HacKeyboard, an open hardware mechanical keyboard

[masaleiro]

Hi guys! I'm new to this forum, although I came here as a visitor to learn a lot of stuff and to gather some ideas

Since I learned a lot around here I thought I should come by and let you know about a project I've been slowly making for the past 2 years. Basically it's a custom made mechanical keyboard with SMK Alps Mount switches from an old Monterey K108 and Alps compatible keycaps from an old NGS keyboard (model unknown).

I designed everything from scratch (case, PCB, firmware, etc.) and added a few extra features:

Internal Keylogger;
Recording of up to 12 macros
Internal USB HUB 2.0
Hidden Internal 8GB Flash Drive
Customizable LED colors
Customizable LED effects

Short Video (there is a longer video on the same youtube channel):

The keyboard is a generic USB HID device, so it works in Windows/Mac/Linux without needing any custom drivers and all the extra functions can be used by key shortcuts.
As mentioned in the title, it is completely open source / open hardware and the whole build instructions are available here: http://www.instructables.com/id/HacKeyboard-a-mechanical-keyboard-built-from-scrat/

It will also be available in my blog in the following days: http://www.thebitbangtheory.com

Hope you guys like it and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them

[HoffmanMyster]

Welcome!  I think I saw this board linked in a reddit thread in the last few days.  Looks very nice. 

What made you want to build the custom board?  Did you want the ability to make custom layouts, macros, LEDs, specific keyswitch type, etc?

[masaleiro]

Hi! Yes, someone shared it on reddit in the past few days. I decided to make it because I wanted a tenkeyless keyboard with portuguese layout. Since the portuguese market is too small there wasn't a single one on the market. Since no one was selling what I wanted to buy and I also had the luck of finding SMK Alps Mount switches and compatible keycaps with the layout I wanted, I decided to build my own.
My main hobby is building stuff like CNC machines, 3D printers, robotics stuff, so I have a workshop with tools enough to build it. My BSc and MSc degrees in electronics also had a good use in the electronics part
The first goal was only to make a simple mechanical keyboard that I could use but when I finished building the case and was going to start the electronics I thought: "Since I'm building this from scratch and am going to completely design the PCB, what else can I add to it?". Then I decided to add the Hub, the flash drive, the EEPROM to record macros and keylogger, the LEDs,, the LED effects, etc.
It took me a lot of time and became a test to my patience and will but I eventually finished it and I'm very satisfied with the result. It's one of the longest, most complete and good looking projects I've ever developed/built

[njbair]

FYI your pics aren't loading.

And welcome to GH

[masaleiro]

Thanks for warning and for the welcome. The pictures should be loading ok now.

[njbair]

Looks great. I really like under-lighting on boards, and yours is done really well.

Have you considered a group buy? I'm personally overextended ATM but there might be considerable interest in a kit like that after the holidays.

[Lepidus]

Pretty cool.

What about the caps? Where did you get them?

I think its pretty weird our layouts being so different when we speak almost the same language.

[masaleiro]

Looks great. I really like under-lighting on boards, and yours is done really well.

Have you considered a group buy? I'm personally overextended ATM but there might be considerable interest in a kit like that after the holidays.

Thanks! At the moment I am not considering a group buy for several reasons:
1. The keyboard was made using switches and keycaps from old keyboards. I don't know if these switches are still manufactured, where to buy them and their price.
2. Same applies for keycaps. I see several places to buy keycaps for Cherry switches but haven't seen any for Alps.
3. I'm currently trying to finish my PhD, so no time to think about it at the moment.

Although I made a keyboard, I do not know the best places to buy switches or keycaps. I have seen some online shops but according to the prices I found it would be fairly expensive to build one from those parts. Probably the only possibility of getting it done would be in a few months, after I finish the PhD, with help from the community to find switches and keycaps at decent prices. Then it would just be a matter of doing a small redesign of the PCB and make a group order of professionally-made PCBs. At the moment, the only option is to follow the tutorial. However, if someone wants to get ahead on the group order, I'm here to clear any doubts that may arise.

Pretty cool.

What about the caps? Where did you get them?

I think its pretty weird our layouts being so different when we speak almost the same language.

I got the caps from an old NGS keyboard which did not have mechanical switches but had Alps-compatible keycaps. In the instructable there's a photo that shows both the Monterey K108 and the NGS keyboard.
Regarding the layouts, I would really like if the layouts were all more similar... I wish that at least the keycaps had the same size, location and shape. During my search for keycaps I got several keyboards with some "Portuguese" layout which wasn't really portuguese because the Enter key was very big and the backspace was very small and I didn't want the keyboard to be like that.
In this post I put a picture of all the keyboards I've collected while trying to get the right combination of switches + keycaps: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=77077.msg1936981#msg1936981

[jdcarpe]

FYI, there has been somewhat of a mini revival in Alps interest here lately. There was a successful buy for Infinity (a custom MX/Alps keyboard available through Massdrop) modifier keycaps, made here in the US by Signature Plastics. And there is a group buy in the production phase for a full set of Alps compatible keycaps, called Alpine Winter. There was also a buy on Massdrop for complete sets of Alps keycaps made by Tai Hao in China.

And brand new Alps compatible switches are available in stock from Matias in Canada, in clicky, tactile, and linear variants.

[suicidal_orange]

Looks great and you have Portuguese legends which is a rarity in a proper keyboard

People always want more macros and I'd love to take a keylogger to work (IT often fail to tick the "this program isn't a virus, please open it without asking me" box, they don't deserve password protection )  A TKL is quite large to carry round and make use of the flash drive but your controller/usb section and code could be transplanted to a smaller model - the joys of open hardware!

I started reading the instructable but reading it would speed things up and I'd only need to find one relatively safe thing instead of lots of tools and hazardous chemicals got sidetracked looking for a homemade laser cutter...

One question with this in mind - what size limits do the 12 macros have?

[masaleiro]

FYI, there has been somewhat of a mini revival in Alps interest here lately. There was a successful buy for Infinity (a custom MX/Alps keyboard available through Massdrop) modifier keycaps, made here in the US by Signature Plastics. And there is a group buy in the production phase for a full set of Alps compatible keycaps, called Alpine Winter. There was also a buy on Massdrop for complete sets of Alps keycaps made by Tai Hao in China.

And brand new Alps compatible switches are available in stock from Matias in Canada, in clicky, tactile, and linear variants.

Wow, that's good to know. There is hope after all I thought that Alps switches/keycaps were being abandoned. Surely I have to dig deeper into the forums to know more about that

Looks great and you have Portuguese legends which is a rarity in a proper keyboard

People always want more macros and I'd love to take a keylogger to work (IT often fail to tick the "this program isn't a virus, please open it without asking me" box, they don't deserve password protection )  A TKL is quite large to carry round and make use of the flash drive but your controller/usb section and code could be transplanted to a smaller model - the joys of open hardware!

I started reading the instructable but reading it would speed things up and I'd only need to find one relatively safe thing instead of lots of tools and hazardous chemicals got sidetracked looking for a homemade laser cutter...

One question with this in mind - what size limits do the 12 macros have?

Yes, mechanical keyboards with portuguese layout are almost a rarity There are a few being sold but not all of them are truly portuguese, having that big ass enter and the mini backspace.

Regarding the chemicals, it's not that hard to use them and handle them. I just put a big stress on it because there are a lot of kids reading on instructables and it's better to make them aware of the dangers than to later know about something bad happening to someone. If you follow the proper safety precautions it's not a big deal.

Regarding the size of the keyboard I have some plans of later modifying an Ortek MCK-84 SX that I also have with a portuguese layout. It's smaller than a TKL and has the same layout that most 13'' laptops.

Currently the macros have size limits of 150 bytes each and the keylogger uses the rest of the EEPROM which has a total of 64KB (512Kb). However, by just changing a few memory addresses in the firmware we can reduce the memory space for the keylogger and increase the memory space for macros. Once again, the joys of open hardware

[xorian]

The hidden flash drive activated by the keyboard firmware is a very clever feature.  I like how you implemented that.

Don't the WS2812s draw a lot of power?  I've been thinking about using some of the strips Adafruit sells for under-lighting, but it seems like you'd quickly need more power than USB supplies.

Personally I'd leave out the keylogger altogether, they make me nervous.  But different people like different things.

[1swt2gs]

  I think I'm in love!

[ideus]

That light makes a great room environment, nice job.

[masaleiro]

The hidden flash drive activated by the keyboard firmware is a very clever feature.  I like how you implemented that.

Don't the WS2812s draw a lot of power?  I've been thinking about using some of the strips Adafruit sells for under-lighting, but it seems like you'd quickly need more power than USB supplies.

Personally I'd leave out the keylogger altogether, they make me nervous.  But different people like different things.

