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Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

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Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#21

Post by dsissitka »

snazz wrote: post #11

For anyone who’s tried both: are big keyboards with lots of modifiers or little keyboards with “layers” more comfortable and functional for you? I currently have a full-size mechanical PC keyboard and am debating buying a Planck.

I think it depends on how you use your keyboard.

As far as orthos go I went from Kinesis Advantage to Planck to JJ50 to 75Keys/XD75. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and the Planck didn't have enough keys for me. I think I could've made the JJ50 work but the extra keys on the 75Keys/XD75 are really nice to have. Typically people put them in the center and it's almost like having a split keyboard.

If you use a lot of keyboard shortcuts I would suggest starting big and working your way down.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#22

Post by tux1968 »

niwo wrote: post #17

This project looks nicer than most first efforts. Some random tips for anyone who wants to do something similar, with reservations for that it has been awhile: 1. Get a through hole supported usb connector instead of a pure smd one, since the latter likes to fall off. 2. I would avoid routing under the switches for durability, this might just be superstition though. 3. You can route the x and y of the matrix on diffe…

Sorry for being thick, but I just can't work out what you mean by suggestion #5. What does it mean to use the supported switch footprint? How could you use an unsupported one? What does it mean to connect your ground planes? What do you mean by additional holes (compared to what)?

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#23

Post by Palomides »

jrockway wrote: post #18
Palomides wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious why you want modular parts rather than just designing a board that has what you want? Keyboards are surprisingly easy to design now (as seen in this article), and you can design things that would be completely unreasonable for any modular system.

Indeed, and this guy did it the hard way. Get a teensy, some switches, diodes, and wire, and read this: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/docs/hand_wi... There is no need to spend any time on the software side of things. It's already been done to death.

even if you want a custom plate, PCB, case, firmware, you can use community-developed web tools like these to do it all:

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/

https://kalerator.clueboard.co/

http://builder.swillkb.com/

https://config.qmk.fm/

A neat response to this article would be someone making a keyboard using only these tools.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#24

Post by ohazi »

samstave wrote: post #8

I have a design wish for people who make things like this: “row modules” Basically, as an example - i wouldnt be fond of the size of that spacebar, and would like other modules. What if each horizontal row of the standard length on a qwerty were its own module, and you can snap several together to make the board you want. Want a touchpad? Snap it to the base or side. Want a touchbar oled strip: snap it to the top. 9-…

It would be difficult to make this rigid. Keyboards need to be able to take a lot of abuse.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#25

Post by jwr »

snazz wrote: post #11

For anyone who’s tried both: are big keyboards with lots of modifiers or little keyboards with “layers” more comfortable and functional for you? I currently have a full-size mechanical PC keyboard and am debating buying a Planck.

For what it's worth, I use an Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (UHK, https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com) and I really, really like it (have been using it for about 6 months now). I do not like the "ortho" keyboards, and I definitely need my keyboard to be split in the middle.

What I love about the UHK is the programmability: I can make the keyboard do lots of things, which makes switching between OSs much easier. The UHK makes heavy use of the "layer" concept.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#26

Post by jwr »

marcinzm wrote: post #6
tramGG wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$255 for a keyboard? Wow. What are the more higher end keyboards you've seen?

It's $255 and doesn't come with any switches from what I can tell. Not the person you're responding to but I've heard good things about the UHK: https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/

I have the UHK, I really like it (it is so far the best keyboard I've used). I could make use of another row of keys, but they chose to minimize size, which makes the keyboard nicely portable (especially if you put the two halves together back-to-back).

A big part of the appeal of the UHK is the agent, which lets you configure the keyboard any way you want. Not all keyboards let you do this, so it's often an apples to oranges comparison.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#29

Post by zupa-hu »

snazz wrote: post #11

For anyone who’s tried both: are big keyboards with lots of modifiers or little keyboards with “layers” more comfortable and functional for you? I currently have a full-size mechanical PC keyboard and am debating buying a Planck.

I'm using a Vortex Pok3r which uses layers and I love it.

[Context] I was using AutoHotkey for some years before this to rewrite my keyboard. My main goal was to get rid of moving my hand to the arrow keys and back when programming to be more efficient, and have a fast way of moving around in text. Like Ctrl+arrows for jumping words, using Shift for chars/words/lines for quick selection, etc. For anyone not into this, the problem with the AutoHotkey solution is "keyboard shadowing": most keyboards don't use dedicated wires to each key but a matrix of wires instead, so, if you press 2 given keys, the system won't be able to tell if you pressed a given 3rd key or not. Also, different keyboards use different wires, so you can't use the same configuration on every keyboard.

I do miss a normal keyboard when I'm on the phone and want to use the arrows with one hand. Newer Vortex models do include dedicated keys so I might experiment with them. Also, I'm so much more efficient this way that I basically carry it with me everywhere and it's quite heavy. (I have 2: 1 at office, 1 at home.) The programmability of the thing is quite limited but still a huge win for me.

The build quality if the Pok3r is outstanding. I can't recommend it enough. I'm not affiliated.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#30

Post by PowerfulWizard »

tux1968 wrote: post #22
niwo wrote: post #17

This project looks nicer than most first efforts. Some random tips for anyone who wants to do something similar, with reservations for that it has been awhile: 1. Get a through hole supported usb connector instead of a pure smd one, since the latter likes to fall off. 2. I would avoid routing under the switches for durability, this might just be superstition though. 3. You can route the x and y of the matrix on diffe…

Sorry for being thick, but I just can't work out what you mean by suggestion #5. What does it mean to use the supported switch footprint? How could you use an unsupported one? What does it mean to connect your ground planes? What do you mean by additional holes (compared to what)?

I think OP is referring to the "PCB mount" version of the cherry keyswitches which has two extra supporting plastic pins. The other "plate mounted" version doesn't have them. Nothing about the PCB mount version prevents you from using a plate but it requires two extra holes per switch.

https://support.wasdkeyboards.com/hc/en-us/articles/11500927...

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