Total Time: 47Hrs

25th May 2025 - Research

I went on over many videos on how to make a keyboard. One such video that I will be taking inspiration from is this.

I tried to make a list of things I will need and their price, I also looked at different options for the items I will use, for example I desperately read stuff about Pro Micro because that is cheaper than n!n but I came to conclusion that Pro Micro will be a little hard for what I am lookign to achieve, I still may change my opinion later down the line. Most of the prices are from Typeractive. Another website I found good is Meckeys.

I looked at different types of switch options I have and its hard to decide now. I will take my time now. The price on the rough BOM rn is the one present in Typeractive. If I don't find anything cheaper or really worth it I won't change it. I also looked at the keycaps for a long time but I think I won't need anything other than what Typeractive offers.

I have not started any real work now.

But I do have the starting foundation layed out. I now have a clear vision in mind now for what to do next. (Board design using ErgoGen ig)

The rough BOM: https://github.com/AnkushRoy-code/SplitWave/blob/main/StuffNeeded.md

Rough Sketch

10:00PM I drew a rough sketch of how it should look like... the alignment and staggerdness is not what I want. It is just a place holder also it will be Colemakmoddh layout instead of qwerty. I just had a keyboard with qwerty keys infornt of me so I used that as a reference.

Color	Layer
Red	Default
Green	Number
Black	Function

All the keys are subjected to change

A rough Sketch of the keyboard

Here's a picture of what it should look like (again not the final thing. Only the structure)

An image of the keyboard generated by ErgoGen

Total Time Taken: 5hrs

The sketch took ~2hrs, took a lot of planning!

26th May 2025 - More Research On ErgoGen

Evening Watched this 20min video by the creator of Ergogen. Read the entire docs of Ergogen. I will not bore anyone with the things I learnt here. Also there was a lot to digest so I might've forgotten a lot of stuff by the end...😢

Night Another tutorial mentioned in the docs seemed really helpful to me. During my journey I'll I will use it too!

Total Time Taken: 2hrs

Total Time Till Now: 7hrs

27th May 2025 - Getting the Keyboard to life

Sat down and wrote the config for my keyboard, it is taking shape now. But there is a lot that I have to change and tiker.

Took longer than I thought, the flatfootfox tutorial is very good! I learnt the same things better I'd say. I decided to let go of the 5th key in the thumb cluster. I only have 4 keys now. I am done with the structure that I seem fit for my usecase.

Up until now it approx took 1.5hrs in total.

Now I am done with the outline too! Took 1hrs at the very least.

An image of the keyboard with outline generated by ErgoGen

The config.yaml can be found here.

Did even more study on mcu(s) to use. Asked some pros in ergogen discord and they answered immideatly. The things I am considering now: - Not nice!nano anymore $25 - Seeed XIAO nRF52840 $10.5 - SuperMini nRF52840 $9.5

I have read about a lot on the mcus I decided that I will be using Seeed XIAO because of the pros suggestion and SuperMini being russian roullete. That is a saving of a whooping $25!!

The only problem is that I there's not much resources as n!n in the web. But I will make it work out!

Apart from that I also read the ZMK docs, the Seeed XIAO nRF52840 docs and the next day my target will be completing the research of the mcu and be done with the pcb

Total Time Taken: 5hrs

Total Time Till Now: 12hrs

28th May 2025 - Shopping

Searched other Indian stores a lot, a frind suggested me this reddit wiki that had good Indian vendors. I found NeoMarco to be my choice of vendor. Had all the stuff I needed, all of them cheaper than typeractive, has free shipping, is trusted too!

But I had some compatibility confusions so I dropped them an email. I hope they answer soon.

And the downsides now. I planned to have 3 things from typeractive - Switches - Keycaps - Hot Swap

and all these 3 had great quality and were to my liking. But in NeoMarco the problems are:

• Switches: Only Yellow is in stock. I wanted Red (The colours matter for typing experience if you didn't know. Each colour has different feel to them). But I am ready to compromise
• Keycaps: Only Transparent is available. I don't mind it that much. I think trans is cool!
• Hot Swap: Looks weird. Had compatibility doubts so I dropped an email.

