As the title vaguely explains, I have a pretty ambitious project. This project is very important to me and time is of essence
Gonna be a crash-course in awesome for sure!
so it looks like you'll be wanting:
about 62 keys in a matrix
about 65 LEDs (you may want a few external ones for lock lights or fn layer indicators or soemthing)
everything has to be individually identifiable or addressable (NKRO, and full LED control)
There was a guy who rigged up full LED to his rubberdome I believe. Pictures might be down, but I can see if I can find it.
Also look at the PCB photos of consumer keyboards who have done this as well. corsair is an example. doesnt ducky have one as well? I know one of the CMstorms is too.
about pin count: that guy looks like about 62-keys, which can be done in an even smaller number of pins! an 8*8 matrix gives 64 max switches with only 16 pins but it'll probably be really hard to wire up. I recommend putting aside at least 16 pins, figuring out how many everything else will take, then if you have 18 or 20 pins left over you can make wiring easy.
A trackball will require a smaller amount of pins, even with a 98200 DPI sensor, you can make with like 8 pins (probably less) and if you need 4 buttons that's only 4 more pins (2*2 matrix). Even easier is ripping the guts out of a normal trackball, plugging it and the KB into a USB hub internally and calling it good. there's lots of options.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1034145369/high-speed-laser-optical-sensorbut if you have tons of pins available it makes things easier.
Good to see your switch matrix is wired up! Looks like a well-done job, so that'll make it easier to put together with other stuff.
