I’d like to have one if there can be a GB or something, I think the PCB will be expensive if only print few
so that means you have some spare pcb's left? :cool:
What software did you use to make the PCB and Case? I started Learning to make PCB's with KiCad and I am a little baffled how people line up everything so perfectly and make the PCB line up with the case.
Anyway, any update on publishing the CAD files for the lasercut case on Github? I would love to get a proper case manufactured for it as well!
Anyway, any update on publishing the CAD files for the lasercut case on Github? I would love to get a proper case manufactured for it as well!
Are you still interested in this? I don't have much time right now to design an entire case for a Lasercut version, but I could definitely provide you with the profile for the plate to start with!
Are you still interested in this? I don't have much time right now to design an entire case for a Lasercut version, but I could definitely provide you with the profile for the plate to start with!
A profile of the plate would be more than enough! This is a great keyboard design and it would be much appreciated by me and I assume many others.
Sure thing! I just received the PCB from JLCPCB yesterday, so this is great timing.
I've attached the plate design and uploaded it here (https://autode.sk/3cCnUfJ)! It is from my work in progress version of a BMEK with a separate plate instead of the plate integrated to the top case (the plate design is final!).
The plate has all the mounting holes lined up that you might need for mounting it to the PCB:Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/xlBzVBQ.jpg)
Some of these holes are big in diameter because in my design they stems from the top case pass through to mount the PCB to it:Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/yElI239.png)
Your design might differ, i.e. you might mount the PCB to the bottom case, or directly to the plate somehow - change the hole sizes accordingly :).
Small update with another case I made late last year:Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/QhmuNZk.jpg)
https://imgur.com/a/MdbbHqe (https://imgur.com/a/MdbbHqe)
That looks great! The plastic stock is from Smile Plastics, right? Any recommendations on actually ordering from the States? Their site seems a little sparse at the moment.
Did you hand solder the USB-C receptacle?
That looks great! The plastic stock is from Smile Plastics, right? Any recommendations on actually ordering from the States? Their site seems a little sparse at the moment.
Yes! I'm in europe and ordered it from a reseller in the Netherlands (https://www.pyrasied.nl/en/product/smile-plastics/). No idea about US resellers.Did you hand solder the USB-C receptacle?
Yes I did, with the help from a friend. It was a bit tricky, as it is part through-hole, part SMD. I'd say it's a bit more tricky than just soldering an SMD s next week for example.
To be honest, we had to give it a few attempts of re-soldering the connectors on the first couple of PCBs before it worked. I wish JLCPCB would offer assembly for any USB-C port!
For the next version of case & PCB, I'm really really tempted to change the design to support Ai03's universal daughterboards (https://github.com/ai03-2725/Unified-Daughterboard!) (as an option). Gives some more flexibility for usb-port placement and allows you to get a pre-soldered (and replaceable!) usb connector.
That’s promising (!)... I must admit that I am a soldering novice and on course to receive the pcb’s next week! I’ll have a couple of chances to get it right and have bought myself a ‘helping hand’ to journey through.
I’ll keep this thread updated on my progress.
That’s promising (!)... I must admit that I am a soldering novice and on course to receive the pcb’s next week! I’ll have a couple of chances to get it right and have bought myself a ‘helping hand’ to journey through.
I’ll keep this thread updated on my progress.
Exciting! Let me give you some tips to increase your chances of getting it right the first time:
- You absolutely must have some solder wick ready for removing solder when you used too much, or remove it completely if you want to entirely loosen the components (i.e. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9327 )
- Use Flux (you apply it to and around the pads before soldering, i.e. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14579)
- Take the time, look at some smd solder tutorials (i.e. - specifically look tips for packages with many pins that have fine pin pitch)
As I mentioned, the wurth usb-c connector has both through hole and smd pins, we've always started with the smd pins first.
We would put down some flux, drop in the USB connector, solder one pin (to make sure the placement is right).
Then we did a bit of a funky technique that my friend was very partial to (but I'm not sure if I would recommend it):
We would gob up all the pins/pads with solder pretty carelessly, which would result in a lot of pins just shorting.
