[GB] Round 1: CA66 Custom Keyboard Kit (CLOSED)

[Oatburner]

Backspace or Split Backspace? What's everyone thinking about doing? I haven't seen a split backspace ca66 yet

I did split

[ptiede]

Has anyone used screw in stabs for their build? I'm wondering if I need to use electrical tape to prevent a short or if the pcb is fine

[typischt]

Backspace or Split Backspace? What's everyone thinking about doing? I haven't seen a split backspace ca66 yet

I did split

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Nice, so stunning!
What switches did you use?

[breckstar]

Anyone else missing 3 screws for the USB-C daughter board?

[donut_sauce]

dhl just showed up. the texture is really nice and smooth/matte feeling. now to test the pcb's

[CptSpck]

dhl just showed up. the texture is really nice and smooth/matte feeling. now to test the pcb's
(Attachment Link)

Wow, I’d completely forgotten that purple was an option. There were so many fantastic colors on this GB that I almost regret getting a plain grey, but I feel like it’ll be hard to find a key cap set that matches well.

[eyedrop]

Just got mine as well. This looks a lot darker than I would have imagined.  Is this dark red? Or brown?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[TestostoBoost]

Received mine today. The case and plate look amazing. One of the PCBs arrived with an LED that had fallen off so I ended up using my spare PCB for the main build. Is there any way for me to get another spare PCB?

[donut_sauce]

Has anyone flashed QMK to their PCB yet? Can't seem to get it into bootloader. I held down ESC when plugging it in but the PC can't find the device?

[PlayKeyboardTW]

In Scandinavia and just picked up this beauty

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It's darker and more bordeaux or wine like in real life, my camera is making it more red than it is.

Its absolutely stunning to see it in person, it's the most beautiful piece of hardware I've ever had between my hands.

Congrats! Love the set up with the pen. Looks so shine putting together. :cool:

Macro shot of the anodizing and the badge

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I've only found one tiny scratch on the inside of the bottom plate, otherwise my anodizing looks perfect. Gonna have to find a good cable for this board, not gonna use the bright red OnePlus cable from my phone

Dat macro mate. Thanks for the amazing photo.

Possible round 2 in the future : ) ?

The runner has said further up the thread that this is the last time that the board will be ran.

Yeah, this was already round 3...

We'll see.

I got mine, really regretting only getting silver. Still looks really nice. Might be a minor blemish or two which I can probably live with until I powder coat or some other new finish.

It went to my old address which luckily was only a 5 minute drive from the new place and the guy handed it right over 

Also just realized I only added a brass plate and no second PCB. So either I need to buy a PCB, or sell a silver plate.

Glad you saved it! Hope you enjoy your keeb.

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Added 1965. But only had plate mounted stabs:-(

Loves the look with 1965. :p

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Remember to test the pcb first mate.

I have not removed the PCB from the packaging inside the case yet, but is there a way to build with a 7x spacebar? Or is it only the split (2.25 and 2.75) or 6.25 layout?

7u spacebar is not supported as you can see from the starting of thread. Both split and 6.25u work.

Sweden here. Picked it up at the post office today.

Dark red case looking intensely gorgeous! And it got better. I couldn't decide on a plate/badge color combo so I got both badges as well as gold, silver and brass plates. Glad I did. The mirror polished brass plate is one hell of a heavy and thick slab, shining at me like deer's eyes caught in headlights. I paired it with the titanium badge and it was a match made in heaven; the titanium bringing the surface back a little, letting that mirror polish shine. It will look amazing with light grey keycaps.

A few minor issues. The anodizing hadn't taken in a few places. Ca 2 mm inside the USB-C cutout, quite visible, but won't be when hooked up to a cable. There were also two barely visible ones (I had to look hard for these): a really small dot in the middle of the back between the rubber feet and a one mm hairline on one of the edges. Nothing major. Overall the anodizing looks perfect.

