hi guys,
I thought i'd share my first homemade keyboard (well, i didn't make the switches
, or the material for that matter
)
This post will be a couple pictures going through the steps of what i did to make it to the current stage its at now. so far though i have not actually installed the teensy of loaded the firmware yet.
At first i came up with a design that i found on the internet. I actually hated it but if i was going to do this it had to be with less then 48 switches and had to fit on A4 (thats all the acrylic sheets i had). I wanted to make a keyboard about a year ago but i couldn't find any switches and did not know much at the time. I put the design in to the amazing inkscape free vector design software. i spent hour after hour between school and missing homework just to get my design completed. i changed things like the full-size space bar to the standard shift key size. i needed it done before i left school as i was told i cannot enter the campus after my exams
.luckily with the help of my amazing tech teacher, he got some test plates cut out. we tried 2mm and 1.3mm. sadly the 2mm was too thick and the 1.3mm was too thin. i went with the 1.3mm but it is very flimsy
these are the test cutouts:
we finally got it done and the top and bottom plate cut with the trusty school laser cutter that broke more times than i had detentions (i had a lot of detentions
)
this is the design with the keyswitches installed and beginning of the matrix. i actually found out that if you take the top of the mx switch off, there are 2 spaced out holes that you can fit a diode into, so i did that. sadly the orientation of the diodes meant that i had to do solder the matrix in a weird way. I fixed it by reversing the pattern.
I had the matrix done and at this point i actually had now left school so i could not collect the side plates. they were supposed to be done weeks earlier but as i mentioned, the laser cutter actually broke so i either had to sneak into school or get my younger brother to collect them after i'd gone. after testing to see if everything fits together, i no longer have anymore done because i am using my teensy for my apple IIgs keyboard. if that sells, i will take it out and then use it.
the current height without the switches or bolts is 21.3mm and about 33.8mm from the top of the stem to the bottom of the bolts
I also made some mistakes. firstly NEVER solder over the back plate or any acrylic that will be used for that matter. whilst I was in the process of making a mini pcb for the teensy, i was soldering some leads into stripboard to hold the teensy in. the heat melted the leads straight through the acrylic
. another massive mistake i made was soldering the whole design backwards. you may notice that the finished design and the making of the matrix photo are the same way round but one is upside down. this is because out of my excitement i soldered the switches in as soon as possible and not realizing that the plate was flipped. i ended up cutting each row and column and resoldering the whole thing
. as per usual, it took hours but luckily was watching a good Nicholas Cage film to keep me motivated
I will update when i get: the teensy installed, the firmware loaded and the working thing with keycaps (not arrived yet)
thanks for taking the time to read it. I hope you guys enjoyed my life story
. I will also be making some keycaps for cherry mx and alps (i do not have any spare alps keycaps though) and if i get a dell at101w, i will be doing a paint job on it for future projects
.
-Aran