Building a Keyboard (opens in new tab)

(blog.fsck.com)

90 pointsflapjack13y ago14 comments

14 comments

I love articles like these, this stuff isn't that hard and its way more fun than other ways to spend time (my opinion of course). Making a PCB for a keyboard is really really straight forward too. I bet we could do that on Upverter.

I really like the idea that you could use something like an iPad. (or better two iPads) rest your hands on the screen in what are your natural "home row" position. Then touch type text that appears on a screen in front of you while the iPads are busily figuring out how far your fingers are moving and 'tuning' where the other keys should be done. Once you've done like 50 words error free it beeps and send that off. Shapeways makes the cover, Albert PCB makes a circuit board, and you order key switches and diodes from a distributor. Boom a custom keyboard designed by you for you.

meaty13y ago

The PCB is the easy bit. Making the firmware which delivers your keypresses down a PS2/USB pipe is not. You have to consider things like n-key rollover and ghosting/blocking particularly when using matrix encoding/scanning which are a bastard to code.

obrajesse13y ago

The cool thing about the modern world is that incredibly talented people have already written decent opensource keyboard firmware. But I'll get to that in Part 2 of the writeup :)

1 more reply

rheide13y ago

Aren't those things only a problem because keyboards are being mass-produced? Companies are cutting costs by using less components which introduce these kind of problems. If you're building your own custom keyboard you're not going to care if it costs you a bit more, especially if it means you can avoid these problems from the start.

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obrajesse13y ago

I've thought about doing something like that. Though I believe that what you want to be doing is using hand measurements and a slightly more standard design. I want to get a few of my own keyboard designs under my belt before I start making promises, though.

WhaleCormbit13y ago

This is brilliant. A smart keyboard program. I'd buy it.

lytfyre13y ago

I've been keeping an eye on the ergodox, but was probably going to go with a kinesis. You've tempted me about the fun of building one myself instead.

Could you ballpark what the cost to build one would be?(ignoring tools like the soldering iron?)

obrajesse13y ago

Right. I'd meant to write up the pricing.

Keys - $0.80 x 78 Diodes - $2-$3 3D printed shells - $240 from Shapeways. Cheaper from a friend with a makerbot Keycaps - Cheapest when harvested from a board found at goodwill. Otherwise, $35 or so from WASD Teensy++ - $24

I'll leave the "priceless" joke to the peanut gallery.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

14 comments

ChuckMcM13y ago

meaty13y ago

obrajesse13y ago

The cool thing about the modern world is that incredibly talented people have already written decent opensource keyboard firmware. But I'll get to that in Part 2 of the writeup :)

1 more reply

rheide13y ago

1 more reply

obrajesse13y ago

WhaleCormbit13y ago

This is brilliant. A smart keyboard program. I'd buy it.

lytfyre13y ago

I've been keeping an eye on the ergodox, but was probably going to go with a kinesis. You've tempted me about the fun of building one myself instead.

Could you ballpark what the cost to build one would be?(ignoring tools like the soldering iron?)

obrajesse13y ago

Right. I'd meant to write up the pricing.

I'll leave the "priceless" joke to the peanut gallery.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse