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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by wjrii@lemmy.world to c/mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml

More pics: https://pixelfed.social/p/wjrii/838255973232132267

I messed up in a million ways, but I managed not to screw it up too badly to be happy with it. This was also my first build with QMK and then VIAL. Some lessons:

  • ALPS stabilizers are a pain.
  • Don't let sleepy English majors design PCBs after midnight. Seriously, the thing barely works for this layout, but should be slightly better for Cherry MX switches.
  • One is strangely zen when one accidentally deletes all the PCB design files for such a flawed PCB. Still have the fabrication Gerber, but with half a dozen errors that's very near to useless.
  • Don't be a coward with your woodworking. There is a bigger gap between case and keys than I'd like.
  • On the other hand, don't be stupid. The pecan inlay on the back may be there to cover up where I sliced right into the dowels joining the frame together.
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[-] dnzm@feddit.nl 3 points 1 day ago

I am a simple man, I see someone construct a keyboard out of wood, I upvote!

[-] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Sounds delicious

[-] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Which Alps? SKCM Blue?

How did you learn to PCB?

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

SKCM white. Both switches and keycaps (and the front feet, actually) came from a fried early-90s Focus keyboard that had a trackball where the arrow keys go, and the arrows were around it on mouse micro switches with little flappy “buttons” that are part of the case, also very mouse-like.

For the PCB, lots of YouTube and searching Geekhack, deskthority, and (yes) Reddit to see how to use KiCAD for mechanical keyboards. Mine uses the “cheat” of mounting a Raspberry Pi Pico clone to the underside so I don’t have to know as much about electronics (that part actually went perfectly).

The mistakes were two tiny bits of trace that got deleted but I didn’t see, and some placement issues for the Alps version that I had to work around. I have four of them left, so I’ll just use MX compatible switches and a normal sized spacebar for future builds and avoid the worst of it.

[-] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Nice. SKCM Whites are a little heavier than blues, and feel and sound even better IMHO. Your projects very similar to something I've been putting off for several years already. Any PCB design resources you can share, that you found especially helpful, would be cool.

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

For the very basics of KiCAD, their own intro is helpful. I had to wrap my head around the workflow: first schematic, then PCB.

Once you grasp that, some keyboard specific stuff is described by Joe Scotto in this video. He tends to rush his tutorials though, so best to go through the KiCad page first or revisit the video after.

For resources, I found Ai03's library of footprints to be perfect, except that his vertical 2U were not oriented how I needed them, which I realized too late, LOL. Then, the kbplacer plugin by adamws was absolutely invaluable and saved me so much time. I used JLCPCB, because even when US-China tariffs were at their worst (and goodness knows they could be again if Trump gets a hangnail or something), JLC was still the cheapest option for me.

If you've never done a PCB before, I might humbly suggest keeping to a fixed layout for the first go-round. I did that on my first board and it worked perfectly for what I intended it to be. I got a little ambitious with this one, and ambition+inexperience+impatience led to a flawed project.

this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
54 points (98.2% liked)

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