The WS2812B can draw a lot of power, but they're also incredibly bright at full power...too bright, in fact. What I did to cut power down was to limit the range of R, G and B values to be between 1 and 127, instead of 1 and 255. That's more than enough for the effects you see in the photos and videos. Also, for most cases only 2 of the colors will be at half the power. If you turn all three to 127, you get white, which is not a very fancy color for the keyboard. I tested this in several computers and none had any problems. I even plugged a chinese USB ammeter and everything was below 220mA, which is pretty normal for a USB device, even if we add a 50% margin since it is a chinese USB ammeter

Regarding the keylogger, it can easily be disabled in the firmware.

I think I'm in love!

Sorry mate, this one is taken

That light makes a great room environment, nice job.

Thanks! The glass on the white table also helps a little bit to set the environment

[Yoe]

This is such an awesome build! I totally love your writeup on Instructables! Unbelievable how you managed to make a home etched, toner transferred and double sided PCB this big! And with the controller surface mounted! I'm simply amazed! And the hidden USB memory, quite clever! I'm putting a USB stick inside my combo old-school Macintosh keyboard and mouse adapter box myself, to keep the vMac software on, but your idea of hiding the drive to the system is simply brilliant!

I'm working on a full size board myself at the moment, but I'll probably go with hand wiring. PCB etching is hard enough with my 60% boards. I do have some never before attempted and secret tricks up my sleeve for it, though. You'll all see next summer after my deadline

Sorry for all the exclamation marks..

[masaleiro]

Thanks! The PCB really was the hardest part and very frustrating, but eventually I managed to do it. One thing you can do is to make a smaller pcb just with the controller and aditional electronics and leave connectors for the rows and columns. This way you could just order a cheap small PCB from China and do the manual wiring, which is easier and faster. If you want you can also check my schematic and just use the part to turn the flash drive on and off. Basically it's a MAX682 Charge Pump regulator activated or deactivated through the shutdown pin. Instead of connecting it to the microcontroller you could also connect it to an hall effect sensor and then you would turn it on or off by putting a magnet next to the sensor, from outside the keyboard case.

I hope to see your custom 60% keyboard. I really like custom made stuff

[Yoe]

Thanks! The PCB really was the hardest part and very frustrating, but eventually I managed to do it. One thing you can do is to make a smaller pcb just with the controller and aditional electronics and leave connectors for the rows and columns. This way you could just order a cheap small PCB from China and do the manual wiring, which is easier and faster. If you want you can also check my schematic and just use the part to turn the flash drive on and off. Basically it's a MAX682 Charge Pump regulator activated or deactivated through the shutdown pin. Instead of connecting it to the microcontroller you could also connect it to an hall effect sensor and then you would turn it on or off by putting a magnet next to the sensor, from outside the keyboard case.

I hope to see your custom 60% keyboard. I really like custom made stuff

Yeh, I'm thinking like etching a board to keep together the other parts like built in usb hub, teensy++ 2.0 controller, indicator leds, internal connector to hand wired switch matrix and so on. I think using a teensy instead of surface mounting a controller chip is more my thing

You can see my 60% keyboard pcb here. Also I've got a bunch of pictures from my projects on Instagram. I'm @trasselfrisyr there.

[VinnyCordeiro]

That's a nice project.

About the PCB: you could use PCBway services and get 5 PCB's for a reasonable price, although I do understand that hand making them is very satisfying, already done that many times.

As for the microcontroller choice, it's good to see something different from Atmel AVR. Unfortunately, PIC programmers definitely are NOT something the typical mechanical keyboard user will have, so the ability to flash new firmwares over USB that some Atmel microcontrollers have is invaluable.

[redbanshee]

Gorgeous!

The keylogger is a pretty cool feature! That somehow reminds me of a used Poker 2 I bought that the PN layer wasnt re-set from the previous user and the guy had a bunch of passwords assigned to keys! Scary!

The internal storage is really cool too!

[masaleiro]

Thanks! The PCB really was the hardest part and very frustrating, but eventually I managed to do it. One thing you can do is to make a smaller pcb just with the controller and aditional electronics and leave connectors for the rows and columns. This way you could just order a cheap small PCB from China and do the manual wiring, which is easier and faster. If you want you can also check my schematic and just use the part to turn the flash drive on and off. Basically it's a MAX682 Charge Pump regulator activated or deactivated through the shutdown pin. Instead of connecting it to the microcontroller you could also connect it to an hall effect sensor and then you would turn it on or off by putting a magnet next to the sensor, from outside the keyboard case.

