![]() To my experience the bare minimum height needed for wires, teensy and USB port/cable is 10mm. We are going to hand wiring all the switches (in a bit I'll tell you why this is better than PCB), so we need enough real estate inside the case to comfortably fit all the components. You have two options: build your own from scratch or use the case of another keyboard. They will be available again next fall but you can always desolder them from an old keyboard.Īlps can be sourced from 7bit or directly from Matias ( ), or -again- you can dismantle an old keyboard. If unsure, post your design on the forum and ask for help/feasibility to the other members.Īs of this writing MX switches are hard to find. My two projects will be one with Alps and one with MX so you should find plenty of inspiration whatever your keyboard will be. All keys are on the same profile and you can mix and match them in any way. You cannot put Q in place of M or Control in place of Escape (well, technically you can, but it would be a shit to type on).ĭSA family instead is the custom keyboard builder paradise. Remember that DCS family keycaps (the most common nowadays) have a different shape for each row. It's completely worthless to design the Definitive Custom Keyboard™ if you can't source the keycaps.Įspecially if this is your first custom keyboard, try to stay grounded, look around what keycaps you can find and start from there. If you were smart enough to pick the modifier kits. Round 4 and recently DSA Retro may come to a rescue. If you are after a custom layout instead, be sure to be able to find all the oddly sized spacebars and modifiers even if you plan on using MX switches. Also you have to be creative with stabilizers. If you want to build an Alps based keyboard, remember that keycaps can be sourced from other keyboards only (you can't buy a new set of Alps keycaps). Let's say you want a Poker-like layout but with Alps switches, or an HHKB with Cherry, or a 75% layout, or a completely original layout. Dreams have the bad habit of colliding with reality. That would be €25 per week, which is pretty reasonable.Įvery keyboard starts with a dream. Actually, the building phase is much more fun than the final product.Ī rough estimate might be €200, but not all in one shot, the whole process will take probably a couple of months. You are spending money not just for the finished product, but for the whole process. How much is a custom keyboard going to cost?Īpart from the bare material costs, you are going to make some mistakes, and each mistake is going to cost (eg: burn your Teensy and it's another €20). I'll work on them in parallel to reduce expenses, the idea is to post the whole process on the forum so anyone can follow. In the coming months I'm planning to build two keyboards: the Whitefox (ALPS, white + alu, blue LED, pretty standard 60% layout) and the Brownfox (MX, brown + alu, amber LED, 65%). Sorry guys, this is going to be more chat than practice, but we have to start from the foundation. Building a custom keyboard from the ground up for noobs (by a noob)
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