Yet Another 65% Keyboard, This Time With Bluetooth and Per-Key-RGB

[lulle2007200]

Hello,
so my off-the-shelf 100% mechanical keyboard eventually broke after quite some time (it wasn't really good in the first place) and i decided to switch over to a 65% layout.
I realized quickly that the choice is rather limited when you want a 65% keyboard with split spacebar, bluetooth and per key illumination, so i designed my own.

The first prototypes are on the way, you may (or may not) take a look at the PCB:


-MCU is not your usual ATmegaXYZ or STM32FXYZ but the STM32L422. It's got some really neat low power modes and features the others don't have.
-LED's are driven by 2 x IS31FL3733.
-The bluetooth module i am going to use is most likely the RN4871 (UART ASCII interface) or the BM71 (UART binary interface), both are bluetooth low energy modules.
-Will support cherry style switches.
-Can be populated with either 1616 SMD LED's or the usual 3mm THT LED's.

-Firmware will not be QMK or TMK based, i am going to write new firmware specifically targeting the STM32L4 series from scratch.
-Will support runtime key remapping (similar to how it works with via configurator).
-Will (of course) support different lighting effects.
-I will maybe implement software that allows you to control the lighting from the pc.

-PCB will fit Tada68 compatible cases.

It will probably take quite some time until i get the firmware done, I will probably never sell the PCB.

Feel free to leave suggestions etc.

[piit79]

Hey, a few comments if I may:

* The images seem to be broken
* Using special low power MCU and LED lighting seems a bit contradictory Of course, it makes sense if you don't use lighting when wireless
* Writing a full-featured firmware is a tall order. If you used QMK you could have contributed to the community. But I understand you want to do "your own thing" and support some features QMK doesn't have currently
* Are you planning to open source the project? You said you will probably never offer the PCB...

In any case, a very ambitious project that will take lots and lots of time and effort to complete. I wish you luck!

[lulle2007200]

Thanks for the feedback.
I was considering QMK, but there is two reasons i decided to write my own firmware:
1) QMK is meant to be compatible with a lot of mcu's, especially the ATmega series and some stm32f mcu's, which consequently makes optimizations for a specific mcu a lot harder.
And as of now, it is a pretty big project and some parts are quite messy and lacking documentation.
2) Educational purpose (which is probably the main reason^^)

When i receive the prototypes and they turn out well, i'll fix the schematics (they are really ugly right now) and publish the pcb files.
I will publish the firmware aswell, but only at the point where it is actually usable (i got the usb part half way done, but it's gonna take a while till its finished).

And yeah, when battery powered you probably want to turn off the leds, otherwise you dont really benefit from the low power design^^