Overall I think all the stores are great. Just that they can't do everything for everyone. typeractive would've been my go-to if I were in the west.

This took like a little more than an hour

Spent a lot of time searching for batteries. Took a long time but finally found it! In quartzcomponents' website.

Also I am half done with my pcb!

Total Time Taken: 3hrs

Total Time Till Now: 15hrs

29th May 2025 - BOM.csv, MCU selection

Today my plans are of making the BOM in a csv file with links. Since it's getting hard to manage everything rn.

The Bom is done hardly took 30mins.

New problem! QuartzComponents doesn't support hcb 😭😭 I will have to again search for batterise.

Found some batteries here no I idea if it supports hcb but I will have it here just for backup.

A very bad news. The footprint I was using for seeed_xiao was for seeed xiao. Not seeed xiao plus. But the bigger problem is the battery connection. It is a mess in xiao.

Unfortunately because of the battery problem I have to drop XIAO. I will be using Nice!Nano.

I am really sad....I have made good progress towards making the pcb, but the price is concerning. I have to do something about it. I know it. I will just not use Nice!Nano. I will just use the off-brand mcus. Even though they are really sketchy. I will have to trust them. Or else I will be wasting a lot of money because I was scared of Seeed XIAO, the one I am looking at right now is this: supermini I hope I can make it work. And the mcu is delivered in one piece and the vendor supports hcb....

Total Time Taken: 5hrs

Total Time Till Now: 20hrs

30th May 2025 - Savings, PCB

Were back to $100, I am soo happy again. But it has it's costs. The only reason I have Typeractive is because I wanted their key switches (red), and no one has them. But their shipping costs $15 if the total cost is under $75, and since the switches were themeselves $30 I thought I should add other stuff too, so I did and got eligible of free delivery. All the I bought would've been bought eitherwise. Neo Marco had better prices. If I had used Neo Marco I could've saved like $5-10 but they had the worst switches! And I'd have to find the other things elsewhere too that I order from Typeractive since Neo Marco doesn't have all of them! The only problem is that support of hcb. I don't know if they support it.

0.5hrs

I do not think there's a single store left that ships nRF52840 mcu in India. Almost all of them either do not support hcb or have really expensive shipping. Finally I have found this https://holykeebs.com/products/supermini-nrf52840 I hope it is not a scam and supports hcb. The total cost now is $30. ($10 shipping + tax)

0.5hrs

Thankfully atleast my PCB is done. Only some holes for mounting are needed. Other than that, making the cases is left. Then my keyboard will be done!

Left PCB

Right PCB

3hrs

We're up for a new problem... PCBs are expensive. And mine is more than 10x10cm so it costs a hell lot! $11 in jlcpcb and that is the cheapest I saw in all stores.

My Options: 1. Pitch For more money 2. Make the PCB 10x10cm by removing keys 3. Remove the case. 4. Make a reversible pcb so I can use one PCB for both left and right.

My BOM is already very optimised(?) and I don't think it can get any cheaper. What I will do is 2, 3 & 4. I will not pitch the idea because I fear I will get rejected because I have no prior projects to show and making a keyboard is not that hard. Other people are doing such cool projects. I am jealous. But I will not fall behind. A caseless wireless split keyboard also has its own coolness.

I will still make the case because that was the one of the criteria, but will not order it.

So now I will get to work on getting everything on the top layer and making it reversible.

Now after another very big overhaul to my PCB I am now done with the pcb layout I think only tracing is left. I will do that tomorrow and be done with it. Making the case is left. I have done partial work on that. Have to do more.

The PCB for the left part(that will be used for the rigth too!)

And after that I will only have to do the firmware and I will be done with my SplitWave!

Total Time Taken: 7hrs

Total Time Till Now: 27hrs

31th May 2025 - Cases and PCB

I am done with the cases and the pcb(i think). I still need to go through everything in the pcb so that I can rest assured that my connections are good and appropriate.

