Total Time Spent: 900 minutes (15 hours)
June 20: Research, Learning, and Starting
So this is my first time making a keyboard. I had zero experience. I first learned how to make some basic PCBs on KiCad following Joe Scotto's tutorial. Very nice guy!
Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXpGTIbxlQ&ab_channel=JoeScotto
Here is some sample circuits I made from his tutorial.
Total Time Spent: 60 mins
created practice PCBs
| PCB | Schematic |
|---|---|
Total Time Spent: 90 mins
June 21: Initial Design
This was kinda scary because I was so afraid of messing something up. I knew I wanted a keyboard with no number pad. Here is a reference:
I made an initial sketch for the matrix. I decided to use the Arduino Pro Micro for my MCU.
Decide to base my project off this keyboard:
Edit: I'm not doing the top row ā the ESC row.
I dont know how mechanical keyboards work so I did a little research on this stuff. Apparently it doesnt seem so hard to make? I think I could make this easily.
_Edit: This was so hard. It is so so hard to engineer stuff :( But I kinda like the struggle _
Total Time Spent: 60 mins
June 21: Making the Schematics
_Edit: I decided to do the esc row again _
So I made this schematic. I used a json file and free tool online to make it. It was convient and it gave me this.
So far so good lets move on.
Total Time Spent: 30 mins
June 21: Making the pcb
Disaster struck. For some reason the schematic was so buns I could barely make the pcb. The schematic was missing things and their were just a whole bunch of errors.
I spent like a hour trying to troubleshoot. I installed, reinstalled, i did all the librarys again and i searched online. Massive waste of time.
Total Time Spent: 90 mins
June 22: Restarting
So I made so many mistakes and everything that i thought it would be easier to just restart from scratch. So i delted everything - very painfull and redid the schematic.
Was very painful to do this again. BUT LOOK. SO PRETTY
Something I learned is that you should keep everything bevel and straight. When I duplicated the switches they would shift down slightly or up. this made wiring so hard I decided to wipe and create a schematic where everything was on the same level so i could wire with straight lines. - something to learn for the future.
Total Time Spent: 60 mins
June 21: Remaking the PCB
I didnāt want to manually move each square, so Iām trying to find a better solutionāprobably a plugin.
Found a plugin to use. It was an absolute pain to use.
Used a JSON file.
This is hopefully what it should look like perfect:
This is the most painful thing I have done so far. The wiring was an absolute pain in the butt.
So much better than the last PCB but look its so pretty. I added a angry face to it aswl. I really like how it turned out.
Most of this time was spent on trying to use the plugin.
Time Spent: 180 mins
June 25: Making the CAD
This should be the easiest part.
Back done
Front done
Now just assembly.
Finally finished the whole project. Manually putting the keycaps in took very long.
It took so long because I manually inserted and moved every switch and key. Not a good idea for the future. Time Spent: 240 mins
June 28: updated the case
Added a staggering slot pattern to the case to save more filament.
Before:
After
Time Spent: 30 mins
June 28: Added a outer shell - gasket mound
Added a gasket mount for more stability
Before:
After:
Time Spent: 60 mins