Mechanical Keyboards

Navies are a good choice! I have a mix of navies and jades and love them.

Handwires are finicky, but the easy repair seems like it will make things easier to live with. I am sure there are several cold joints in this one (I really am still not very good with the iron), but I caught several structurally problematic ones during the build, and since then nothing has come loose. I kept things vertically compact enough that 3/8"/10mm seems enough to avoid any issues with shorts, but I could probably use a roll of kapton tape.

There are a few in-progress pics on Geekhack, but here is the final wiring. The RP2040-Zero has 20 castellated GPIO pins, and I ended up with a weird looking but doable 12x7 matrix. Next time I crack this one open, I think I will solder in a second LED to the last open pin and tie it to Capslock. I do find I miss that one a bit.

The plates were from Xometry. I got 3 switch plates and 3 bottom plates made of 1/16" (1.6mm) 5052 aluminum. The only finish option I chose was deburring. Total was US $67, and with the options I chose (and more to the point, the options I declined), I think this is probably about as cheap as it gets; the setup is a huge part of the cost, so I think 1 of each plate was going to be like $44. This first build, I just went right to town putting switches in and starting with the wiring. I justified my impatience by telling myself I want to see how it ages, but mostly I wanted to dive in. For the other two, I think I'll sand and put a clearcoat on before beginning the wiring, and I will refine the case sides one way or another, maybe lasercut plywood, maybe 3D printed, or maybe just spending more time on the woodworking.

Thanks. Been using it for my home and gaming PC (gaming has been exclusively Minecraft with my daughter in that time) for about a week, and no major issues. It is just about the look I was going for, kind of a vague "out of time" vibe without trying to do something crazy like actually live with a C64 layout. Even with this one, the "reverse ISO" left shift that I did as a nod to older computers that had a 1U to the left of the LShift was probably a slight mistake, but I've just remapped it so they're both shift.

I find a certain relaxation in soldering a board like this, but it's not exactly its own reward so I need to find some angle to explore to make me feel like it's time well spent. I've seen most of these elements on various projects on the interwebs, but never put together exactly like this, so I thought it was worthwhile. I like the zero degree incline, the low height, the programmability, and the vaguely out-of-time vibe from the keycaps, layout, and materials. It is far from perfect, but I'm pleased with it, and given the tools and supplies and switches I already had, the actual cash outlay was not a ton.