if i wanted to make my own keyboard. ..

[fishfalcon]

I've been using my new WASD Code TKL with greens for a week, and it's really growing on me, but before I decided on the CODE, a few people recommended that I try Matias quiet switches... I stumbled upon a review here on GH and discovered that the switches are able to be backlit... that's cool ! I've always wanted to build my own board, and assumed that cherry was the only way... but after discovering these switches, i figure why not try to put together a Matias switch keyboard... you know, while Corsair will be the only company providing cherry rgb switches for the next year

I don't know where to start... especially if I'm not making a Cherry board... is this too ambitious a task? My assumption is that i need a controller, a pcb, and an enclosure + switches n keycaps... has anyone else entertained this idea?

[SonicRevolution]

That's been the story of my life in recent years actually, building my own keyboards.   Yeah it's actually kinda hard to know where to begin because it just depends on what you are willing to do in terms of time and $$$.  There are so many great resources out there.

My advice is to focus on an aspect that you really want to customize and leverage existing tech for the rest first.  For example, if you really want to build a matias alps booard, I'd recommend learning to desolder existing switches and getting an alps switch to work.  Or getting a led to work on a non-leded board.  Focusing on one aspect of a mech at a time help me to take things piecemeal.

Now this for those of us who are trying to be reasonable somewhat with $$$ and time spent wisely.  I mean, by all means if you have the resource...

[nuclearsandwich]

There's a decent sized (and growing) Alps enthusiast subclique at GeekHack. Including a very recent thread about a 60% Alps PCB that also has information on direct wiring a board without a PCB. Alps / Matias switches pretty much need a switch plate as far as I can tell and that's probably the most difficult part of a custom project since it's the only thing that's not "parts" aside from controller and firmware. Depending on what controller you go for you might be able to use Hasu's TMK Firmware with your direct wiring project as long as you can describe your matrix using C language syntax. You don't really need solid C chops as long as you can follow the logic you can copy the syntax.

Best of luck, let us know what you decide, and welcome to the fun part!

[blackbox]

My advice is to focus on an aspect that you really want to customize and leverage existing tech for the rest first.  For example, if you really want to build a matias alps booard, I'd recommend learning to desolder existing switches and getting an alps switch to work.  Or getting a led to work on a non-leded board.  Focusing on one aspect of a mech at a time help me to take things piecemeal.

That would be my advice too. I am going to build a phantom, but first I am going to replace the alps black switches with Matias standard clicky on my dell at102w.