Total time spent so far: 18hrs
First week of June: Research
Watched hell lotta youtube videos to get a basic idea and all of what i wanted to make and how i wanted my keyboard to look like
I decided to go with a TKL Mechanical Keyboard layout with some customisations
Layout |
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The keyboard is gonna have
11 macro keys (basically integrated macropad)
, aRotary Encoder Switch E11
, and a0.91inch OLED Display 128x32
and is gonna useSTM32F411CEU6 Black Pill Board
as its mcu.it was REALLY painful to find out symbol and footprint of
STM32F411CEU6 Black Pill Board
Time spent: 6hrs
08th June: Got started
Basic Schematic |
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Got done with keyboard matrix and wiring
Found out
STM32F411CEU6 Black Pill Board
onEasyEDA
, converted.json
files into symbol and footprint of it
Decided to make the keyboard Low profile since i dont really like the chunky ones(yet to finalise the switches and keycaps)
Time Spent: 5hrs
9th June: Made the BOM
I was tryna finalise the components and things which i was gonna work with but then found it difficult to keep a track of the money that was going into every component, so i made a BOM in
README.md
file, its currently at its second draft and is going to be updated throughout the projectI couldnt find a low profile keyswitch which was available in my area and was in budget, spent like 2hrs on it, then researched a bit about
cherry mx switches
, decided to go withCherry MX Silent Red
but it wasnt available in my area so then i asked for help in#highway
and ended up withGateron EF Curry
switches since they are linear and LED compatible (im planning on adding LEDs to my keeb too)The symbol of
STM32F411CEU6 Black Pill Board
wasnt symboling (basically it was very buggy, like smth was wrong with it ion know what) so i chose to go withRPI Pico
(the reason why i wasnt using it before is cuz its hasmicro USB interface
which i didnt want to use in my keyboard but however had to cuz I ran out of options)i was indecisive if i was gonna handwire my keeb or make a pcb, so i ended up watching 3 to 4 videos about handwiring but then decided to go with the pcb
Spent hell lotta time making the BOM and finalizing the MCU
to do list for tomorrow - [ ] complete the schematic
- [ ] add a GPIO expander to the rpi pico
- [ ] wire it all
- [ ] add and setup leds
- [ ] complete the pcb
- [ ] layout it
- [ ] add some cool custom silkscreen art
- [ ] add the gpio expander used in the BOM
Time Spent: 7hrs