4hrs

I think I am once and for all done with the cases! I have made three cases. Out of these I will print 2 or one of these in sets of 2 (for left and right). If budget doesn't allow that then I will just do the opencase that is just the bottom thing. And if I have a little more money left then I will get both the top and bottom (excluding the opencase this time).

1hrs

Done some small tweaks to my pcb. ANd completed my BOM. It is finally complete now!!! I am really happy. The number says it is $150.2 but I am sure it will be around $149 because I approximated the last few entries of the BOM. Will update them before submitting surely with exact amounts.

The final completed PCB!!!

Top Case

Bottom Case

Open Case (Might not be ordered)

Now the only thing left is Firmware I already know that I will be using ZMK for this but I have no prior experience with ZMK. Well we'll make this work out as well! Lets head over to the docs and give it a nice read

0.5hrs

Finished reading ZMK Journal upto this also made the repo they asked and following the steps they are saying feeling a lot tired today...I might be a bit feverish today... good night to me.

0.5hrs

Total Time Taken: 6hrs

Total Time Till now: 33hrs

1st June 2025 - Finished!!!

Yapping

I am making this(probably last) journal entry from my phone because my laptop just ran out of battery and I forgot to make the journal. We're experiencing flood so there's no electricity my mobile also has like very less so I will make it quick, read the submitting guide one last time and then hopefully submit. I don't know when I will be able to check the results though, last year electricity was cutt off for a whole week...

Journalling

So today I just made my firmware using ZMK it was not hard, it compiled without any warning or errors but I am not sure if it will work yet until I have the mcu.

ZMK took a lot of brain. Read the docs a lot. Most of the stuff are ditto same to their docs only. Other than that I also went through the source code of ZMK searching for other Shields for reference, other than that I also took some references from a keyboard named caldera.

The links are as follows: https://github.com/christianselig/caldera-keyboard

https://github.com/zmkfirmware/zmk/tree/main/app/boards/shields/corne

The zmk-config folder is here: https://github.com/AnkushRoy-code/zmk-config-splitwave/tree/main

And the built firmware is here: https://github.com/AnkushRoy-code/zmk-config-splitwave/actions/runs/15375124402

That is it all! I am really happy I have made the effort in Journalling this whole journey. I hope I can execute the final building of the keyboard when the parts arrive!

Total Time Taken: 4hrs

Total Time Till now: 37hrs

2nd June 2025 - Customising

I should've waited before submitting... anyway I just remembered something. I DID NOT HAVE ANY COOL SILKSCREEN DRAWINGS!! So I hopped back in the kicad and fixed it. Included HC logos and personal name flexing on the board. Made a smol change to the top_case so that there is space to see the silkscreens :) also made things less messed up by adding a git ignore and adding the zmk-config as a submodule. Also I remembered that I didn't include the PCB-3D view (not that I think it was mandatory) but here it is:

Front Of the PCB

Back Of the PCB

Updated PCB

And now I (think I) can say that my SplitWave is done!

Yapping

Fortunately it was a mini flood and water went down completety by today morning. Electricity came yesterday at 12:30 at night ig.

2hrs

Back to Journalling

haah.... I am back again... Now again I made some small changes to the silkscreens and am working on the README.md at the same time. The Images of the Silkscreen closer up:

Front Silkscreen

Back Silkscreen

I am done with the README and there's nothing more I think that I need to do now. I hope this time finally the SplitWave is done.

Just got to know that I will have to journal the making process too irl! I mean I take that as a win for me!!! I really liked journalling this entire project till now!!! So that just means I'll be here for more time :)

Total Time Taken: 3Hrs Total Time Till Now: 40hrs

3nd June 2025 - Customising

Yesterday I read about the Shipping requirement, I think I am preety much there but these are the things I will do first:

• Change the file structure to have the pcb and cases in the root.
• Create a printables account and upload my 3d files there. and add them in the readme

Also changed the 3d Cases a little. The cases had some measurement problems that have been solved. It would've been devastating if those stayed in the case. Thank god I found them and fixed them. The updated cases are as follows:

Top Case

Bottom Case

Total Time Taken: 1hrs Total Time Till Now: 41hrs

No real work done, just a update. YOU KNOW WHAT!!!! MY PROJECT JUST GOT APPROVED!!! I'LL RECEIVE THE GRANT BY TODAY (4th June) SO I'LL GO IN A SHOPPING SPREE TOMORROW!!!! I AM SOO EXCITED!!!!

