I’m new to mechanical keyboards, I have a Drop ENTR and I don’t even know if it’s any good, but I wanted to make it better, so I started researching on it, and I’ve gotten a bit obsessed… my only problem is my lack of money, I’ve been looking into how to build one a keyboard from scratch, and there’s a ton of cheap-ish options, I’m just really good at second-guessing myself… anyway, thought i’d try joining some kind of community where I could ask questions and read other people’s thoughts
Hello, and welcome! As for building a keyboard from scratch, you can either design a PCB (or find an existing design that is opensource) and have it fabricated by one of the mail order PCB makers. You’ll also want to design a plate and/or case to be laser cut either by an online service or a local shop if possible. Alternatively there is the handwired (or hand-wired or hand wire) approach which you’ll need a plate (and a case if you’re into that sort of thing), a microcontroller dev board (arduino pro micro, teensy 2.0, etc), and wire. Either approach will require switches, keycaps and diodes. This is just a summary and I’m no expert, but regardless of which way you decide to go there are plenty of knowledgeable folks here who can probably answer your questions. Golem is an excellent source of info on the matter of building your own keyboard.
Sorry, by “from scratch” I don’t mean literally making my own PCB and case, not yet at least, I don’t have the knowledge or tools, I just meant, picking the parts and putting it together myself instead of buying one assembled.
Ahoy! Glad to have you here, cookie or otherwise. You’ve come to a good place to ask questions - fire-away as they come up.
Any keyboard you enjoy typing on is a good keyboard, but there’s also usually something you can do to make it better - and there’s always someone working on a better design. What I’m getting at is that what you enjoy is more important than what’s hot in keebs, because that’s a chase that never ends, and it’s good to know that up-front.
The upshot is the humongous amount of variety and choice available, and there’s more just about every day. If you have a use-case, there’s a keeb for it - or a tuning method to dial your existing keeb for it. I haven’t tried to take apart an ENTR myself, but I’m sure there’s all kinds of mods you could do with it.
You’re on a brave quest being from latam and getting into this hobby. I’ve heard stuff is pretty limited over there, not to mention pricing and import fees!
Hello latam brother, things are though for us below the equator, but there’s hope(-ish).
I dunno about Chilean import process and Taxes, but I really recommend AliExpress as a first place to check for “in stock” stuff. Usually shipping is free or pretty cheap and sellers don’t declare the full value of the product in the shipping label (controversial, but welp) so usually I’m not charged import fees, which in Brazil is 60% over the product value AND shipping (not to mention our heavily devalued currency).
I really wanted to go for the KBDFans stuff everyone raves about, but the shipping kills this option, so I’m sticking mostly with Idobaos, Akkos and Keychrons for now. Luckily, these brands are releasing good keyboard/switches/keycaps options that are more accessible to non us/eu folks.
Maybe one day KBDfans will be able to open satellite locations in other places - that shipping is rough! That’s like my small window into what keeb fans across the world deal with all the time - I feel for you guys.
Yeah, I dunno in Chile, but for Brazil they have 75-day money back in case the shipment don’t arrive (haven’t happened to me yet), which is usually not an option when buying from “normal” international e-commerces. Also, it can be confusing to understand which stores to trust and how the site works overwall.
I didn’t have much luck with keeb stuff in banggood, but I’ve bought a lot of electronics in there for cheap and had no issues with shipping/taxes/scams (they also have some money back/return thingy)