My first keyboard build

[MortimerSnurd]

Hello fellow keyboard geeks.  I am new to the scene and am excited to do my first mechanical build.  I am not holding back and am attempting to build a very personalized board.  Any help and advice you can offer would be great and much appreciated.  My goal is to have something similar to the ErgoDox or Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. 

I really want to avoid using any stabilizers.  I am planning on using a "shift" key for each "space bar."  Can I get away w/o using stabs? 

I want LED back lighting on every key, and was wondering if I should purchase the SIP sockets (look in hardware list).  Do they make life easier?  Do they fail?  I want a very bulletproof board when done.  I also am kind of lost on how to supply the voltage to that many LEDs. 

I have read enough on soldering the matrices to feel comfortable doing that, but I am not sure how I will attach the right half to the left.  I opted to go with 2 teensy 3.2's and figured I can attach the R matrix to one teensy, then attach the R teensy to the Left.  I will also need to supply voltage for the led's go from L to R. 
I picked out a bunch of hardware but I am not sure about the quality of it.  Please let me know what you think about the keycaps, diodes, etc...  I am also using this thread as a running build sheet, and I will update the hardware, progress, etc... and will include pics. 

My first trade was machining, and I have friends in the business, so I will have the case and plate custom made.  One problem I can see with the switch plate is the difference in the mounting hole designs.  I read a long thread about the difference between the 4 hole layouts, and as I don't want to do this again I would like to utilize the more complex hole layout.  This layout is supposed to allow you to rotate the switches, and also open them up without desoldering.  I couldn't find any source for the dimensions of the switchplate hole layouts, but they had posted a bunch of their own work in this thread   -> https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=59837.0   

Is there a source with precise dimensions for the "#4" hole layout?  My options for making the plate are limited to milling, and while this will take substantially longer, it should produce a good product.  I am debating between stainless steel and aluminum for the case material.  As the case is the only part of this project that is FREE I can splurge a little on it :-) Any thoughts? 

I am also planning on heat shrinking all of the diodes.  Why?  Because I want to :-)
 
As far as programming the teensy I have no clue what I am doing.  I could probably look through someones basic code and cobble something together, but is there anyone here that can help with that sort of thing?  Again, I am mainly concerned with the communication of one half to the other. 

Thanks again!

My current list of hardware is as follows. 

Switches x110 $53.90 - Cherry MX Blue  https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1038 

Keycaps x104 $39.00 - PBT Doubleshot Translucent 104 pc (Vortex) - https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1329

Dampeners x130 $12.00  - Cherry MX Red   https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1219

SIP sockets x110 $44.00 - https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1269

Teensy 3.2  x2 $48.63 - http://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy32_pins.html
1N4148 Diode x 200 $11.30- http://www.amazon.com/100Pcs-1N4148-IN4148-switching-signal/dp/B00UXPVLEG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452922510&sr=8-1&keywords=in4148+diode

Heat Shrink Tubing 2 meters $7.64 - http://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Black-1mm-Dia-Shrink/dp/B00843KJYC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452923388&sr=8-1&keywords=1+mm+shrink+tubing

LED x 110 $17.73- http://www.maxkeyboard.com/max-keyboard-blue-3mm-flangeless-replacement-led-for-backlit-mechanical-keyboard-110-pcs.html

22 AWG Solid Core Wire 6 colors x 25 ft (150 ft). $22.00 - http://www.amazon.com/Electronix-Express--Hook-Wire-Solid/dp/B00B4ZRPEY/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1452924357&sr=1-1&keywords=solid+core+wire+22+gauge#Ask

[MortimerSnurd]

120 views and no opinions?   

[jacobolus]

Welcome to Geekhack!

Do you have a picture of the layout you are trying to build?

If you want to avoid stabilizers, I recommend limiting the key length to 1.5 units. Otherwise your keys will start to lose lateral stability. You can push that to 1.75 units if you really have to.

Using two Teensy 3.2 controllers would work okay, but you’ll need to find or write firmware which handles communication between the two sides. You might look at HaaTa’s firmware for the Infinity Ergodox, which should support such a feature. http://input.club/devices/infinity-ergodox https://github.com/kiibohd/controller (There are at least 2–3 other open source keyboard firmwares made by geekhackers, but I’m not sure if any of them support this two controller feature.)

A couple of other alternatives are to (a) use an I/O expander for one side, like the original Ergodox, or (b) just send all the wires for one half of the matrix across to the other side, using a ribbon cable or similar. Option b is the simplest from a build and firmware perspective, so it might be worth starting with a laser cut acrylic plate prototype of your layout using the ribbon cable method, and then upgrading to an I/O expander or second microcontroller once you have the design all figured out.

