ErgoMechKeyboards

Have been using splits exclusively for many years now, and this is final variation of my keyboard

I’m planning on building a custom keyboard with 24 keys running of a BlackPill. It’ll have OLED and RGB.

My question: the BlackPill has 3v and 5v pins. Which should I use for what?

I'm considering the Moonlander but I have small hands. I have an older Iris which is a good fit but doesn't have hotswap and occasionally needs to be unplugged and replugged to work. I am looking for something that just works, not a new soldering project - especially since my office will cover the cost.

Which would you recommend? And is it the end of the world if I can't reach the full thumb cluster on the Moonlander?

Just got it today from the latest extras round, so stoked! More pics:

Hey guys, not sure if we do PCB reviews in this group, but I figured I'd give it a shot since I know it was a thing that happened over in the bad website.

It's essentially a 5x6+1+encoder board. Images below and open source hardware repo is linked.

kicad render for the juicy thumbnail

Front

Back

This is baby's first PCB design, so feel free to tear me a new one in the comments so I can make good boards.

Fpm101 build by Sadek Baroudi (fingerpunch kb), case designed and 3D printed by me. It uses keyboardio key caps and has matias clicky alps clones. It has a scroll ring around the trackball also!

Can’t wait to use lemmy!

Hey there,

I have been in the process of building my first custom keyboard (Ferris sweep), I have just finished flashing my to halves, and wanted to test it out, and it turns out that one of the keys doesn’t work. My guess is a poorly soldered joint.

My question for you are, what are my options for troubleshooting this problem, and finding the source of it? (I’m guessing that it could both be from the micro controller, and the key it self)

Thank you for reading, and this great community

Hey!

So, I just finished and have now finalized my work flow for processing Kinesis Advantage 360 and 360 pro switch replacement process. I was contacted regarding doing such a service and as a result found out about how UpgradeKeyboards handles their "only authorized" service.

In that they've got a 6 month+ lead time.

While I'm not "officially authorized" I do terrific work. I'm just finishing up designs on 3d printed soldering shields to make the process further streamlined.

If you don't want to wait an near infinite amount of time to have a functional board in your hands let me know!

I haven't fully hammered down the price but the process takes me ~2.5 hours. (~75-100$)

It would function in the following way; Contact me; I'll need you to send me the board; and if you want specific switches I can order them or what I've had work before is just include them keyboard.

My turn around time is literally 1 day unless I get utterly flooded.

I build keyboards for (almost a living) I'm using professional equipment; can diagnose other problems, and while I'm reasonably new (8~months in) I've made pretty solid impressions with my own designs, so I believe I can at least help offer to deal with the current lead-times.

You can checkout my reviews, work, and anything else at my site or etsy store: www.skree.us www.etsy.com/shop/TheBigSkree

You can reach me on discord at alakuu or skree_llc

With PBT Notion and NK Creams. What a delightfully wide Ortho board. Many thanks to

• weteor for overall board design
• chewiedies for the case design (chewie also printed this case and sent me the PCB)

All I really had to do was solder on some sockets.

The decision was made to blow up the Reddit community and come here, so we have to make this work. But I'm already seeing a bunch of issues with Lemmy. Posting this so hopefully we can find solutions. Issues:

• Search-ability: I can't find people. When I search for users it simply doesn't work. Edit: Also apparently a client thing. Sucks though that if you choose the wrong client whole features just aren't supported.
• Messages: Pretty bare bones interface. I guess it's good enough to send you discord so you can have a conversation there.
• Replies: Looks like you can only reply to posts and not other replies 🤦‍♂️...so much for tractable conversations. This is my single biggest complaint about Mastodon - it's almost impossible to follow a single conversation. Really hope this will be addressed. Edit: looks like this was a client thing. Phew!
• Updates: I just tried to login on a different client but couldn't because the instance I'm on isn't up to date enough with the minimum support version.
• Clients: I've tried Thunder and attempting Jerboa (can't yet for the above reason), any other better ones?

I hope these are all fixable. The replies thing is pretty terrible.