5nd June 2025 - Shopping Real this time

I just bought my stuff from Typeractive.xyz all of them costed $76.92 almost half a dollar less than calculated ($77.34), inflation in India I think. Also bought the supermini-nrf52840 from holykeebs. They are trusted site I saw in many reviews. Next I was going to buy the batteries....but I think makerbazar.in is not trustable. I went through some reviews and didn't find them to be good with quality and delivery. Customer support also seemed bad, I think I will have to search for batteries again. It must be the 4th time something like this has happened to me with battery buying. It also means I will have to change my case according to the battery size....

Took me a whole day but I finally found a good vendor. And I ordered it. Quite the same price for 480mah where they sold 2200mah for this price. I think that previously it was indeed scam. But there's a problem. There was some technical dificulties and in their website it still shows payment pending. I have raised a ticket. Hopefully they reply soon.

Apart from that I also ordered the pcb. For that I had to fix some violations that I ignored earlier in my pcb design. Now they are fixed. The payment went smoothly and my pcb is approved already.

3hrs

Yay!! They have confirmed my order!! I knew they were good people!

Also got to know that I am not supposed to order the cases. So I am extra happy that I can now just save $8 for myself. Lemme see if I need something else. Aah yes a screw driver, if I have enough money... and they are cheap like not more than $2

I am done with my updated case. It looks absolutely the same. Just changed some heights for the new smaller battery. I will now just buy the screws and battery jack. But not that fast. I will wait till tomorrow. just cause

hah... couldn't wait. Also bought the jack. Only thing left is screws. I am having internet problems rn so I will tackle that tomorrow. Total Time Taken 4hrs Total Time Till Now: 45hrs

6th June 2025

I am soo soooooo dumb. There has to be two bottom cases. Right and left!! I can't just turn the bottom case over and call it a day 😭😭😭

Done with the cases. Also tried to buy the screws.... I can't IG they don't support international cards.

Negligible Time

10th June 2025

I've made some small changes over the days that I didn't journal like adding another 2mm to my case height to accomodate the switch height.

Taking pictures for it. Updating stuff. Keeping track of items that I ordered.

I have made plans to add homerow mods to my keyboard! Now it will be even more cool with timeless modkey

Negligible Time

15th June 2025 - Giving up

A lot has had happened. I was really lost. I felt really guilty. I still do. Because I fucked up. I had assumed that I will be lucky with them but I was proven wrong because of the JLCPCB having a tax of about $18 on $17 order. I was heartbroken thinking all my hardwork was for nothing I cried a little. I talked with Hackclub people and told them that I will be dropping out of the event because I will not be able to pay my taxes. They are a lot.

But the are so kind that they said they will pay my taxes. Even though the do not do it. They said that they will make it a exception because they liked the love and effort I put in Splitwave. I still do not know how much customs in the $75 order but I still hope for the best.

Right now I am finishing up my cases. I am making the USB-C port hole and the buttons holes too.

Other than that I also have recieved the Jacks & batteries. The JLCPCB should also come quiet fast now.

Total Time Taken 0.5hrs Total Time Till Now: 45.5hrs

21st June 2025 -

Today I plan modify my case again to make holder for battery :)

I am done with fully updating my cases took a while, had fun! Will take images now.

Things I did:

• Add Battery Holder
• Re-did the art in the bottom because earlier it was 0.5mm and someone adviced me to have multiple of 0.2 because that is what most 3D printers support.

Left & Right Cases Top View

Left & Right Cases Bottom View

All Of Them Together

Also did I mention almost all my stuff came! Only things left are Typeractive stuff and Microcontrollers. The things that Splitwave heavily depends upon!

I just pray for less customs!

I love staring at the PCBs they are SOOOO COOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Total Time Taken 1.5hrs Total Time Till Now: 47hrs