Afterwards, we would apply the solder wick flat on all the pins, heat it up with the iron, and it will draw all the extra solder from between the pins into the wick, leaving a pretty clean result (in theory, see below). We've used the same approach for the through hole pins on the other side of the pcb by the way, as they also have a fine pitch and can easily be shortened with the solder.
I think I'd recommend a more conventional technique (such as what you will find in the videos). One of the issues with our technique was that, if you use too much solder, the space between the wires that go from the pads into the connectors (what I marked out on the first 3 pins in red in the picture below) act like capillaries, sucking up solder in between them into/under the connector, where it will be hard to remove:Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/AZLGGtU.png)
But the good thing is that, if you have wick ready and don't use too excessive amounts of solder, you get a lot of chances to fix shortened joints easily.
Don't hesitate to ask. I wish I could do a quick demonstration video, but I don't have any tools around due to the quarantine situation :( .
Flux is the key, and don't use too much solder, just enough to coat the pins. If you use too much, you'll spend the next hour getting rid of solder bridges.
Also use the sticky kind of flux, not the kind that vaporizes when heated. That won't work. You can not use too much flux. You can clean it up after you're done.
Lastly make sure you have a magnifying glass of some kind to make sure you can inspect your soldering. I personally prefer the headset kind with LED lights. The solder bridges can be very hard to spot, if they're not the "blob of solder" kind.
Soldering the USB connectors is, by far, the hardest thing on these kinds of boards. The microcontroller is easy by comparison, but it does take practice. Expect to not get either one of them right the first few times. The other component I usually have a bit of trouble is the crystal. They usually only have bottom pads, which is a little bit of a pain to solder without heatguns or solder ovens.
There're a lot of videos on YouTube that can teach you the basic technique. Definitely watch a few, and practice.
The good thing about these open source boards like bmek is that they're cheap to manufacture, so even if you screw up, it's not gonna set you back that much. Even cheaper is to practice on a macropad like Yampad. You can get 5 PCBs from JLCPCB for $2 (plus shipping) and the components are probably gonna be $20 or so. You won't waste as many diodes, capacitors, etc., and more importantly time, if you screw that up.
There are quite a few SMD practice boards available from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HPSRXJ0/), eBay, or China.
China's cheaper, but takes longer.
I think I've had some success in my first usb keyboard today...without the solder wick.... it's recognised by my PC but I can't seem to flash the bmek software via QMK. The run code doesn't work and its not showing up on QMK below, do I need to compile my own?
The pins are definitely bridged, from what I can see. Get some good flux, and smother it on top of the pins and heat it up. It'll work better than with a solder wick. The flux will help you reflow the solder. Looks like you may also have a solder bridge between the two pins on top left.
I'm using the following flux myself: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ZIV85A/
You didn't mention it on your post, so you might've already done this, but also test the PCB after you flash the firmware on it. Short the pins on all your switches one at a time and see if a key press gets registered. It'll help you eliminate issues before you start soldering all kinds of other components on the board.
I did the tweezer test on each of the switches and they were registering all the keys per jouz KLE and that was SUPER exciting!
I did the tweezer test on each of the switches and they were registering all the keys per jouz KLE and that was SUPER exciting!
That would seem to indicate you don't have solder bridges, though.
Following on the advice from above, I managed to compile the firmware and flash onto 3 soldered PCBs!
One of them I think I need to resolder again but I'd like some advice on the below... do you think these through hole components are completely damaged here? I am thinking of adding more solder to the through hole component and then use a solder wick to soak it all up and retry again....
On the to-do list now is - sourcing the led components, buy some switches and keycaps, look for a case manufacturer and try to solve the two problem PCB's which are not working.
wow this is amazing, i really like my arrows i might get ur kicad files and try add arrows somehow in the bottom right somehow. and if i manage to achieve ill just attach the files on to this. key is tho if i get to it hehe
Super interested in a case for this, thanks for sharing!
