Hey, thanks OP for this post!
5 days ago I didn't know anything about Arduinos, Mechanical Keyboards, soldering, 3D-modelizing... learnt it all, and I managed to end up with this, which I'm pretty proud of:
Basically, I bought a Chinese Arduino Pro Micro clone on ebay for less than 3€ and some Cherry MX Silver Switches for about 5€ (I recommend not buying these for developping purposes, they're very expensive on eBay, maybe buy Kailh or any other brand for prototyping), made the case 3D-printed on a P2P website for 6€, and bought for 2.5€ of screws/bolts.
I first learned Arduino code from scratch and gathered some help from the previous posters on this thread, but I end up with my own code, in which I added some extra LEDs (because I don't have any SMD LEDs to add to my switches for now), and I'm planning to add 3 extra buttons (Space, Escape, and Retry) in the future.
Then I bought a soldering iron and started prototyping my keyboard with some breadboard and jumper wires, to learn code and experiment a bit more. When I ended up with something functionnal, I started designing the case (on Tinkercad, very simple to use) and got it printed.
The holes I designed were made for M5 Screws (5.25mm diameter), but they didnt fit, so I ended up using M4 screws (working pretty well).
Here is the code I used:
(keep in mind that I'm using a AZERTY keyboard, that the Arduino IDE doesn't recognize (I guess?))
If you have some questions before jumping into it, don't hesitate ! It's such an easy and great project to start with !
I can send you the 3D file of the case, but it will be even better if you find your own design and let your mind express.
PS: Cherry MX Silver Speed switches are amazing, getting from laptop-keyboard to those is for real amazing !
5 days ago I didn't know anything about Arduinos, Mechanical Keyboards, soldering, 3D-modelizing... learnt it all, and I managed to end up with this, which I'm pretty proud of:
Basically, I bought a Chinese Arduino Pro Micro clone on ebay for less than 3€ and some Cherry MX Silver Switches for about 5€ (I recommend not buying these for developping purposes, they're very expensive on eBay, maybe buy Kailh or any other brand for prototyping), made the case 3D-printed on a P2P website for 6€, and bought for 2.5€ of screws/bolts.
I first learned Arduino code from scratch and gathered some help from the previous posters on this thread, but I end up with my own code, in which I added some extra LEDs (because I don't have any SMD LEDs to add to my switches for now), and I'm planning to add 3 extra buttons (Space, Escape, and Retry) in the future.
Then I bought a soldering iron and started prototyping my keyboard with some breadboard and jumper wires, to learn code and experiment a bit more. When I ended up with something functionnal, I started designing the case (on Tinkercad, very simple to use) and got it printed.
The holes I designed were made for M5 Screws (5.25mm diameter), but they didnt fit, so I ended up using M4 screws (working pretty well).
Here is the code I used:
#include <Keyboard.h>
int W = 2;
int X = 8;
int LED1 = 6;
int LED2 = 7;
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(W, INPUT);
pinMode(LED1, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(W, HIGH);
pinMode(X, INPUT);
pinMode(LED2, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(X, HIGH);
}
void loop(){
if (digitalRead(W) == 0)
{
Keyboard.press('z');
digitalWrite(LED1, HIGH);
delay(5);
}
if (digitalRead(W) == 1)
{
Keyboard.release('z');
digitalWrite(LED1, LOW);
}
if (digitalRead(X) == 0)
{
Keyboard.press('x');
digitalWrite(LED2, HIGH);
delay(5);
}
if (digitalRead(X) == 1)
{
Keyboard.release('x');
digitalWrite(LED2, LOW);
}
}
(keep in mind that I'm using a AZERTY keyboard, that the Arduino IDE doesn't recognize (I guess?))
If you have some questions before jumping into it, don't hesitate ! It's such an easy and great project to start with !
I can send you the 3D file of the case, but it will be even better if you find your own design and let your mind express.
PS: Cherry MX Silver Speed switches are amazing, getting from laptop-keyboard to those is for real amazing !