I hope to see your custom 60% keyboard. I really like custom made stuff

Yeh, I'm thinking like etching a board to keep together the other parts like built in usb hub, teensy++ 2.0 controller, indicator leds, internal connector to hand wired switch matrix and so on. I think using a teensy instead of surface mounting a controller chip is more my thing

You can see my 60% keyboard pcb here. Also I've got a bunch of pictures from my projects on Instagram. I'm @trasselfrisyr there.

Wow! that keyboard looks very neat and clean! Congratulations! I like the combination between the colors of the keycaps and the wooden base

That's a nice project.

About the PCB: you could use PCBway services and get 5 PCB's for a reasonable price, although I do understand that hand making them is very satisfying, already done that many times.

As for the microcontroller choice, it's good to see something different from Atmel AVR. Unfortunately, PIC programmers definitely are NOT something the typical mechanical keyboard user will have, so the ability to flash new firmwares over USB that some Atmel microcontrollers have is invaluable.

Thanks! When I was making the keyboard I went to check the prices on PCBway and it would still be about 120$ forthe 5pcs. It's not a lot, but considering I had to go through 3 PCB iterations I would have spended more than 300$ just on PCBs. I just went to check now and with a promotion they have it would be just 82$ for 5 PCBs with included shipping. Maybe someday I'll make an order to get a professional PCB to replace on the keyboard and sell the remaining 4 PCBs

Regarding the PIC, you can also upload code via USB or Serial, as long as you put the Bootloader before, which is the way an arduino or a teensy works. When you buy those board they come with the bootloader pre-flashed. during the development and testing of the firmware I used the tiny bootloader and uploaded the code via USB using a simple USB to Serial TTL converter. I decided to go with PIC because, as a student, I can get them for free as samples from Microchip.

Gorgeous!

The keylogger is a pretty cool feature! That somehow reminds me of a used Poker 2 I bought that the PN layer wasnt re-set from the previous user and the guy had a bunch of passwords assigned to keys! Scary!

The internal storage is really cool too!

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it Btw, I could also use the macros for passwords... but I don't

[VinnyCordeiro]

Regarding the PIC, you can also upload code via USB or Serial, as long as you put the Bootloader before, which is the way an arduino or a teensy works. When you buy those board they come with the bootloader pre-flashed. during the development and testing of the firmware I used the tiny bootloader and uploaded the code via USB using a simple USB to Serial TTL converter. I decided to go with PIC because, as a student, I can get them for free as samples from Microchip.

I know about the Arduino bootloader. What I forgot to say is that some Atmel microcontrollers have a factory bootloader already flashed.

Free samples are always a good thing, though. Can't argue against that. XD

[Yoe]

Thanks! The PCB really was the hardest part and very frustrating, but eventually I managed to do it. One thing you can do is to make a smaller pcb just with the controller and aditional electronics and leave connectors for the rows and columns. This way you could just order a cheap small PCB from China and do the manual wiring, which is easier and faster. If you want you can also check my schematic and just use the part to turn the flash drive on and off. Basically it's a MAX682 Charge Pump regulator activated or deactivated through the shutdown pin. Instead of connecting it to the microcontroller you could also connect it to an hall effect sensor and then you would turn it on or off by putting a magnet next to the sensor, from outside the keyboard case.

I hope to see your custom 60% keyboard. I really like custom made stuff

Yeh, I'm thinking like etching a board to keep together the other parts like built in usb hub, teensy++ 2.0 controller, indicator leds, internal connector to hand wired switch matrix and so on. I think using a teensy instead of surface mounting a controller chip is more my thing

You can see my 60% keyboard pcb here. Also I've got a bunch of pictures from my projects on Instagram. I'm @trasselfrisyr there.

Wow! that keyboard looks very neat and clean! Congratulations! I like the combination between the colors of the keycaps and the wooden base

Thanks

I might do that hidden memory thing in some of my future boards. Thanks for the magnet tip. I think I have some reed switches I can use for that, instead of the hall effect sensor.

[derethor]

one question... what about the weight? it seems really light weighted...

[masaleiro]

one question... what about the weight? it seems really light weighted...

Weight of the keyboards or weight for pressing a key? The keyboard weights 750g. Just put in in a scale now

[razorsharpgears]

amazing!