geekhack

geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: hyperhopper on Thu, 19 November 2015, 10:17:57

Title: Difficulty of making a keyboard from scratch? (curved ergodox)
Post by: hyperhopper on Thu, 19 November 2015, 10:17:57
I was offered a bet by a friend for the cost of materials that I couldn't build a the curved ergodox keyboard in two and a half months, and I have a few questions I want to get answers about before I accept it.

I've never built a keyboard from scratch, but am very comfortable soldering and am at an engineering school with tools and 3d printing readily available, but I'm not sure exactly how to design the circuit for the keyboard, or the theories behind it like why things are always wired by row/column, and how that would work for an ergodox.


So in the end:

Is building a keyboard like this possible in 2.5 months?

Should I try to 3d print this (https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-cave), or recreate this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiolqAROGg) and use a pcb?

Do you know of any good resource to learn about the wiring?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Difficulty of making a keyboard from scratch? (curved ergodox)
Post by: absyrd on Thu, 19 November 2015, 10:25:20
Did you look here under the "hand wiring" section yet?
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69582.0
Title: Re: Difficulty of making a keyboard from scratch? (curved ergodox)
Post by: vvp on Thu, 19 November 2015, 10:36:29
You can also do these:
Title: Re: Difficulty of making a keyboard from scratch? (curved ergodox)
Post by: hyperhopper on Thu, 19 November 2015, 10:47:29
Quote from: absyrd on Thu, 19 November 2015, 10:25:20
Did you look here under the "hand wiring" section yet?
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69582.0

I saw those. I didn't however, see anything that was ergodox specific, or would let help me actually understand the circuitry enough to adapt it for the ergodox myself (they just say wire up the rows and colums, which gets trickier with an ergodox, plus you can't bring the rows and columns from one side to the other since its split).
Title: Re: Difficulty of making a keyboard from scratch? (curved ergodox)
Post by: vvp on Thu, 19 November 2015, 11:19:10
If you want to understand how ergodox works then you should be looking at its Kicad files (especially the schematic file ErgoDOX.sch) and its firmware.
Title: Re: Difficulty of making a keyboard from scratch? (curved ergodox)
Post by: Findecanor on Thu, 19 November 2015, 11:36:32
The ErgoDox's logical matrix follows the physical layout very closely. It shouldn't be too hard to hand-wire it and still be able to use the original firmware.