Could I use this with some Kailh Choc switches? Or the gboards.ca gchocs?
- Dampening - I'm all for this though not sure if we needed all three dampening options, foam between the PCB and bottom case seems most beneficial. Full disclosure - I have ordered silent switches for my working batch :)
Awesome looking stuff. I'm a little concerned about the PCB change, as I also already have PCBs, but it doesn't look like a big problem. Even if it is, ordering a new set of PCBs is pretty affordable
- But I guess there is nothing holding back anyone else to just run a GB for POM or PC cases.
- Another plus for aluminum is that we can anodize it, too (for almost no extra cost, at least on 3DHubs). So the plate color, which peeks through here and there on alice-like layouts, can still be used to enhance the looks (like brass would have)
- But I'm all for a funky color like @gorbachev has suggested, too! I'm just a bit doubtful that it will be easy to get the anodization to match a given keyset-color (without going through a long review process). Any thoughts? Are people fine with taking a risk here?
- Note that I'm not sure if I want to offer the brass plate in the GB, as it will also significantly increase the weight for shipping. The shape is so simple that one could machine it themselves easily (i.e. get it sawn at the hardware store?). Thouhts?
- Note that those of you that already made a PCB (@mchanneh :) ) can easily add this mounting hole by cutting a little slot in the side (it's pretty easy with the PCB material).
Yeah the whole dampening thing is a bit voodoo. I ordered a small batch of the EVA foam & silicone sheets to play around this with.
Awesome looking stuff. I'm a little concerned about the PCB change, as I also already have PCBs, but it doesn't look like a big problem. Even if it is, ordering a new set of PCBs is pretty affordable
So all in all, you're not loosing anything, but it adds a little convenience for those that get the new version of the PCB. And you're right, ordering new PCBs is not expensive (and I'll run another batch to ship along with the cases, which will make them even cheaper - happy to ship a new one to you then, if you prefer).
- Would it be possible to offer 4 colourways, with 2 being mute (i.e. black, grey, white (if possible)) and then the other 2 riskier/colourful/bold options? I am bias to a more extravagant colour-way but realise this is because I'm still early in the MK hobby and haven't invested a lot into particulary keyset themes
I suppose adding multiple bottom-row layouts support isn't feasable at this point ? I love this, however the double 2.75 spacebar situation seem somewhat impractical, since the only way to make it look nice with a lot of GMK sets is to get 2 spacebar kits. Having the option for a 2.25 spacebar and 1.5 mod on one side would make a world of difference in my opinion.
They're all great alternatives. I think the blocker looks nice too. Would it be possible to either put it at the right or left of the key, or it has to be fixed at one side only?
One of them I think I need to resolder again but I'd like some advice on the below... do you think these through hole components are completely damaged here? I am thinking of adding more solder to the through hole component and then use a solder wick to soak it all up and retry again....Show Image(https://clickpix.org/images/PMuUW.jpg)
Thanks guys for your feedback!
Alright, I'm going with the blocker solution.
There is a little diagonal slot in the plate to which you can screw the blocker from the bottom. It's slot shaped instead of a circle to make sure that you can push it tightly into the corner.
As you can see from that picture, while I was at it, I've also added 2u backspace support :)
One thing that is finicky with this is to support the multiple layouts together with hotswap sockets.
I forgot where I've seen this hack before, but the solution I came up with was to create a new footprint for these switches where the cutouts for the hotswap sockets are also pads, so if you want to solder, you just gunk in a little more solder for these ones to fill the hole:
An aluminium one in the same finish as the case would be significantly cheaper than a polished brass one, so I could see just shipping the alu one and making the brass one a premium option later on?
Would you consider sharing the Discord invite?
Is the purple you're referring to the renders in page 1 (i.e. pantone 276 C) or in the recent post, (i.e. pantone 8543 C), marginally I prefer the, initial, darker option compared to the burgundy...
Re PCB - would switching out the connector cause a case redesign? Though I totally understand the devil that is the Wurth connector!