Author Topic: Layman looking to make a custom keyboard  (Read 1442 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Dr.Genocide

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 0
Layman looking to make a custom keyboard
« on: Fri, 26 July 2013, 08:35:27 »
Hey Geekhackers, random guy coming in from the PC modding community interested in building a completely custom keyboard from scratch! Been lurking around on the forums for a while, but still haven't learned anything meaningful outside of places to order parts and so I finally decided to get active and ask around for information.

Hopefully someone will be my Yoda and teach me the ways of the EE keyboard creation!

Offline SpAmRaY

  • NOT a Moderator
  • * Certified Spammer
  • Posts: 14667
  • Location: ¯\(°_o)/¯
  • because reasons.......
Re: Layman looking to make a custom keyboard
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 26 July 2013, 08:38:02 »
Did you check the making things together thread??

So much WIN can be found within it.

http://geekhack.org/index.php?board=117.0

and the archive

http://geekhack.org/index.php?board=39.0

But if you have more specific type questions ask away!!
« Last Edit: Fri, 26 July 2013, 08:42:05 by SpAmRaY »

Offline SeriouSSpotS

  • Posts: 460
  • Location: South Wales - UK
  • 60% is love, 60% is life
Re: Layman looking to make a custom keyboard
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 26 July 2013, 08:38:18 »
^^
Welcome to Geekhack :D
QFR - MX black   |   Poker X - Panda Clears   |   Poker 2 - MX blue

Offline CPTBadAss

  • Woke up like this
  • Posts: 14384
    • Tactile Zine
Re: Layman looking to make a custom keyboard
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 26 July 2013, 08:45:04 »
Have you looked at jdcarpe's prototype with direct wiring thread? Or domoaligato's Alps board? Or TheFlyingRacoon's Longcat board? The Catboard? The adjustable column game pad? AcidFire's Grand Piano? Pretty much anything in Making Stuff Together can help you.

There's a lot of custom boards out and they all document their info very well imo.

Offline Dr.Genocide

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 0
Re: Layman looking to make a custom keyboard
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 26 July 2013, 10:24:55 »
Hey, thanks for the warm welcomes guys.

And CPTBadAss, you're now officially my Yoda, listing all of those projects were just what I needed, half of the projects you listed I haven't seen yet. (The Coreboard is especially interesting)

So far I'm at the point of where I understand how all the switches work, wiring and soldering is no problem, I have a layout, switches, and ergonomics already planned out. However I am now completely lost at the part of how you translate a switch signal from a simple opening and closing of a circuit into an understandable and interpret-able signal for the computer. And even then I still haven't figured out how to deal with signal bouncing, polling, and possible ghosting (Which putting a diode in the line per key supposedly fixes). I'm being Directed at the Teensy, however I am afraid that it won't work quite as exactly as I have planned as my board has more keys due to the shift punctuation and symbols being given their own individual keys.

I am also considering the easy route and pulling apart my Black Widow Ultimate or buying a spare gaming keyboard from craigslist and using its software suite and chipset to power the board, but that kind of feels like cheating and the easy way to go about making a custom keyboard.

Offline CPTBadAss

  • Woke up like this
  • Posts: 14384
    • Tactile Zine
Re: Layman looking to make a custom keyboard
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 26 July 2013, 10:46:33 »
There's a signal debounce thread from metalliqaz and check out xwhatsit's Beamspring thread too.