pabloescobyte

Useful Links & Resources for Keyboard Building and Design

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This is a collection of useful links and resources for keyboard builders. Completely random order for now until I get a chance to organize them all one day.

Current as of September 3rd, 2024

3D Printing

3D Printable Kailh Choc and Cherry MX Hotswap Socket Holders

Hot swap socket holder by dschil38

https://www.printables.com/model/284057-hot-swap-socket-holders

These 3D-printable socket holders work for both Kailh Choc and MX-style hotswap sockets. which are superglued into the holder.

The holder and sockets are then superglued into your 3D printed case so these are not meant to be reusable but will give your handwired build the flexibility of hotswap sockets.

Might also be good for use with repairing or repurposing prebuilt keyboards though I’ve not tried them.

Keyboard Design/Fabrication

Ergogen Tutorial: Design A Custom Split Keyboard From Scratch

Split monoblock PCB in KiCAD generated by Ergogen

https://flatfootfox.com/ergogen-introduction/

One of the best tutorials I’ve seen on how to use Ergogen which is a programmatic way of creating a keyboard design from scratch.

The tutorial focuses on designing a split monoblock keyboard but the concepts can be applied to proper splits or traditional staggered layouts.

Covers everything from key spacing to PCB design in KiCAD and generating usable keyboard case files from the KiCAD PCB.

Very in-depth and technical so may not be for absolute beginners.

Guide to Using Github Files to Order and Make a DIY Keyboard

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/yyri4x/

A great in-depth guide on how to take PCB files for open source keyboards from Github to getting them fabricated and turned into the parts for building and putting together a keyboard.

Photo above shows a Corne split keyboard (v4)–one of the most popular open source keyboards you can get fabricated and build yourself.

The Corne keyboards in my store are ordered in a similar fashion but come prebuilt and ready to go out of the box.

Click here if you’re interested in getting a Corne you can plug in and start using instead of building one.

Coming Soon – My One-Handed Keyboard/Macropad: the Escopad39

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Just finished handwiring my prototype one-handed keyboard/macropad: the Escopad39.

My daily driver these days is a 42-key split (low-profile wireless 6×3+3 Corne) so I needed something to switch to when doing work or gaming. I couldn’t find anything I liked so I made my own.

There are 39 keys and rotary encoder. It’s running off an RP2040 Zero MCU and is fully programmable with QMK or VIAL.

It can be used as a one-handed keyboard (right half is mirrored under a layer), a Numpad is embedded in the middle (WER/SDF/XCV is 789/456/123) with the surrounding keys exactly like on a Numpad.

On the right the arrow cluster also act as mouse keys on a dedicated layer with numbers and F-keys on the topmost four rows. I use this layer when playing Factorio or when in an IDE writing code.

I’m making a wireless (XIAO BLE/nice!nano + ZMK) and a low-profile (Choc v1) variant too which I hope to share here once finished.

Silent Switches for Mechanical Keyboards

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Closeup of pink top Gazzew Boba Gum silent linear switches

What do you do when you don’t want your typing to be so loud and distracting or disrespectful to those around you? Start with silenced switches of course.

I finally swapped out my Gateron Yellow switches for a set of Boba Gum switches of the 68g variety and am really happy with them.

Using them in a Preonic with an aluminum plate and case with and more than cheap shelf liner installed for sound dampening, they are amazingly quiet. They’re not completely silent obviously but my typing is no longer bothering my wife and I can work late into the night without waking her or the rest of the family.

Now I can even type away without worrying about people complaining about the noise while I’m on a phone call.

There are plenty of silent switch options these days but I highly recommend these Boba Gum switches. I do have very limited experience with silenced switches so don’t take my word for it–always do your research first and ultimately you’ll want to try and type on a set of switches for a while before you can decide whether or not they are ‘quiet’ enough for your needs.

Here are some decent affordable silent switch options:

  • Haimu x Geon Silent Yellow (tactile)
  • Haimu Silent Red (linear); also consider the Haimu Whisper or Haimu Heartbeats which are the same switches with different naming/color
  • Outemu Silent Peach (linears). 
  • Outemu Silent Cream Yellows (silent tactile)

For reference, I am using 68g Boba Gum linear switches with the pink tops on a V3 Preonic keyboard with an aluminum case and aluminum plate.

My only other experience with silent switches are my MiniVan with 78g Zilent tactiles. That ones’ a little louder than I’d like since it’s a plateless build with a plastic case and just one layer of shelf liner installed to keep its weight down since it was my travel keyboard for a while. I’m now using a Corne.

If you’ve never tried silenced switches you should know that some can feel “mushy” to type on since part of the mechanism used to silence them has to do with how you bottom out the switch internals.

Not all silenced switches feel this way but again, make sure you do your research. There are other considerations as well like feel, actuation point and travel.

Switches like the Outemu Silent Peach for example, have a very short travel before actuation so if you’re a heavy-handed typist it might not work well for you.

