heavy, your pinkies will hate you!

Muirium · 28 Sep 2014, 19:29

Something tells me this build will be a real all round learning experience…

Bhuyakasha · 30 Sep 2014, 00:10

chzel wrote: ↑Also, tactile greys?Have you ever tried them?
They are mighty heavy, your pinkies will hate you!

I've never tried them. I really liked the change from my musical keyboard to heavy piano keys though, which makes me think that heavier is nicer. Might be smart to order a test switch though.

Muirium wrote: ↑Something tells me this build will be a real all round learning experience…

I agree, I don't mind making mistakes to be honest. I think it's awesome that for once I have a clear goal in mind of what I want.

Bhuyakasha · 03 Nov 2014, 22:15

Largish update

So it's been about a month since I wrote my first post. I didn't really want to do an update before I had my CAD stuff sorted out but now I'm ready so here goes...

Layout design
I'll start off with the progress on the design of my layout. So I thought I had already decided on the 3rd layout from my previous post, but I changed my mind. Following from seeing a post somewhere about a keyboard without stabilisers I started to fiddle around in that awesome editor tool (http://keyboard-layout-editor.com. I wasn't meaning to actually build something like this, because I don't want a 60 percent keyboard, but I just like the way they look. Here's what I came up with:

Spoiler:

I don't actually think this was that great, but when playing with it in my original design it sparked some pretty nice ideas.

Here's the use of it in the original:

Spoiler:

This already looked really cool to me, because it gets rid of the blocky feel of the old layout. The previous version still was a bit too conservative in my opinion.

Then here's me fiddling around for a bit more.

Spoiler:

Evolution 3
Maybe it's nice to have the arrow keys line up? Makes for an awkwardly large pause button though, which doesn't make much sense.

Spoiler:

Evolution 4
Maybe I actually do want somewhat larger modifiers on the left. This also makes the thing a lot clunkier though. Also, good luck finding 2 2.75u keys in the same set, same goes for 3 1.75u keys.

: Evolution6.PNG (28.8 KiB) Viewed 3276 times

Evolution 6
An important realisation I had here was that the number row was in a really awkward spot before, it was shifted an entire unit to the right because of the staircase design.
Much better now, with number row shifted to the left and moved the `~ key. I think arrow keys not lining up actually helps the design a lot. Looks much cooler. Note that it is actually quite close to evolution 2.

Sidenote, it's retarded to split up a 4.5 spacebar into 3 1.75u keys, 2 times 2.75u is much more logical (even though this is not in the current design anymore). Right now it's a 4.75u spacebar split into a 2u and a 2.75u, because after a tiny bit of research I noticed that I only use my left hand for space when my right hand is on the mouse.

And yes there was also an evolution 5 inbetween, but the only difference with 6 was a shorter left spacebar along with bigger alt.

Something that I also thought a bunch about is how to make the q, a and z keys staircase (staircase is now a verb). On a standard keyboard the last drop is .5 u, but I think it looks quite nice if it's actually a .25u drop. I don't think I would really mind getting used to that, but the reason I didn't do it is because I like my left shift to be bigger.

I also decided to implement a printscreen key as I do use that every now and then.

Now onto CAD stuff

I have had an introduction to SolidWorks once, but am still quite a shitter on that area. I did manage though, so here you can see the plate.

Spoiler:

You can see that I used the cherrycorp stab cutouts. I noticed the platemounted ones are quite rare, so I may want to reconsider. I think both costar and cherry are fine actually, but I thought I'd try out the cherry ones.

Question, is it possible to just use PCB cherry stabs on a plate mounted keyboard? Shouldn't be too big of a deal right?

So anyway why not model the case in there as well...

Spoiler:

I am still thinking about how I will attach the plate to the case. I could glue it I suppose, but a glueless board would be preferred. Maybe make the wood stick out a bit and screw it to the plate.

Any recommendations for how to attach the plate to the case?

I didn't make a hole for the usb cable yet by the way. I will most likely make the bottom plate separate from the rest of the case and screw it on. I thought about sliding the plate into the case from the side as well, but that might not be so smart after all if you take into account the usb cable.

What do you think?

macmakkara · 11 Sep 2015, 16:48

I saw your pics on reddit. This looks amazing and i think im in love!