Lawrence Yoon

Do you need a new keyboard? Has the algorithm sent you down a mechanical keyboard rabbit hole? Perhaps you are already familiar with the mechanical keyboard niche terms, such as cherry, gateron, kailh choc, holy pandas, and are itching for your next mechanical keyboard? Has the machine god beckoned, demanding you to interface with your tech using only the finest devices? If you've answered yes to any of the above, you've come to the right place.

Choose what keyboard you want to make. There are many different flavors of keyboards, and for me, I wanted to go with something ergonomic and customizable. There are a lot of resources on the internet about different keyboards, and how to solder key switches to a keyboard. I decided to go with the corne keyboard, for its split ortholinear layout. There are options to make it wireless, have rgb leds, etc, but I wanted a basic wired split keyboard.

Whether you use a pcb of an open source keyboard, design and create your own pcb, or just handwire the keyboard, you will need key switches, diodes, and a micro controller, and if you are going split you want some TRS/TRRS jacks. Pick your favorite key switches, buy some TRS/TRRS jacks, buy some diodes (I am not an electrical engineer, but I read that we use 1N4148 diodes because they are the cheapest) and microcontroller(s) (pro micro / teensy / pi pico).

Do your own research on how the keyboard ties software and hardware together. You will be connecting the key switches to a microcontroller, and most likely will need to use a key switch matrix. Make sure of the diode direction, and make sure both halves of the keyboard are consistent in layout, specifically if diodes are going row to column, or vice versa. If you go with a different layout compared to the defaults provided in qmk, but are consistent, you would be able to salvage the project if you write your own mappings, and specify which switch matrix you are going with.

Print or buy your keyboard case. There are 3d printing services on the internet, as well as specialty mechanical keyboard websites that sell cases. Also, I highly recommend buying the pcb of the keyboard you want instead of handwiring the keyboard like I did. You could order a kit, that only requires you to solder on diodes, switches, and jacks. It would save you a lot of time and headache.

If you choose to handwire your keyboard, make sure to check the software you will flash it with. If you do not want to write your own keymaps, you should check which pins are used in the default firmware, and solder the wires to the proper pins. You need to keep track of the rows, columns, and split pin.

As for the wires, I have seen many different gauges and insultation methods used. If you check qmk documentations, there are several examples of each. I have decided to go with Joe Scotto's method of using higher gauge wires and insulating only where the row and column wires overlap. I suggest looking into this man's work.

To keep costs down, I salvaged some wire I had lying around. For the key switch matrix, I used 18AWG doorbell wire, and for jumper wires I cut up an old cat5/ethernet wire. In the future, if I were to remake this, I would buy some proper jumper wires. The 3d print that I had chosen was designed specifically for dupont jumper cables/connectors. Having the cables stuck together in a band would have been extremely helpful.

If you have experience and own a soldering iron, this will be a cakewalk. If not, you need to watch some videos of proper soldering techniques. I've started with using solder with lead in it, but I think that in general, you should use lead-free solder. If you want to get into soldering as a side hustle, I believe that some countries have restrictions and require lead-free solder.

Get a temperature-control soldering iron. These can get pricey, and after some research, I found that the pinecil served my needs perfectly. It can be powered with a dc jack, or usb-c, and if you have a laptop charger brick with the usbc, it is perfect. The pinecil costed me $40 on amazon.

Double check that you have prepared everything, and you are ready to solder the joints. Make sure the diodes are going the proper way. Once everything is nice and soldered, flashing with qmk should be easy. Follow the directions, many instructions on the internet. Basically, have your keymap file nice and compiled into the hex file, then fire up the app, connect your microcontroller, prepare the mcu for the flashing, flash, then you are done.

I know I am glossing over a lot of the details, but it really is a straight forward process. If there is a lot of interest, I will elaborate on the process. However, there are a lot of resources out there already. I would say the biggest blunders come from improperly soldered joints and shorts that can arise from that or from improper insulation.

• Use a proper soldering iron with temperature control.
• Take your time to avoid shorts.
• Make all preparations before iron is hot. e.g. bend all wires, apply insulation to necessary areas.
• Buy and use jumper wires with same amount of wires as pins in the microcontroller.
• Look into socketed microcontroller solutions. This could enable you to remove and replace the microcontroller for whatever reason.