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There are few feelings more satisfying than building your own home office or gaming setup from scratch. Sitting at your workstation knowing that everything is made just the way you like it, in exactly the way you imagined — it’s pretty neat.

Today, it’s easier than ever to craft your own equipment by hand, at home. Tools like Arduino make it possible to build sophisticated, high-tech devices that sometimes work even better than anything you can find in a store.

In this article, we’ll focus on keyboards — specifically, wireless hand-wired keyboards. We’ll show you what they are, what you need to get started, and how Arduino users have tackled the challenge of designing their own.

What is a hand-wired keyboard?

Most store-bought keyboards use something called a PCB, or printed circuit board. A PCB is used to connect the different electronic components inside the keyboard to one another.

In a hand-wired keyboard, there is no PCB. Instead, the components are connected by wires, by hand. This way, you have complete control over how your keyboard is designed, allowing you to assemble a keyboard that looks, feels, and works exactly how you want it to.

Why should you make a hand-wired keyboard?

We all know the feeling of using a keyboard that doesn’t feel quite right. And if you work from a desk, spend a lot of time gaming, or just enjoy hammering away at a keyboard for any other reason, having the right setup makes all the difference.

Taking a DIY approach gives you the control and freedom to devise a hand-wired keyboard that is just right for you, your needs, your preferences, and your aesthetic. Not to mention, it’s a ton of fun!

What you need to get started

Building your own hand-wired keyboard doesn’t require a huge amount of resources or materials, and it can be done fairly cheaply with a bit of prior research and preparation. Here are the main components you’ll need:

  • A switch plate to give the keyboard structure and support your keys
  • Switches (enough for each keycap)
  • Solder wire and electrical wire
  • A 1N4148 diode for each switch
  • Wire to connect the rows and columns to the controller
  • Spacers and screws
  • Solder and a soldering iron kit

Make your own hand-wired keyboards with Arduino

When it comes to building your own keyboard with Arduino, you don’t need to look any further than Joe Scotto. Over the last several months, Scotto has mastered the art of building hand-wired keyboards, amassing an impressive collection of creations, and how he’s sharing his expertise with the world.

Scotto says, “Something about handwriting just hits different, it feels like I actually built the board… if that makes sense.”

On top of sharing his work on Reddit, Scotto also has a YouTube channel where he goes into depth about how to construct hand-wired keyboards, some of the main challenges involved, what you need to get started, and more.

Check out some of his most popular videos below:

Some useful tips

Let’s run through a few tips to be aware of when creating your keyboard, so you can avoid mistakes and get the most out of the experience.

  • Know what size you want in advance. Keyboards come in a range of sizes and each one has its own pros and cons. For example, gamers tend to prefer smaller keyboards in a 60% of 65% layout, whereas for office use you might want something bigger like a TKL.
  • Be careful with soldering. Solder can produce dangerous fumes, so make sure you do this part of the process in a well-ventilated area and take precautions.
  • Don’t worry about making mistakes, embrace them! It’s unlikely that your very first attempt at a hand-wired keyboard will be perfect. That’s fine — it’s an opportunity to tweak, improve, and learn.
  • Consider adding in some neat extra features like a reset switch. You can also experiment with “split keyboards” where each side is distinct from the other.
  • A well-made, hand-wired keyboard is an impressive piece of hardware. Don’t forget to post your results online and share with the Arduino community!

Get creative with Arduino

Hand-wired keyboards are just one example of the many things you can make in your very own home using Arduino and a few other components. The Arduino Project Hub is full of other examples and in-depth guides from the community members to inspire and inform your next project.

Visit our home page to learn more about Arduino and find out how to get started with your own projects.

The post Build your own wireless hand-wired keyboards — a guide appeared first on Arduino Blog.

We’ve noticed a rash of builds of [ FedorSosnin’s] do-it-yourself 3D-printed mechanical keyboard, SiCK-68 lately. The cost is pretty low — SiCK stands for Super, Inexpensive, Cheap, Keyboard. According to the bill of materials, the original cost about $50. Of course, that doesn’t include the cost of the 3D printer and soldering gear, but who doesn’t have all that already?

