I don't even know

[dragonxx21]

After being on this forum for a while, I've slowly grown more and more attached to these things called "keyboards". After seeing all the different types of keyboards available, I turned to custom/DIY keyboards and was even more amazed to see what kind of things people came up with. I always thought that it would be cool to type on something you made yourself. With that in mind, I'm now interested in designing and possibly building my own keyboard sometime in the future. At this point in time I'm just in the brainstorming and idea stage, but I'd like to take you guys with me every step of the way. I think I'll be running this as a journal sort of thing, and I will be continuously updating it whenever something interesting happens, so expect this intro to change later on, or maybe not. Anyway, let's get started with my "I don't even know" custom keyboard. Also, any input would greatly help.

Link To Project Album: http://imgur.com/a/DLzFJ#0

D/M/Y

04/10/2013
So after thinking about whether to do my own custom board, or do something like a Phantom or ErgoDox, I finally decided to do a custom keyboard. Being my first custom keyboard, and my first big project in terms of electronics, I decided to do a plate mounted keyboard that is direct wired instead of utilizing a PCB. This may change in the future, but for now I'd like to keep it simple and preferably relatively inexpensive. The first step I took was figuring out what kind of layout I wanted. I'm still unsure of what I want but I'm thinking something along the lines of this (sorry about the background. It uploaded to imgur like that):

More

As you can see, they are more or less the same, except that one has the function keys layered on with the num keys, and the other has a 2.25x mod on the top right rather than a 1x and a 1.25x. I'm still unsure what layout I'd like to use.

05/10/2013
Decided on a layout, started designing layers. Here they are.

More

Base Layer

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

08/10/2013
After getting in contact with a few people and asking maaany questions, I finally contacted JDCarpe who was awesome and agreed to draw a plate for my project. Project is still unnamed.  Created album for all project images.


Some people I'd like to thank (list will get larger as more and more people help out along the way):
Ne0phyte for showing me their awesome layout editor.
JDCarpe for drawing my plate

[Oobly]

I am a fan of minimalist boards, so I like the bottom one best, although I would add a Del key where the right Ctrl is and move the Crtl to replace the Menu key (I never use Menu), but that's just my personal preference. Less keys to wire, but harder to code the firmware.

Do you have any plans yet on how to make the plate? There are a number of companies that can laser cut 1.5mm steel plate, but I'm not sure of the cost. I chopped up an existing plate to make mine. Used an electric jigsaw and some metal epoxy, turned out okay. Aluminium is a lot easier to work, but cutting 14mm square holes for all the keys is really hard to do by hand. I thought of making some kind of hole punch, but gave up on the idea eventually and decided to use what I had (plate from a Ducky).

Good luck with the design / build, will be nice to see how it turns out.

[MOZ]

Yo, looking forward to this.

I'll be happy to help, you know you can ping me whenever you want.

[dragonxx21]

I am a fan of minimalist boards, so I like the bottom one best, although I would add a Del key where the right Ctrl is and move the Crtl to replace the Menu key (I never use Menu), but that's just my personal preference. Less keys to wire, but harder to code the firmware.

Do you have any plans yet on how to make the plate? There are a number of companies that can laser cut 1.5mm steel plate, but I'm not sure of the cost. I chopped up an existing plate to make mine. Used an electric jigsaw and some metal epoxy, turned out okay. Aluminium is a lot easier to work, but cutting 14mm square holes for all the keys is really hard to do by hand. I thought of making some kind of hole punch, but gave up on the idea eventually and decided to use what I had (plate from a Ducky).

Good luck with the design / build, will be nice to see how it turns out.

My design has changed a little bit. I'll upload new pictures in a little bit. I'm unsure where I'm going to get the plate cut. I'm probably going to ask around and see what other GH'ers use when getting plates cut. At the moment I'm looking at big blue saw and ponoko, but I am unsure if ponoko is able to laser cut metals. I'm probabbly planning on using 1.5mm aluminum over steel, but it's all up in the air right now. Any suggestions would be really helpful.

Yo, looking forward to this.

I'll be happy to help, you know you can ping me whenever you want.

Thanks again MOZ, your help is an invaluable asset to this project.

[concept73]

As an ownder of a HHKB pro and a Poker 2, ofcourse the last one screams out to me

Good good so far!

[dragonxx21]

08/10/2013 update! Uploaded layout pictures and added some other things.