Making A Case For Split Keyboards

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Not everyone needs to take their keyboard along for typing but as someone who spends a great deal of time typing all sorts of things whether it be blog posts or responding to customers or just banging out responses to Redditors, I really want to be able to use my split keyboard as much as possible.

Enter the Modern Coup split low-profile Carry Case.

This case is made specifically to fit my low-profile Choc Corne. It’s compact and easy to throw into a bag or just to carry on its own.

I’ve gotten used to taking my keyboard around with me to coffee shops or the library when I’m working away from home. Having a carry case is perfect.

This summer I plan on taking just my phone, Kindle and Corne in its carry case while I bike around the Rideau Canal. I like to just stop by where there’s a nice view to do some writing on my iPhone with iA Writer.

The Corne is wireless, obviously, so connecting it to the iPhone is trivial. It’s already paired so I just swap profiles on the keyboard with a combo keypress. I have the same keyboard paired to my desktop PC and my MacBook as well and I’ve never had any problems switching between them with the same keyboard.

Flashing Updated Firmware on Split Keyboards: Just One or Both Halves?

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Flashing split keyboards works a little differently than your typical keyboard since you obviously have to flash each half.

But what do you do to flash them an in what order? What about when you update your keymap or want to enable some special features of the firmware like QMK’s tap dance or CAPS WORD for example?

Typically a split keyboard will communicate with the host device (host meaning the device your keyboard is connected to–typically your computer) via the left half. Depending on the keyboard this is configurable so you may choose to connect the right half instead but basically only the one half is connected to the host itself. The rest of this post will assume the left half is the one connected to the host; assume the reverse if the right half is connected.

So the main half is connected to the host device, and the right half communicates with it and simply monitors what keys are being pressed. This means when flashing an updated keymap you flash it only to the left half.

Some things to remember: flash the left half only when updating the keymap

Flash both sides if you’re making changes to things like the OLED, etc. When in doubt, flash both halves.

Remember to unplug the keyboard from the host device before you disconnect the TRRS cable connecting both halves. This is done to prevent the possibility of shorting the halves and rendering them inoperable. Once the keyboards are unplugged from the host device, then unplug the TRRS cable.

Once you’re finished flashing the keyboard, whether that’s one or both, make sure you’re plugging in the TRRS cable first and connecting both to each other first. Only then should you connect the keyboard to the host.

Don’t try to test the non-main half otherwise your host will treat it as that side. Say your left half is the main half and you flash both sides. If you then connect the right half and try to test it the host will assume it’s the left half and you might assume it didn’t flash the firmware properly.

Connect both to each other and the main half to the host before you test out your revised keymap and whatever other firmware functions you updated.

What Microcontroller (MCU) To Use For Building A Split Or Handwired Keyboard

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I just finished building a Corne and Sofle split keyboards recently and during my research into what microcontrollers to use I found there was so much more out there now than when I first got into this hobby.

A few years ago the choice for a microcontroller (which I’ll refer to as an ‘MCU’ for the rest of this post) was between a Teensy or a Pro Micro or a clone of some sort. Now there are a ton of options to choose from.

Since I live in Canada my choices for sourcing an MCU is rather limited compared to living in the USA. The usual avenue for buying MCUs is Amazon, Digi-Key, Mouser or a Canadian vendor of keyboards/keyboard parts off of Alex Otos’ vendor list. Of course the cheapest route is to buy at least a few from AliExpress and wait a few weeks to a month or more for it to arrive.

The older Pro Micro MCUs and clones were notorious for breaking at the Micro USB ports after just a handful of times of plugging and unplugging the cable.

I didn’t want to worry about this especially since I’ll be doing a lot of plugging/unplugging in the beginning while I sort out my keymap. So I went to AliExpress and ordered Pro Micro clones with a USB C port.

When ordering from AliExpress I like to pay through PayPal while using my credit card as a funding source so I have two avenues of recourse in case of any issues first through PayPal and second through my bank/credit card issuer. Thankfully I didn’t need to worry about that this time around.

When sourcing MCUs from AliExpress and building a keyboard that normally requires a Pro Micro, you’ll want to make sure the a) pinouts are the same and b) the physical dimensions are close to or the same as the original Pro Micro otherwise you run the risk of the MCUs you ordered not working for your specific build. This applies only to keyboards that were designed to run off Pro Micros though–if you’re hand wiring a keyboard or designing your own from scratch obviously this won’t affect you but you’ll still want to take it into consideration.

There’s a great list of the most common microcontrollers over on the Golem project run by Tamas Dovenyi of kbd.news.

If you’re even slightly interested in keyboards you owe it to yourself to subscribe to his monthly Keyboard Builder’s Digest. It’s really great content for keyboards nerds and hobbyists. I’m not affiliated with him in any way but he’s an awesome guy and he puts out great content and I love the work.

I’m waiting on some wireless MCUs to arrive this week so I can build and try out a super low-profile Corne build with Choc switches.

Stay tuned for that build which I’ll share here and over on /rmk and the /r/ergomechkeyboards subreddits.