My Keyboard

[boogerlad]

Hi guys, I started designing my keyboard a couple months ago, and now it is finally coming into fruition.



jdcarpe has helped me design the plate. Here it is with a few modifications.



So I got a 1.5mm thick steel plate lasered and it came back kind of scratched up. The finish wasn't all that great, but I shouldn't complain since the plate was free.

Next thing I needed were the switches. It took a while to contact Tsangan, but when I finally got my switches I was so surprised! Not only was it inexpensive, there were more than the advertised amount of switches in there, came with a roll of 1n4148 diodes, and aluminum feet!

Now enough of me talking, here are the pics:







I need pins d4 and d5 so that's why I bought the small 2 pin header.
I'm going to solder tonight and update you guys with images later.

[TheFlyingRaccoon]

This looks awesome! What are your plans for the case?

[metalliqaz]

no right shift?  i couldn't do it.  Looks good so far though, congrats

[rowdy]

I see there is no right Shift - I approve of that.  Having used my Model M without, until recently, a left Shift, I came to realise how much I use the left Shift (all the time) and how little I use the right Shift (almost never).

[boogerlad]

I plan to go caseless like the brownfox keyboard by matt3o. I haven't figured out the minimum height that will be required for the keyboard, so the acrylic mid plate hasn't been made yet. The bottom however has been made =)

[boogerlad]

Soldering took much longer than expected... I'm only half way through!

close up

How do I wire the rows to the controller? From which end do I solder?

[Neebio]

How do I wire the rows to the controller? From which end do I solder?

Since each row is effectively a solid wire straight across, it doesn't matter which end you connect to the controller.  You should connect the end of the row that will make it easiest to install the controller.

[metalliqaz]

It looks like he already has the rows done.  He needs to do the columns now.

[CPTBadAss]

Sweeet, more custom boards! And a very interesting layout! Cant wait to see how it looks when its finished

[MOZ]

Interesting layout, no right shift is a turn-off for me, but I can see how ti would work for others.

[boogerlad]

deleted

[kaltar]

And no right ctrl...
well, that's why he clearly said "My Keyboard" 

[boogerlad]

Long time no update guys, real life got in the way.

NKRO matrix wiring is done! Columns were much harder than doing the rows, much to my surprise. I screwed up the insulation at the lower right corner, so I used a larger inner diameter tube to fix it.



Also, keycaps came in too. Waiting for stabilizer inserts atm...



I noticed that compared to the imsto pbt keycaps, the banggood keycaps are much thinner based on just the pictures. They have a pretty nice texture but some have burrs leftover from manufacturing. They don't affect the feel of typing though since they're on the bottom of the keycap. This is my first set of keycaps so I can't really provide a qualitative comparison against other popular sets here on the forum. They do blow away my 10 year old logitech though.

What would be the best way to test the wiring before I hook it up to the controller?  I think I should solder wires from matrix to controller first before I start programming, but I'm not sure.

[ijprest]

Nice to see the progress pictures.  I'm working on my own kbd, so these are helpful.

I've a question about the stabilized keys, though, and how the plate is designed... why do we need to cut a big hole / channel for the stabilized keys?  Why not, e.g., just cut a regular hole for the switch, and two smaller holes for the stabilizers?  (Looking at my WASD v2, I'm pretty sure that's what they've done.)

Is this something to do with differences between Cherry stabilizers, and the "Costar" stabilizers that WASD uses?

[gnubag]

Nice to see the progress pictures.  I'm working on my own kbd, so these are helpful.

I've a question about the stabilized keys, though, and how the plate is designed... why do we need to cut a big hole / channel for the stabilized keys?  Why not, e.g., just cut a regular hole for the switch, and two smaller holes for the stabilizers?  (Looking at my WASD v2, I'm pretty sure that's what they've done.)

Is this something to do with differences between Cherry stabilizers, and the "Costar" stabilizers that WASD uses?

the holes in the plate are universal so both cherry type and the costar fit.

[metalliqaz]

Sideways... RAGE!!!

[Thimplum]

STEEL! YES!

No, really. It's an amazing material. It puts aluminum to shame.

[boogerlad]

Nice to see the progress pictures.  I'm working on my own kbd, so these are helpful.

I've a question about the stabilized keys, though, and how the plate is designed... why do we need to cut a big hole / channel for the stabilized keys?  Why not, e.g., just cut a regular hole for the switch, and two smaller holes for the stabilizers?  (Looking at my WASD v2, I'm pretty sure that's what they've done.)

Is this something to do with differences between Cherry stabilizers, and the "Costar" stabilizers that WASD uses?

the holes in the plate are universal so both cherry type and the costar fit.

I don't think the channel serves any functional purpose other than indicating that the stabilizer "belongs" to a switch.

[boogerlad]

Long time no post... Back from the grave. Anyways, I've attached the controller, and uploaded the changes tmk firmware on https://github.com/boogerlad/tmk_keyboard/compare/ed9766a7d44cd727dbd59008eff4258745ff87cf...master
Every key works except for the numpad section. Specifically, the big + and enter button don't register at all, the big 0 key enters and puts a ., . presses enter, 2 and 3 are combined, 4 presses 5, 5 presses 6 and +, 8 presses 8 and 9 and lastly, / returns /*-. I'll take a look with the multimeter tomorrow, but until then, does someone mind giving my changes a sanity check?

here's a treat


Does anyone have any suggestions for the stabilizers? I've only tried to install them onto the 0 and enter keys on the numpad. the 0 one is passable, but the enter one once pressed, gets stuck. It doesn't return to its natural state. Also, it's very difficult to push it down.

[neverused]

The costar stabilizer may not be fully seated into position and causing binding.

[Vozella]

Not having a right shift means you can not type correctly.

[absyrd]

Not having a right shift means you can not type correctly.

This is the whole idea of custom keyboards, especially one done this level of DIY... you make it how YOU want it. If the dude doesn't need a right shift, then he doesn't need it.

Nice work!

[boogerlad]

Not having a right shift means you can not type correctly.

Please enlighten me then. I've never used the right shift for anything. How do you and regular people use it? Occasionally, you need the right shift for system commands, but those are very few and very rare. I'll have a function layer for that specific use case. I've discovered a bug in my firmware, where I counted something wrong. Now, very few bugs remain. The previous link is still valid for showing the diff. Please help!!

Code: [Select]

0 key => 0.

2 key => 23
5 key => 56+
8 key => 89
/ key => /*-
It seems that the middle key in the numpad section presses the remaining keys on its right. Holding onto the problematic key will just result in holding down the right most key.

Also, thank you neverused!!!! I fixed the stabilizers. It was a combination of the stabilizer not being mounted into the plate properly, and the orientation of the insert on the keycap.

EDIT: I have fixed the bug!! It turns out that if you have more than 16 columns and you need to use 1UL for ALL of them instead of just the ones beyond 15. Time to put on the case and finish this up.