Best way for someone w/o hardware experience to get into modding?

[sirtetris]

Keyboards as you can buy them and custom keycaps are all nice and cool, but I'd love to get a bit deeper into the whole modding / hardware shpere of keyboards.

Until now I only fiddled with keymaps, xorg-configs and stuff like that to remap keys ... generally informed myself about the software side of keyboards ...
now, after lurking a bit in the forums and irc and seeing/hearing about all the awesome stuff people here do, I really want to go deeper, get into that hardware stuff.

Only thing is: I have no experience whatsoever. I never soldered anything, have only basic understanding of electronics, etc.

Were would you advise me to start? What guides/tutorials/wik-pages/papers should I read? Are there great video tutorials?
And what about the practical aspect? Are there cheap mechanical keyboards a beginner can buy and play around with to get into modding?

Any input is appreciated! :)

[neeb]

Following this thread as I'm curious as well. I'm sooo jelly of all the cool stuff people on here do and I honestly don't even know where to try to start lol

[tp4tissue]

What cool stuff. Most every one here are just fashion followers. Very few have actually come up with anything "original"

[neeb]

What cool stuff. Most every one here are just fashion followers. Very few have actually come up with anything "original"

There's still a lot of people that do custom mods and different DIY stuff though

[sirtetris]

What cool stuff. Most every one here are just fashion followers. Very few have actually come up with anything "original"

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35572.0
10:45 < keebler> Working on doing a deadbug IBM Model M controller using an ATMEGA.
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=17458.0
12:10 < psycorama> i got two dead Model M. around. i'm trying to replace the electrical components. anyone got some ideas? :)
http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/split-ergonomic-keyboard-project-t1753.html
16:04  * bhtooefr decides to continue uploading stuff from this selectric repair series to YouTube, I've been neglecting that for over a year

Dude ... it's like everywhere! :D
Well, just kidding. Maybe it's due to the fact that I'm not into all that stuff and to someone who is all those thinks don't seem that cool — idk. Anyway: for me, for the moment even replacing the switches of a keyboard seems awesome. And I don't care that much about how original the stuff is that people do here. The things they do look awesome to me and I simply want to know where to start to get into all that.
I assume in the beginning all the things I'd do would also be stuff that others already did a lot of times and that isn't like special in any way. But hey ... I'm just interested and want to learn something. I guess there's no other way to maybe, someday, be in the position to come up with something original and awesome. You have to start small. ;)

[alaricljs]

I know how to solder thanks to my dad and Heathkits.  I don't know much about electronics that isn't what I would call 'obvious': resistor, capacitor, diode, switch, ...

Keyboard switch matrixes are dead simple and mostly all you end up learning while putting one together is how to use KiCad and the measurements of a standard keyboard layout.  The difficult part is integrating the MCU.  Easy way is to fit a teensy or similar, medium difficulty is to integrate the components that make up a teensy onto the same PCB, hard is doing that with an MCU that doesn't have a general purpose breakout schematic readily available.  Want to go extra hard, add more components like a USB hub, LED control of some kind or something else entertaining.

[dorkvader]

Building a cmoy is a pretty good first project. Even if you don't need one, you can sell it on Head-fi or elsewhere for parts cost pretty easily.

Here's a good guide:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110724092159/http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

(for some reason tangentsoft is down right now. Good thing it's archived with pictures.

[fohat.digs]

Is that comic strip about soldering still around?

That was absolutely great, and really very useful and informative.

[alaricljs]

Um, Google's first hit on soldering comic

[sirtetris]

A lot of helpful input — thanks a lot! :)

[fohat.digs]

IBM Model M/Fs are bulletproof and easy to take apart. With an F, you can move barrels and change the type and location of keys.

Another place to start is to cut off a number pad and get a smaller footprint, that is a popular and cheap experiment to "get your feet wet" before you tackle the really hard-core stuff.

I think that some of the "steam punk" gear looks awesome, but a lot of it seems goofy just for the sake of being goofy.

[tp4tissue]

IBM Model M/Fs are bulletproof and easy to take apart. With an F, you can move barrels and change the type and location of keys.

Another place to start is to cut off a number pad and get a smaller footprint, that is a popular and cheap experiment to "get your feet wet" before you tackle the really hard-core stuff.

I think that some of the "steam punk" gear looks awesome, but a lot of it seems goofy just for the sake of being goofy.

What are u using to cut the plastic.

[fohat.digs]

I used a hacksaw and Dremel, but if I do it again I will try my radial arm saw.

The epoxy job to hold the case together is hard to finish, because sanding it down is easy enough, but you are left with a smooth area instead of a textured finish.

Assuming that you will paint afterwards, it will hardly be noticeable if you do a good sanding job.