The inside had blemishes here and there, mostly on the inside of the back plate, on screw standoffs and white discoloring around the USB-C cutout. Once assembled none of that will be visible though.

But wasn't it supposed to come with two strips of rubber feet? I only got one...

Overall, a damn fine keyboard! I'm really happy about having joined this GB and look forward to building it.

Mate you are so good at making sentences to describe it haha. Glad you like it even though there might be some issues we had some hard time to fix.
Can't wait to see your photos after assembly.

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all i can say is WOW! i got the gray, with silver and brass opt for plate/badge. this pic does this baby no justice. i think the gray was the most highly ordered and u folks will not be disappointed. happy keeb building everyone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gray matches almost with everything well! Please share some pics when you finish it up. :thumb:

Backspace or Split Backspace? What's everyone thinking about doing? I haven't seen a split backspace ca66 yet

I did split

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Nice set up mate. One of my mate was doing the same combo and it did look so nice.

dhl just showed up. the texture is really nice and smooth/matte feeling. now to test the pcb's
(Attachment Link)

Nice to see someone got a Barry purple.

Just got mine as well. This looks a lot darker than I would have imagined.  Is this dark red? Or brown?

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Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

It looks like dark red as the photo is quite dark and a bit blue.

Just picked mine up. The red is even more beautiful in person. Sadly I have a little anodization error on the front so the raw aluminum peeks through....oh well.

This is a tough one to pick keycaps for. I have GMk Red Samurai coming, but I may end up using dev/tty beige or, if that's not beige enough, 9009

Can you email me the photo for checking it?

Has anyone fully put together the board yet? I finished all the soldering just to find that the screws for usb-c connector pcb are missing.

Anyone else missing 3 screws for the USB-C daughter board?

Those 3 screws for USB connector should be installed in their holes. If you can't find them that means we probably missing to put them in.
They are M2.5*5. It would be great if you guys can find them near your place, since it would be so awkward for just sending 3 screws.
Here is the pic.

[Lvlc]

Has anyone flashed QMK to their PCB yet? Can't seem to get it into bootloader. I held down ESC when plugging it in but the PC can't find the device?

That worked for me at least to get into the bootloader. I flashed TMK and everything worked perfectly. I used a 70 key layout. Maybe test if you can hit layer 1 and press b.

[donut_sauce]

Has anyone flashed QMK to their PCB yet? Can't seem to get it into bootloader. I held down ESC when plugging it in but the PC can't find the device?

That worked for me at least to get into the bootloader. I flashed TMK and everything worked perfectly. I used a 70 key layout. Maybe test if you can hit layer 1 and press b.

thanks for getting back to me. what's layer1/b. is that reset?

[Daellin]

Anyone know what the second key down of the top right is? It's the one right of the \ | key.

The one above it seems to change the RGB effect, but I'm not sure what this one does.

I checked the QMK layout, but it seems to have [Print Screen] for the top-right key, so it's actually wrong.

Nothing is registering on http://www.keyboardtester.com/ for the key either.

[jlboi69]

Expecting mine to arrive at my door within the next hour. Has anyone successfully flashed QMK onto their PCB? I just found out there's a CA66 entry in the QMK branch.

[donut_sauce]

Expecting mine to arrive at my door within the next hour. Has anyone successfully flashed QMK onto their PCB? I just found out there's a CA66 entry in the QMK branch.

i'm trying too in vain...

[donut_sauce]

neither QMK Toolbox or atmel flip can see the device when it's in bootloader

[Lvlc]

Expecting mine to arrive at my door within the next hour. Has anyone successfully flashed QMK onto their PCB? I just found out there's a CA66 entry in the QMK branch.

neither QMK Toolbox or atmel flip can see the device when it's in bootloader

This is my first time flashing a keyboard, so I opted to not build and compile QMK. But anyways it should be the same because all you need is the hex file right?
Maybe try http://ydkb.io/?ca66# and download the DL Reflash Tool.

