Hi! I'm PHØ

Hi Hi,

I am new to the whole MK stuff. I want to build my own from scratch and looking for inspirations, tools and a cool community :slight_smile:

cheers
PHØ

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Welcome!

Do you like Pho? If so, which is your favorite?

Do you mean the soup? PHØ is just an acronym of my real Name :sweat_smile:

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Yup the soup lol

Also, what’s your favorite keyboard so far?

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Welcome! Don’t hesitate to ask any questions :slight_smile:

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I don´t have much experience with mechanical keyboards. I want to build my own keyboard from the scratch since a long time. Not long ago I met an old friend and talk with him about mechanical keyboards an he have his own diy keyboard! I played around with the keyboard and I was lost :smiley:
Now I need more informations about keyboards, switches, caps to start building my own.

btw this was the keyboard:

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you can be sure of that. I have many questions :smiley:

Glad to have ya around here! Hopefully you learn a lot.

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Thanks. I think I will :slight_smile:

Hi,

Welcome to the hobby with the most rabbit-holes in one hobby. :wink:

So here are a few (hopefully helpful) links for you (and of course also others :wink:):

  • Matt3o’s online book on building your own keyboard — helped me a lot to understand how the key matrix works and how the controller checks which key is pressed.
  • The online Keyboard Layout Editor (short “KLE”), useful for many kinds of jobs:
    • Create your own layout for later generating the according plate files with the online Plate & Case Builder
    • Create keycap designs and either generate simple pictures of them directly there or for better quality renders by e.g. KLE Render.
    • Or just visualize layout ideas or show your different layers to your friends or generate a picture of them to print out and pin it beside your computer (in case of e.g. 40% or 30% keyboards with tons of unlabelled layers :wink:)

If you intend to design your own PCB, you might be interested in the following two guides. I though haven’t tried them yet, they’re just in my bookmarks in case I want to do this myself sometime in the future, so no guarantees. :wink:

Oh, and of course QMK, the most popular free firmware for keyboards, especially handwired ones.

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… already fell in the first ones and see a lot more incoming :smiley:

Thanks for the pretty cool links :slight_smile:

Just saw your tag-line »debian-nerd / code-lover / vim-fan / keyboard-enthusiast« in the profile.

Another Debian guy (actually even a Debian Developer :slightly_smiling_face:) here. Emacs user, though. Wrote my diploma thesis in LISP, so Emacs was obligatory. :wink:

From your Mastodon profile I gather you’re in the Stuttgart area. Wanted to visit the Shackspace at some point in the future. Might be a chance for a real-life meeting. :slight_smile:

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Oh ok sounds like so much more knowledge than i have :sweat_smile: nice to meet a debian-dev.
Yes i live “near” stuttgart and know the shackspace :slight_smile: but was never there since i live here. Maybe someday i found the time to visit shackspace - pretty busy with family and stuff :sweat_smile:

Okay, Vim vs emacs fight!

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:joy: no editor wars here

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Sublime best editor

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Well that escalated quickly :joy:

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You’re tempting me to start also the Open Source vs Closed Source software war. :wink:

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Cool. I am also trying to learn all the neccessary topics regarding building a mechanical keyboard. Below are some links which I found useful. It might or might not be useful for you (I have a degree in Material Science and Engineering but these resources was very helpful).

How to read a schematic
Logic levels
About the keyboard matrix

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Hi,

oh great sources - sparkfun !
i used this: QMK Firmware
and it helps a lot. Your sources bring a lot of background knowledge.
thanks for that!

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