For some time I was reading the theory, wanting to jump in all that "Mech keyboard DIY stuff".
I had great plans but my progress wasn't that quick. So to this point I've done some stuff and here is the sum up of my first season:
0. Old boards, one of which had alps clones, were found. I was waiting for some miracle, but those rattling pinging scratching switches were all that keyboard had to offer.
1. Drevo71 was bought.
2. Modding started with flipping the spacebar and breaking a few stabilizers
).
3. Fresh, new, bright, Drevo seemed perfect to me, but I had no feeling of being involved in "cool guys stuff". So, I've ordered the full set of beige pbt blanks.
4. While they were shipping I've met a guy, with whom I've ordered the typewriter (AEG Olympia)(I've needed some weird caps to make the picture less boring).
5. As I went further, o-rings were bought and the case was dampened. Numpad was bought in that period.
6. Wireless capabilities of my board were ruined by an idiot, who thought, that testing cable pinout on it was a good idea. Behold wired drevo.
7. Minor stuff on keypad was done, some vintage boards were bought, IT WAS TIME TO GO BIG.
And here I am, using perepherials I am proud of, ready to show what I've done: Handwired numpad "RatP" and drevo71 with most mods I've seen done to it.
Soo here is the building process:
PCB was desoldered
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Rows were made
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Columns were made too
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And here is the tip: single core copper wire can be gathered from ethernet cable, use it for columns, forget about using it for anything else as it is too hard to use with limited spaces.
I've tried connecting everything with teensy using this wire and wasn't satisfied (Teensy 2++ BTW, it has too many ports and it was bought for future projects. I want to downgrade to a smaller board later).
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That is the current wiring with flexible wires. Led hole in the switch plate is used to reach the programm button on Teensy.
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Firmware was made using this page
http://kbfirmware.com/. Currently it has 4 layers (numpad, gaming, copypasting and macro, function + volume). Future plans are making some sort of led indication for layers.
Now to the Drevo.
It has a lot of space in its case (especially without the battery
), so fitting the usb hub wasn't much of a problem. Some day I will repair it so I've left enough space for the battery unit.
Micro-usb pinout is fitted where the original pinout board was located, on/off switch is glued in on its old place. This is the photo of how everything is done, if something isn't clear feel free to ask.
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More photos will come soon.