[donut_sauce]

Expecting mine to arrive at my door within the next hour. Has anyone successfully flashed QMK onto their PCB? I just found out there's a CA66 entry in the QMK branch.

neither QMK Toolbox or atmel flip can see the device when it's in bootloader

This is my first time flashing a keyboard, so I opted to not build and compile QMK. But anyways it should be the same because all you need is the hex file right?
Maybe try http://ydkb.io/?ca66# and download the DL Reflash Tool.

Yeah, i finally got it working. the mistake I made was I thought i could use qmk toolbox or atmel flip but it looks like you have to use the DL Reflash which is kind of a bummer but not too big a deal.

[Lormania]

Congrats to all your beautiful boards! If there are extras I call a purple 😊. Keep the pics going boys!

[clickityClackity]

Cool as ****! Spacebars will prob be changed soon but wanted to share it so far!

[danielucf]

Nothing happens when I plug in the keyboard. Tested while holding escape, and verified that the cable works fine by connecting my phone.

Is there a soldering guide somewhere? Or should it just be as easy as solder the switches and go.

Picture album.

[ptiede]

Has anyone figured out how to flash this thing? I am using linus and get a string read error when trying to plug in it while holding escape

[PlayKeyboardTW]

Hi guys just quickly made a flashing guide while Geekhack server was unstable.
Here's the guide: https://goo.gl/LDJ5KV

Ask me anything if you have problem flashing your PCB.

[dwarflemur]

Waiting for laser to finish this off, looks great

[ptiede]

Got it working thanks for the guide! Also this is an amazing board. I will take pictures tomorrow to post.

[eyedrop]

Upon closer inspection, I noticed uneven anodization on the bottom where I can see the some aluminum as well.   

[PlayKeyboardTW]

Expecting mine to arrive at my door within the next hour. Has anyone successfully flashed QMK onto their PCB? I just found out there's a CA66 entry in the QMK branch.

neither QMK Toolbox or atmel flip can see the device when it's in bootloader

This is my first time flashing a keyboard, so I opted to not build and compile QMK. But anyways it should be the same because all you need is the hex file right?
Maybe try http://ydkb.io/?ca66# and download the DL Reflash Tool.

Yeah, i finally got it working. the mistake I made was I thought i could use qmk toolbox or atmel flip but it looks like you have to use the DL Reflash which is kind of a bummer but not too big a deal.

I was about to answer but GH was done for a while.
Happy to see you work through it.

Cool as ****! Spacebars will prob be changed soon but wanted to share it so far!

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Nice build mate. Gray is so good with everything.

Nothing happens when I plug in the keyboard. Tested while holding escape, and verified that the cable works fine by connecting my phone.

Is there a soldering guide somewhere? Or should it just be as easy as solder the switches and go.

Picture album.

There's no need to solder for USB connector. Is the FFC connected correctly for it?
Are you using screw in stablizers?

Got it working thanks for the guide! Also this is an amazing board. I will take pictures tomorrow to post.

 

Upon closer inspection, I noticed uneven anodization on the bottom where I can see the some aluminum as well.   

Hold on. Let's see what we can do.
Update:

Can you try wiping it with a cloth, maybe with a bit of neutral cleaner to see if it's removable?

[wowremy]

Are there any extra kits available for purchase?

[PhreshPrinceOfChinaTown]

This exceeded my expectations massively! Its Beautiful!

Haven't decided on switches yet, but got my lube and zeal stabs ready.

[danielucf]

Nothing happens when I plug in the keyboard. Tested while holding escape, and verified that the cable works fine by connecting my phone.

Is there a soldering guide somewhere? Or should it just be as easy as solder the switches and go.

Picture album.

There's no need to solder for USB connector. Is the FFC connected correctly for it?
Are you using screw in stablizers?

I was using screw in, but had paper protecting everything nearby. Now I have removed all the screws and no change. I will double check the FFC connector.

EDIT: Disconnected and reconnected both ends of the FFC, still not working 

[sysfury]

Silver with brass plate

[mkarlsson]

Oh guys, those look so good!

