Total Time: 15Hrs

25th May 2025 - Research

I went on over many videos on how to make a keyboard. One such video that I will be taking inspiration from is this.

I tried to make a list of things I will need and their price, I also looked at different options for the items I will use, for example I desperately read stuff about Pro Micro because that is cheaper than n!n but I came to conclusion that Pro Micro will be a little hard for what I am lookign to achieve, I still may change my opinion later down the line. Most of the prices are from Typeractive. Another website I found good is Meckeys.

I looked at different types of switch options I have and its hard to decide now. I will take my time now. The price on the rough BOM rn is the one present in Typeractive. If I don't find anything cheaper or really worth it I won't change it. I also looked at the keycaps for a long time but I think I won't need anything other than what Typeractive offers.

I have not started any real work now.

But I do have the starting foundation layed out. I now have a clear vision in mind now for what to do next. (Board design using ErgoGen ig)

The rough BOM: https://github.com/AnkushRoy-code/SplitWave/blob/main/StuffNeeded.md

Rough Sketch

10:00PM I drew a rough sketch of how it should look like... the alignment and staggerdness is not what I want. It is just a place holder also it will be Colemakmoddh layout instead of qwerty. I just had a keyboard with qwerty keys infornt of me so I used that as a reference.

Color	Layer
Red	Default
Green	Number
Black	Function

All the keys are subjected to change

A rough Sketch of the keyboard

Here's a picture of what it should look like (again not the final thing. Only the structure)

An image of the keyboard generated by ErgoGen

Total Time Taken: 5hrs

The sketch took ~2hrs, took a lot of planning!

26th May 2025 - More Research On ErgoGen

Evening Watched this 20min video by the creator of Ergogen. Read the entire docs of Ergogen. I will not bore anyone with the things I learnt here. Also there was a lot to digest so I might've forgotten a lot of stuff by the end...😢

Night Another tutorial mentioned in the docs seemed really helpful to me. During my journey I'll I will use it too!

Total Time Taken: 2hrs

Total Time Till Now: 7hrs

27th May 2025 - Getting the Keyboard to life

Sat down and wrote the config for my keyboard, it is taking shape now. But there is a lot that I have to change and tiker.

Took longer than I thought, the flatfootfox tutorial is very good! I learnt the same things better I'd say. I decided to let go of the 5th key in the thumb cluster. I only have 4 keys now. I am done with the structure that I seem fit for my usecase.

Up until now it approx took 1.5hrs in total.

Now I am done with the outline too! Took 1hrs at the very least.

An image of the keyboard with outline generated by ErgoGen

The config.yaml can be found here.

Did even more study on mcu(s) to use. Asked some pros in ergogen discord and they answered immideatly. The things I am considering now: - Not nice!nano anymore $25 - Seeed XIAO nRF52840 $10.5 - SuperMini nRF52840 $9.5

I have read about a lot on the mcus I decided that I will be using Seeed XIAO because of the pros suggestion and SuperMini being russian roullete. That is a saving of a whooping $25!!

The only problem is that I there's not much resources as n!n in the web. But I will make it work out!

Apart from that I also read the ZMK docs, the Seeed XIAO nRF52840 docs and the next day my target will be completing the research of the mcu and be done with the pcb

Total Time Taken: 5hrs

Total Time Till Now: 12hrs

28th May 2025

Searched other Indian stores a lot, a frind suggested me this reddit wiki that had good Indian vendors. I found NeoMarco to be my choice of vendor. Had all the stuff I needed, all of them cheaper than typeractive, has free shipping, is trusted too!

But I had some compatibility confusions so I dropped them an email. I hope they answer soon.

And the downsides now. I planned to have 3 things from typeractive - Switches - Keycaps - Hot Swap

and all these 3 had great quality and were to my liking. But in NeoMarco the problems are:

• Switches: Only Yellow is in stock. I wanted Red (The colours matter for typing experience if you didn't know. Each colour has different feel to them). But I am ready to compromise
• Keycaps: Only Transparent is available. I don't mind it that much. I think trans is cool!
• Hot Swap: Looks weird. Had compatibility doubts so I dropped an email.

Overall I think all the stores are great. Just that they can't do everything for everyone. typeractive would've been my go-to if I were in the west.

This took like a little more than an hour

Spent a lot of time searching for batteries. Took a long time but finally found it! In quartzcomponents' website.

Also I am half done with my pcb!

Total Time Taken: 3hrs

Total Time Till Now: 15hrs