A naked (unpainted) black TKC 1800 with green plate. Got it for a bit less than normal when a bunch of them were up on Massdrop a year ago or so. Planned with GMK >Terminal_ R2 (hence the green plate).
Might become my next “home holidays” or weekend-during-COVID-19-lockdown build, but I just ran out of Millmax hotswap sockets, (Well, there are still enough left for another 40% build, but not for a full-size build.)
Additionally I run out of my favourite switches (Zealios, Zilents, Kailh Box Royal, Kailh Box Navy and Kailh Box Jades), Still have a bag of nice and orange Healios, so I might just use them initially although they’re planned them for some build with orange keycaps.
I ordered some more Zealios and Zilents at Massdrop’s leftovers shop “Yanbo’s Closet” about two or three weeks ago, but they’re not yet even shipped, probably due to COVID-19…
Leaf60: Ordered my Alps plate. Once it arrives I can build it up with brown alps.
SI 60%: Just need to lube the space invader switches then they’ll be “done”. Thankfully I don’t need to desolder in order to lube.
VIA Rebuild: Just laziness now. Going to use silk switches. I need to desolder, and rebuild it with a cooler PCB too!
LZ Physix: Big laziness here from me. I need to lube and film my NK Dry yellow switches before building up this fun one.
FR87: I need to lube the T1 switches inside. At least the whole plate/board won’t require me to desolder with the switch top removal plate/half plate.
CA66: I need to get a new plate made to try something out. Then I’ll probably go with some silk switches instead of jades Alternative option is NK Blueberries
I was trying to desolder switches I don’t like from my Alf X3 and didn’t notice the tip was ****ed up on my desoldering gun and pulling pads off the board. So now I’m missing five or six pads and am going to have to patch it up with lil wires…
oof. Yeah I frickin hate desoldering shit, pain in my butt. I didn’t think I used the desoldering gun that much but I guess the tips don’t last that long
jeez full size board sounds not fun. I end up doing quite a lot of soldering for my job, I can do surface mount stuff no problem, microscope, no problem, even bga parts if I have to, but like almost nothing through hole. I hate doing through hole stuff…
I have four CFTKB DIY kits I need to build. The blocker - time. I’m home 24/7 with a 2 and 4 year old so I can’t just sit down for 6 hours and solder. I would work on them after they go to bed, but summer (being light out so late) has messed with their sleep cycles and they go to bed about the same time as the wife and I. I’m up at 5:30 am to run, then work and kids all over again. It’s gonna happen one of these days. Once daycare is a thing and I can take a day off work.
I know how you feel! I have a YAS-62 I’d like to split the backspace on, and a NeXT non-adb board that I need to linearize (by taking out the click leaves, a time-consuming fiddly process — though easier with the ALPS switch opener! I’ve only gotten the nav cluster linearized, so far).
Between my kids, my work, and other demands of me it’s proving challenging to carve out the time or to justify the time for these things.
my gameboy cartridge MCU. I got pretty far on this project. Printed PCB’s that were in the Gameboy cartridge form factor and was able to plug them into a keyboard. I work on programs with custom bindings and sometimes I don’t have the appropriate keyboard at the time so plugging in your MCU was a no solder easy solution
Blocking
The connector that the cart plugs into is expensive. There are plenty of alternatives out there but sourcing the right one is the hard part. Also there needs to be support for when the cart plugs in so it stays there. I never got around to designing it
Sounds like an interesting project. Thanks for sharing!
So what’s the idea behind this? What kind of functionality is on the cartridges that want to be pluggable in a keyboard? Switch from QMK to TMK quickly? Switch between different layouts quickly?
What do you consider expensive here? Do you want to build more than one of these keyboards which have that socket?
I thought of it like hotswappable keymapping. I work with multiple computers and multiple keyboards. If I could just unplug the cartridge and plug it into a new keyboard and have the same keybindings that would save me a lot of time.
Each Cart holds the MCU. The PCB that has the key switches on it does nothing other than Power and hold the switches. A socket for the Cart will allow for the cart to plugin.
I made an adapter for pro micro based keyboards along with planning on supporting all my keyboards in the future with it by having the footprint needed on the PCB and at checkout people can pick these carts and their adapter.
I found a company that makes different sizes for adapters. The expensive part is the adapter and the gold fingers for the PCB. When I say expensive I mean $3 for the adapter lol But considering the Atmega chip is less than $1, that is an expensive part.
I even designed but never made a keyboard that had 3 slots:
MCU
LED badge with programmable LEDs
USB Cart. Want USB-C? or USB-Mini? Just change the USB cart.
Old post, but how did the ADK64 workout for you? I see them as an in stock item now with a 5 week lead time. Not bad. Optional center poll too, classy.
Pretty good actually! I got mine without the center pole & haven’t had any issues with it. I’ve swapped the build in it numerous times too. I’d definitely recommend one for a decent 3D printed case. The finish leaves a little to be desired (seems to be the case with any 3D printed case I’ve had TBH), but you can sand & fill the material it is made from if you want to.
Review for board X
Review for Board Y
Review for switch Z
Review for switch group AA, AB, AC, & AD
And build 4-6 keyboards that need to be either built or rebuild -_-
At least I have a lot of fun ahead!
Of course I’m always the reason my unfinished projects are still unfinished although arguably I still need to find some decently priced blue alps and a send my files over to sendcutsend to get a plate made
I have a few old OEM boards (DAS, Code, Ducky) and I would like to fix the stabs and replace the switches inside with the surplus of switch parts I have from other projects. Then throw on some cheap caps (thinking Artifact Bloom) and gifting them to my friends. But the thought of desoldering three full-size boards with factory soldering is not appealing to me at the moment. Even with an FR-30.
(Well, there are still enough left for another 40% build, but not for a full-size build.)
Alternative option is NK Blueberries