[DasGnome]

Just picked mine up. The red is even more beautiful in person. Sadly I have a little anodization error on the front so the raw aluminum peeks through....oh well.

This is a tough one to pick keycaps for. I have GMk Red Samurai coming, but I may end up using dev/tty beige or, if that's not beige enough, 9009

Can you email me the photo for checking it?

yj7272098@gmail.com Is this the right email? if not, they're going to be very confused... lol
Here's what it looks like

[TheIronCore]

Silver with brass plate

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Hot damn silver looks good!!!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[foxlive]

just received mine.
I try to flash the pcb, whitout succes. I saw the guide but it is windows based. I am on macos. Since it is a qmk I compiled the firmware in qmk, then i plugged the keyboard while holding escape. no led light up, but it is not seen by the computer to be flashed.

!

Does someone has a solution?

[ptiede]

just received mine.
I try to flash the pcb, whitout succes. I saw the guide but it is windows based. I am on macos. Since it is a qmk I compiled the firmware in qmk, then i plugged the keyboard while holding escape. no led light up, but it is not seen by the computer to be flashed.

!

Does someone has a solution?

I just talked to someone about this and apparently it uses a new type of bootloader so it isn't compatible with the qmk flasher. I flashed qmk onto it using their tool. I had a steal my friends computer since I only use Linux 

Ill probably start thinking about a way to get around this later but right now I think you have to use their tool.

[foxlive]

just received mine.
I try to flash the pcb, whitout succes. I saw the guide but it is windows based. I am on macos. Since it is a qmk I compiled the firmware in qmk, then i plugged the keyboard while holding escape. no led light up, but it is not seen by the computer to be flashed.

!

Does someone has a solution?

I just talked to someone about this and apparently it uses a new type of bootloader so it isn't compatible with the qmk flasher. I flashed qmk onto it using their tool. I had a steal my friends computer since I only use Linux 

Ill probably start thinking about a way to get around this later but right now I think you have to use their tool.

SUUUPPEEER annoying.. I hope virtual machine works.. I have no windows at home (hate this os so badly)

[PlayKeyboardTW]

Nothing happens when I plug in the keyboard. Tested while holding escape, and verified that the cable works fine by connecting my phone.

Is there a soldering guide somewhere? Or should it just be as easy as solder the switches and go.

Picture album.

There's no need to solder for USB connector. Is the FFC connected correctly for it?
Are you using screw in stablizers?

I was using screw in, but had paper protecting everything nearby. Now I have removed all the screws and no change. I will double check the FFC connector.

EDIT: Disconnected and reconnected both ends of the FFC, still not working 

I hope it's just the FFC problem, that would be easy to deal with it.
Can you check if there's any component missing, or maybe change a cable to see if it works?

Silver with brass plate

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That absolutely looks dope.

Just picked mine up. The red is even more beautiful in person. Sadly I have a little anodization error on the front so the raw aluminum peeks through....oh well.

This is a tough one to pick keycaps for. I have GMk Red Samurai coming, but I may end up using dev/tty beige or, if that's not beige enough, 9009

Can you email me the photo for checking it?

yj7272098@gmail.com Is this the right email? if not, they're going to be very confused... lol
Here's what it looks like

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Sent you back a mail. Please check.

just received mine.
I try to flash the pcb, whitout succes. I saw the guide but it is windows based. I am on macos. Since it is a qmk I compiled the firmware in qmk, then i plugged the keyboard while holding escape. no led light up, but it is not seen by the computer to be flashed.

:( !

Does someone has a solution?

I just talked to someone about this and apparently it uses a new type of bootloader so it isn't compatible with the qmk flasher. I flashed qmk onto it using their tool. I had a steal my friends computer since I only use Linux  :p

Ill probably start thinking about a way to get around this later but right now I think you have to use their tool.

