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• Using a aluminum case and PCB

  Grégory Paul • 08/05/2018 at 14:06 • 0 comments

  I’ve found some PCBs and aluminium case shell on ebay so I ordered that to finish my keyboard.

  I won’t be was i was thinking at first (using a laser cutter to build the « plates » myself) but at least, I will finalize that keyboard and make use of my Cherry switches.
  

• 3 keys prototype

  Grégory Paul • 05/15/2017 at 20:18 • 0 comments

  I’m building a 3 key prototype. It’s pretty ugly since it was cut « by hand » but the idea is to test it before using a laser cutter.
  The keyboard is working using https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/
  

  Now it’s time to customize the keys (mute, volume up and down).
  

• Wonderful webapp to design the layout

  Grégory Paul • 03/06/2017 at 20:16 • 1 comment

  I just found out about keyboard-layout-editor.comkeyboard-layout-editor.com and http://www.keyboardcad.com/.
  Theses tools allow you to design your keyboard and then generate the SVG to laser cut it.
  It makes thinks really easy. Wonderful !
  
  

• Next, the case !

  Grégory Paul • 03/05/2017 at 14:48 • 0 comments

  The case
  

  The next part of the process is to design and build the case.

  The case is composed of 4 plates :

  1. the « base » plate where switches will be mounted,
  2. the « supporting » plate,
  3. the « spacer » plate,
  4. the bottom plate.

  In picture :
  

          _
       __|_|__
      /       \
  +----------------+
  |                | 1.5mm « base » plate
  +----------------+
  |   |       |    | 
  |   \_______/    | 5mm « supporting » plate
  +----------------+ 
  |     |   |      | 
  |     |   |      | 5mm « spacer » plate
  +----------------+
  |                |
  |                | 5mm « bottom » plate
  +----------------+ 
  

  The goal is to design 4 SVG files that will feed a laser cutter.

  Since I’m not familiar at all with that process, I'm thinking to first design a 3 keys keyboard (volume up, down and mute).

  That will limit the costs if things goes wrong.

• Components ordered

  Grégory Paul • 03/05/2017 at 14:44 • 0 comments

  Inspiration to build my mechanical keyboard came from an article from « beastie.lesfurets.com ».

  I like the visible micro-controller (a Teensy 2.0) but I’m thinking to use a more traditional layout (without numerical pad).

  Components
  

  I ordered almost all parts, including :

  • 100 Cherry MX blue switches (face plate mount),
  • 100 diode 1N4148,
  • I also ordered stabilizers parts from wasdkeyboard for large keys (like space, tab, shift and backspace) :
    • Cherry MX Stabilizer Spring for Spacebar,
    • Cherry MX Stabilizer Spring for 2x+ Keycaps,
    • Cherry MX Plate Mounted Stabilizer Clips,
    • Cherry MX Keycap Stabilizer Insert,
      
  • and, of course, keycaps from pimpmykeyboard composed of
    • a DSA blank base set - Gray (GTA),
    • a DSA blank modifier set - Red (RBD),
    • + a DSA Rainbow blank set (to change my DAS keyboard keycaps),

  DSA key means they can be placed anywhere ; other families (DCS or SA) means keycaps are different according the row, see http://pimpmykeyboard.com/key-cap-family-specs/ for further details.
  

  For the micro-controller, II will reuse a Teensy I already bought.

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