I highly recommend figuring out how design the electronics and program the microcontroller(s) before you start worrying about milling a case.

Personally I think you should just stick to square switch holes for MX switches. That’s the easiest and most rigid shape, and it functions noticeably better than the alternative shapes if you want hand wire the diode matrix instead of getting a custom PCB made. The more complicated hole shapes are mostly for people with short attention spans and lots of extra free time who want to swap out the switches every other week.

I don’t understand why you would want to heat-shrink the diodes. Sounds like a waste of time that will make fixing any electronics problems harder.

One final recommendation: since you’re going to spend a lot of money and time on this project, you might want to try to find a keyboard enthusiast meetup somewhere in your area, so you can go and try a bunch of interesting keyboards in one place. You might discover that you love a particular type of keyswitch you’d never tried before, or a particular case style or material, and you might be able to get some useful in-person feedback about your ideas.

If you post in the “Making Stuff Together” forum you might get more responses. A mod might be able to move this thread over there.

[MortimerSnurd]

Hey, thanks for the replay Jacobolus!  I will try to get a mod to move my thread. 
I thought about doing something similiar to the Ergo w/ an I/O expander.  Can an I/O expander handle the voltage for the led back lighting?  If not, perhaps it would be worth it to use 2 teensys.  I honestly didn't even consider just running the matrix wires and led wires from one side to the other.  That may actually be the best option all around.  What would I gain by using an I/O expander or teensy on the right half?  I noticed Ergo did that, and I figured the ultimate hacker board did that as well. 
I just discovered Pexon custom cables, I didn't realize these existed :-)  They are soooo sexy. 
Is hand wiring RGB LEDs a possibility? 
Thanks for your help.

[jacobolus]

What would I gain by using an I/O expander or teensy on the right half?

It is a lot more robust, because it reduces the number of wires going between the halves. It also lets you use at least one of the sides independently with the other unplugged. For a "production" keyboard, having a USB, TRRS, RJ11, or similar connector between the two sides is definitely the way to go. But for a personal one-off, or especially for a prototype, just running the wires across is much easier to get up and running.

I wouldn’t worry about LED lighting until you build a prototype that works without it. For LEDs, I don't think RGB is going to fit in the little LED hole on standard MX switches. With single-color LEDs, you could probably hand wire everything, but it's going to be a bit of a pain, definitely a lot more wires than if you just have keyswitches. If you need LEDs, and especially if you need RGB LEDs, you might want to design and order a PCB (unfortunately this is a bunch of extra work, and requires learning another new set of tools), and depending on how fancy you want your lighting to be, you might even want to add an LED controller chip to make the programming easier.

[MortimerSnurd]

good stuff man.  I just came across the Axios keyboard.  This is exactly what I have been looking for.  It looks like he has been developing that for three years now.  My biggest concern w/ that is he appears to slowly be fading off of these forums, but he is still actively developing the board.  Hopefully he releases the eta or at least the specs as it is an opensource project. 

[regack]

I really want to avoid using any stabilizers.  I am planning on using a "shift" key for each "space bar."  Can I get away w/o using stabs

My custom that I built uses a 2.75 as a spacebar without stabilizers.  I never got around to putting them in, and I haven't actually needed them so far.  That said, most of the time I hit the spacebar with my right thumb, and I positioned the center of the switch about where my thumb lands.  It seems to work ok if I hit it slightly off center as well.

I thought about doing something similiar to the Ergo w/ an I/O expander.  Can an I/O expander handle the voltage for the led back lighting?  If not, perhaps it would be worth it to use 2 teensys.  I honestly didn't even consider just running the matrix wires and led wires from one side to the other.  That may actually be the best option all around.  What would I gain by using an I/O expander or teensy on the right half?  I noticed Ergo did that, and I figured the ultimate hacker board did that as well. 

 
As jacobolus said the IO expander just simplifies the number of wires between the two halves, but increased programming complexity.  The other option is to just build the halves as two separate keyboards, and program each half uniquely.  If you hand-wire, it's simple, you just need two teensys, or whatever you use.  If you make a PCB, you'll probably want to make it reversible, so you can just turn it over for the mirror layout.  The benefit is that each half will always work, irrespective of the other half.  The downside is you need another USB cable, and the additional cost for the other controller. 

[Nerdout]

This build is so awesome!. Please keep this thread updated as you progress, would love to see all the bits and pieces coming together. Looking forward to the finish! Thanks for sharing OP!