Note: despite me putting created as the current date, i have been working on this for a month or so, i just put the date i actually started uploading this to github

so i started working on this RIGHT at the start of infil

total time : 20.5 hours (this is a consvative approximation)

this also doesnt include it the time spent trying to mess arroudn with learning git (ive also not done it by date, but by day, and removing the gaps...)

day 1-3 time: 2 hours

trying a few different layouts in keyboard layout editor. my goals with this were to create a keyboard that met all the following: - as compact as possible - avoid things i dont need like knobs etc - a fullsize layout but compacted and with additional keys

here are some of the layouts that i started thinking about

but ultimately i decided on this layout because i liked the no gaps look and given that im trying to make my keyboard as compact as possible while not loosing keys, this seems like a reallyyy cursed but acceptable solution for that problem.

day 4 making a schematic on kicad time: 1h 25min

this was a little tricky trying to make sure i double and tripple checked that i had all the switches i needed

day 5 Starting to layout the pcb time: 2 hours

this day was truely painful, there is a reason there arent any pictures here

short version of this day is: - focusing on the pcb - REALLY FOCUSSING - forgot to save - windows black screen of deathed (its not even blue anymore, sad) - lost this days progress 😭

day 6 starting to layout the pcb part 2 , time: 1hour

after having done this task once allready the previous day it made it a lot faster this time as i had allready re learnt and remembered how to do stuff (add images here)

so this one was a breeze i also sort of work out what techniques i had to use to get all the correct spacing for the keyboard

day 7-9 doing all the tracing and finishing the PCB time: 3hours

there were a lot of traces it turns a keyboard with a ton of keys has a ton of traces (add imgs here)

day 10 - 14 the CAD time: 6hours or so

the CAD was a bit of a struggle trying to get a way to mount the pcb while trying to minimise both the height of the keys, and any brims arround the edge of the board

so here is a final render of the full keyboard

but now for the fun of how we ended up here!

i decided to add keycaps because i wanted to see what the thing looked like all together

next part was the plate because i knew i was going for plate mount and then sandwich that (i hope im using the right terms lol)

then it was a case of fighting through the cad to try and balance the keyboard case border and how easy it would be to get in the screws to hold it all together and make sure i can 3d print it in smaller parts

in splitting up the case i decided to stagger everything to try and hope to hold it together well

then it was time for the really big challenge i predicted earlier trying to get the screws to go where i wanted them to !

now its the point where it gets hard because i really didnt want a massive bordere arround my part but i knew i needed screw to hold it together and i really didnt want to go back to the PCB to add the holes so i had to get a lil creative designing

this solution left 0.2mm of plastic to hide the screw fusion didnt feel as nice on the other side soo i ended up without timeline turned on because fusion wasnt happy :pf: but i got a solution

oh yeah the pcb should mount slide into that groove with the case sliding on from each side

this is it from the bottom i just wanted to leave the buttom open because im curious how it will affect the sound of the keyboard

cross section of the solution i eneded up with for mounting the pcb

19/07/2025 firmware 5hours

i was told i should at least get some firmware done this wasnt that fun

i was trying to follow the kmk docs at first but just kept getting lost and struggling to read them

then i tried to use POG to create some firmware however its pretty hard to follow some of the steps on there without the physical keyboard infront of you so i had to resort to manually filling in the coordmap which took a while

it was really just me not having experience an not knowing what i was doing, and going down pathways that werent going to work

in the end it should work and was satisfying ish

20/07/2025 BUYING PARTS

woooo this took probably 45min just trying to enter the different addresses etc BUT ITS ALL ORDERED IM EXCITED tysm so much Alex for getting me the HCB card quickly so i could utilise the aliexpress sale ✨

29/07/2025 the build process yipeeee 6 hours

started off by populating the plate then trying to push all the pins to align with the PCB this did take a few attempts as sometimes there were bent pins

however i found a good stratergy for avoiding this, just take aout the singular switch with the bent pins, use pliars to fix the bent pin then put it back into the plate

taking the whole plate of switches out when 1 is bent is not a good idea
oops

definetly didnt forget to add stabilisers the first time i did it oops this the first time i had an issue with stabilsers (foreshadoweing intensifies)

https://youtu.be/y29UAdKmAMU?si=JdBHaC-ciiN0UJ09 probably a good time to throw in that youtube link aswell a full video of me making the keyboard well not fullll, there was a part at the start where i forgot to start the camera recording, but ooopsie

i later had issues with my stabilisers which turned out to in one case be that the plate was putting pressure on the stabs which then causes tons of friction and the keys to stick the other time was when i hadnt soldered the switches straight so once again there was friction

the build wasnt too painful it was just the stabilisers that seemed to dislike me

31/07/2025 Software 7h

the flashing of the keyboard with firmware at first went great tested the top row, perfect

tested the second row from the top, worked great, until i hit the enter key i turned out i just made some errors in my kmk config 3 or 4 hours remapping the keyboard fixed this!!!