The brains behind this is a Teensy that scans the hand-wired key matrix. So the only electronics here are the switches, each with a companion diode, and the Teensy. The EasyAVR software does all the logical work both as firmware and a configuration GUI.

If you look at the many different builds, each has its own character. Yet they look overwhelmingly professional — like something you might buy at a store. This is the kind of project that would have been extremely difficult to pull off a decade ago. You could build the keyboard, of course, but making it look like a finished product was beyond most of us unless we were willing to make enough copies to justify having special tooling made to mold the cases.

PCBs are cheap now and we might be tempted to use one here. There are quite a few methods for using a 3D printer to create a board, so that would be another option. The hand wiring seems like it would be a drag, although manageable. If you need wiring inspiration, we can help.

For ultimate geek cred, combine this with Ploopy.

While the vast majority of us are content to plod along with the squishy chiclet keyboards on our laptops, or the cheapest USB membrane keyboard we could find on Amazon, there’s a special breed out there who demand something more. To them, nothing beats a good old-fashioned mechanical keyboard, where each key-press sounds like a footfall of Zeus himself. They are truly the “Chad” of the input device world.

But what if even the most high end of mechanical keyboards doesn’t quench your thirst for spring-loaded perfection? In that case, the only thing left to do is design and build your own. [Matthew Cordier] recently unveiled the custom mechanical keyboard he’s been working on, and to say it’s an elegant piece of engineering is something of an understatement. It may even better inside than it does on the outside.

The keyboard, which he is calling z.48, is based around the Arduino Pro Micro running a firmware generated on kbfirmware.com, and features some absolutely fantastic hand-wiring. No PCBs here, just a rainbow assortment of wire and the patience of a Buddhist monk. The particularly attentive reader may notice that [Matthew] used his soldering iron to melt away the insulation on his wires where they meet up with the keys, giving the final wiring job a very clean look.

Speaking of the keys, they are Gateron switches with DSA Hana caps. If none of those words mean anything to you, don’t worry. We’re through the Looking Glass and into the world of the keyboard aficionado now.

Finally, the case itself is printed on a CR-10 with a 0.3 mm nozzle and 0.2 mm layers giving it a very fine finish. At 70% infill, we imagine it’s got a good deal of heft as well. [Matthew] mentions that a production case and a PCB are in the cards for the future as he hopes to do a small commercial run of these boards. In the meantime we can all bask in the glory of what passes for a prototype in his world.

We’ve seen some exceptionally impressive mechanical keyboards over the years, including the occasional oddity like the fully 3D printed one and even one that inexplicably moves around. But this build by [Matthew] has to be one of the most elegant we’ve ever come across.

[Thanks to DarkSim905 for the tip]

You’re not cool unless you have a mechanical keyboard. Case in point: if you were to somehow acquire an identical keyboard to the one I used to type this, it would set you back at least seven hundred dollars. Yes, it’s mechanical (Topre), and yes, I’m cooler than you. Of course, you can’t be as cool as me, but you can build your own mechanical keyboard. [Robin] is, I presume, a pretty cool dude so he built his own keyboard. It’s the amazing shortcut keyboard, and it can be programmed graphically.

The idea for this keyboard came when [Robin] was studying as an engineer. We assume this is code for wearing out the Escape key on AutoCAD, but many other software packages have the same problem. The solution to [Robin]’s problem was a shortcut keypad, a 3 by 4 matrix of Cherry switches that could be programmed for any task.

The design of this keyboard started out as an Adafruit Trellis matrix keypad. This was combined with some software written in Processing that assigned macros to each button. This was a sufficient solution, but the switches in the Adafruit trellis look squishy. These are not the right switches for someone who craves a soft snap under every fingertip. It’s not the keyboard of someone who desires the subtle thickness of laser etched PBT keycaps. The Adafruit keypad doesn’t have the graceful lines of a fully sculpted set of keycaps. Oh my god, it’s doubleshot.

[Robin]’s completed keyboard has gone through a few revisions, but in the end, he settled on PCB-mounted switches and a very clever 3D printed standoff system to hold an Arduino Pro Micro in place. The enclosure, too, is 3D printed, and the end result is a completely custom keyboard that’s perfect for mashing key combos.

You can check out a video of this keyboard in action below.


Filed under: Arduino Hacks, peripherals hacks


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