Just so this isn't an entirely downer post, here's what I'm liking about Lemmy:

• Ad free: 🎉 Love love love this.
• Open source: Look, open source projects can be a little janky. But open source feels like a part of the DNA of this community, so I'm always happy to see everyone using FOSS.
• Community support: No matter what the interface, the people make the community, and it's been pretty cool to see everyone just keep posting and carrying on over here. Like, it's been a pretty smooth transition so far.

this is a steno keyboard from nolltronics. there is a qwerty layer, but I only use it for games really.

most people do not have the interest in learning a lot of steno theory, but what I want to make/gauge normie perception on is one half of a steno keyboard and use this dictionary:

https://github.com/Abkwreu/plover-left-hand-modifiers/blob/main/README.md

this dictionary allows every shortcut (and almost every key) to be typed in two strokes and using only the left hand with a 10-key keyboard.

there is actually very little memorization needed. just some additional letters that are not shown mostly.

numbers are in binary, so you need to know how that works, but once you do, you can enter f-keys/numpad/numbar. you have arrow keys too.

for example (each pic/cluster is one press, you have a good bit of time to press): https://i.imgur.com/7UICbye.png

i don't really care about keyboard shortcuts anymore because they are all almost the same difficulty to input.

Hey all, I got a Moonlander keyboard a while back and I'm noticing that it hurts my wrist more than a normal keyboard.Im thinking maybe I should have gotten a split staggered keyboard instead since the columnar layout is making it really difficult to reach things with my pinky and is overall hurting my hands.

I think I'm just gonna sell it and try again with a split staggered board. Where should I go to resell?

Just got my first embedded design in and it works!

Embedded RP2040. ortho-ish layout with dropped and splayed pinkies, thumb fan, GMT-020 display (🤞).

Now to figure out Quantum Painter and build a case.

Here is issue #125 of my weekly/fortnightly summary featuring mostly DIY keyboards: https://kbd.news/issue/125/

And my editorial with some behind-the-scenes info: https://kbd.news/Behind-the-Scenes-of-Issue-125-2051.html

Read, subscribe, donate some bucks or tip me off about your keyboard project!

I really love what Ben Vallack has done with the piano (featured in this video if you haven't seen it). But I'm terrified of trying to learn such a small layout.

I think my ideal would be similarly just 2 thumbs on each side, and instead of 1222 like the piano, I'd want 23332. Anything like this out there?

Hi all, I'm looking for something similar to my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 to replace it that's mechanical. I'm looking for something with about the same number of Macros, about the same layout, and doesn't have a weird Delete key layout like the Logitech Wave.

Does one exist? Thank you in advance!

Got RSI from coding at job circa 2016 and bought this baby for $350. I'm using it as long as possible, but I would love a metal splittyboi

Thumb clusters are life!

Hi all,

I have an idea in my head, but I’m a cable short, and looking for suggestions.

24-key split-ortho (2 keys per finger, where you press both top and bottom keys simultaneously to get the home row key), with per-key RGB and OLED display on the left side. But…

I’d like to run this off a single BlackPill controller on the left hand side, and use a CAT6 cable to bridge the two sides.

CAT6 has 4 twisted pairs, so 8 cables. If I run a 4x3 matrix then that’s 7 cables. Plus another for the VCC for the RGB. But then no more for the DIN/DOUT for RGB. GND should be fine as I can earth the right hand side separately, but I’m missing a cable if I want RGB.

Are there any suggestions on how I might be able to get around my challenge?

I built a split bastardkbskeletyl and used kmk as firmware on rp2040-zero.

The split module is added last and this is the config for split:

split = Split( data_pin=board.GP11, split_side=varList.ss, use_pio=True, )

I originally used GP10 on both sides... just switched to 11 as I thought maybe the pin of the mc was broken... but after a few minutes, the right side, slave (not the usb side) stopped working again.

When I plug in usb to either side alone, I see debug output, I think it is really nicely wired and either side works nicely alone...

Any ideas? It's kind of weird.. I know GP11 is not a UART pin, but that's why use_pio is True... and it worked again for some minutes. I think it hangs up or so.

I'm working on a new split keyboard and woukd like to avoid soldering everything together. what are some connectors that can be used to connect things together?

My plan is to have a central unit with one controller, while still being able to dissasemble things etc.

I bought some usb-c male/females, but the males are a PITA to solder a diy 12-pin cable utilizing all pins for transfer, etc.

Hi folks, I've been working on this keyboard pretty much since January of this year, and I've finally got it to the point that I can call it done! If you'd like to build one, all files are available here.

This is an MX-based keyboard, 36 keys with integrated trackball. The github page has a bunch more details. I also have a choc version in dev using the same style that's based off the Trinidox.

Let me know what you think!

Pteron36 with Custom TRRS Cable
https://imgur.com/a/VenyvFC
Hi guys,
This weekend I build a customized Pteron36 and a custom TRRS cable to go with. Can you guess which anime mc is on the right side :D?