Things to.look for are largely personal preference, but they include things like the layout (ANSI, ISO, JIS, DVORAK, COLEMAK…), switch (linear, tactile, clicky, silenced and their weights), board size (40%, 60%, 75%, TKL), case (milled acrylic, sandwiched layers, milled aliminium, wood), case colour, programmability, lighting (yes/no, static colour, RGB, per key colour setting, underglow…), modability (plug in mods, soldering, hot swap switches and so on), key plastic (ABS, PBT, POM), key legend style (pad printed, dye sub, double shot, shine through, blank), key colour and colour schemes. Oh and cables.
Pretty much any aspect of the vaord can me modified to your taste.
The easiest and most instantly gratifying is key caps. I like colourful, blank PBT but also have more normal lettered keys on other boards.
I could not find a keyboard that would do all the obscure things I needed it to do so I made my own.
A few of the useful things it does:
Use only generic OS keyboard drivers, all functions can be used with out installing a driver.
HEX-Shift keypad, use numpad enter key to shift numpad into A-F for HEX input. I do lots of design work and this is very handy for entering color values.
Telemetry, only super basic for now.
OS aware macros, pressing a key will run a different macro depending on what OS the system is running.
Game mode that disable all Japanese keys for games like KillingFloor2 that break/crash when you press them.
Password protected macro layer, typing the user defined passcode (can be any keys even arrows or del/ins etc.) at any time will enter a macro layer only accessible via the passcode. (unless firmware is compiled with debug mode on)
One handed function layers, led brightness, volume, media keys, etc. can all be accessed with only one hand. (right or left)
Integrated mouse-keys.
Things I want to add:
Emulating multiple USB HID keyboards which can be switched via hotkeys, can bind each USB HID device to a VM.
On-board general file storage and ability to edit keymaps as a plain text file instead of having to re-compile firmware each time.
That is very impressive, good work. Have you posted this anywhere else? I know a few places would be interested in what you have made, like reddit, geekhack and possibly deskthority.
Guise, what kind of tool do i need to crimp terminals for a JST connector?
Its the only thing keeping me from fixing up my Model M, since i tore appart the already damaged cable a few days ago.
i’ll be using a really thick PS2 cable i harvested from an IBM Preferred keyboard in order to fix the M.
I browse /r/mechanicalkeyboards on reddit a decent amount, not so much geekhack or deskthority though I have accounts on both. I know a lot of ambitious projects get started but very few are ever completed or if they are they usually are based on the community backing the development.
You are an exceptioanly rare case in that you know exactly what you want, have the skills to make it happen and crucially did! The scope of your project is no small thing and making it functional even more impressive. Not to sound brown nosing in any, but it is quite amazing. And that you made it fit a standard existing case is really nice. Some of the first projects of this type I saw were also Filco based, like the Phantom PCB, serious points earned for going this route.
I would almost urge you to post this else where with even more detail. Though beaware, reddit for sure will want you to make it in greater numbers so people can buy it. I am pretty sure then other two would too. That you are thinking of also making a case for it too would be an instant Group Buy starter. People would definitely buy this.
Also love the Filco Ninja series. It was my first serious wanting mechs and all time desert island board for me. Though mine is the TKL and no longer sports the ninja caps, moved on to hand dyed blank PBT for mine.
@Token I know they don’t get a lot of love but everyone starts somewhere. Always welcome.
I really appreciate your kind words, thank you! I will continue to work on it as time permits, I think the next step is to write some documentation. The firmware is heavily modified tmk_keyboard firmware. I originally wrote my own from scratch, but once I started implementing macros and layers I decided to save myself a lot of time and scrap it and fork tmk_keyboard as its already well established and documented.
As for Filco, I love their build quality, the switch plates are thick steel and make a big difference to the feel and sound over thin aluminium or acrylic. Plus they are pretty good value in Japan, about 10,00-13,000 JPY (100-120 USD). I live in the US now but importing them is still cheaper than buying one from a US retailer. I have also built one of these using a Rosewill RK-9000, same design as Filco just with lesser quality materials but also only 70 USD for a case, genuine Cherry MX switches, and a half decent switch plate. The Rosweill RK9000 keycaps are pretty terrible though and wear super fast.
I’ve gone from not caring and using whatever, to liking a random Logitech blue tooth keyboard I got for my tablet and actually really liking it- then a friend said that keyboard is built to feel like Apple keyboards, so then I bought a used Apple keyboard and liked it. Then I watched a lot of YouTube and figured I wanted to try a keyboard with cheery blues, apparently Razer greens are really similar. Not sure where this is going to end up haha