SUUUPPEEER annoying.. I hope virtual machine works.. I have no windows at home (hate this os so badly)

Yeah the Mac os is not supported at the moment. Need to find a Windows based pc for flashing.  :blank:

[donut_sauce]

just received mine.
I try to flash the pcb, whitout succes. I saw the guide but it is windows based. I am on macos. Since it is a qmk I compiled the firmware in qmk, then i plugged the keyboard while holding escape. no led light up, but it is not seen by the computer to be flashed.

!

Does someone has a solution?

I just talked to someone about this and apparently it uses a new type of bootloader so it isn't compatible with the qmk flasher. I flashed qmk onto it using their tool. I had a steal my friends computer since I only use Linux 

Ill probably start thinking about a way to get around this later but right now I think you have to use their tool.

I think ISP flashing a new bootloader might be the way to go.

[Johnee]

I just realized I haven’t gotten a cable yet and I should be receiving the board tomorrow. Are usb-c to usb-c cables supported or do I need to get a usb-c to usb-a?

[vewy_nice]

Does your PC have a usb C port? Mine does, and another usbC board I have works fine C to C.

I can test the CA66 specifically later, but I haven't even taken mine out of the box yet, I have been very busy!

[child]

Do you need this DL Reflash tool every time you want to flash the keyboard or just for initial flashing? I'm on Linux and while I can (albeit reluctantly) use VM to do this once, I'd rather not do this over and over (and I know I'll reflash it several times, because I like tinkering with the layout).

[donut_sauce]

Do you need this DL Reflash tool every time you want to flash the keyboard or just for initial flashing? I'm on Linux and while I can (albeit reluctantly) use VM to do this once, I'd rather not do this over and over (and I know I'll reflash it several times, because I like tinkering with the layout).

everytime unfortunately. it has a totally different bootloader

[sacklunch]

*sold!

[fer.real]

I'm considering selling mine, if anyone is interested, PM me.

I have the grey case, brass plate, silver plate, brass badge, titanium badge, + extra pcb. I already soldered box whites on the brass plates, so you will get a free set of switches (the silver plate is untouched). I'm looking to get what I paid. My case is, as far as I can tell, perfect (no scratches/imperfections in anodizing). I'm simply realizing that I need a full keyboard to be productive (I'm writing my dissertation...and I quickly lose patience without all keys).

Nick

PMed

[Stagione]

Those of you who have built it already, did anyone use screw-in stabilizers? Was there any problem with it shorting the PCB?

[ptiede]

Those of you who have built it already, did anyone use screw-in stabilizers? Was there any problem with it shorting the PCB?

I used electrical tape just to be safe

[dwarflemur]

Those of you who have built it already, did anyone use screw-in stabilizers? Was there any problem with it shorting the PCB?

Nope.

[Unforgivable]

Oh guys, those look so good!

I got mine today, however mine too came with a slight dent (before anode).

Sent you a pm with picture. (Messages on GH seem to be working now).

Damage aside, I must say the anode looks great. The board itself looks wonderful, I’m hoping I’m able to jump on an extra with a brass/titanium badge! (If anyone has a dark red one please hit me up!).

You guys made a beautiful board. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Edit: Also, the rubber feet were not placed properly, so the board wobbles a lot. Is it possible at all to purchase replacement rubber feet (In the same style)?

[dc_in_sf]

Finished my build out:



Removed the ribbon cable between the daughter board the main pcb to get it out of the way while soldering, and damaged the retaining clip but it still works well enough (for the moment), would not recommend taking that risk to anyone else.

Waiting for a bunch of keycap sets to come in, so scavenged DSA Granite from my White Fox to put on it, unfortunately the WF uses costar stabilizers and I'd previously had to glue the inserts for the stabilizer into the backspace key, so had to sub in a blank DSA 2u key I had lying around in. It's actually a very dark blue color (hard to make that out in the photo) so doesn't look terrible in person.

Have to say I am really liking this board with DSA profile, may keep these keys on it if I can source a replacement backspace or somehow extract the inserts out of the existing backspace.