FreiKey: Firmware for fully self-designed & manufactured keyboards
Firmware for my fully custom orthogonal, ergonomic keyboards:
Software
I have been refactoring this stuff a bit, and it's cleaner, but still not quite
where I want it to be. Once I'm happy with it, I'll probably write more about
how to use the software. For now, you'll just have to stare at it. You need to
install the arm-none-eabi version of GCC, as I hate the Arduino IDE and have
been using a tool I built to
just use make -j <...> to build & flash the firmware.
Quick Summary
(A little out of date)
I designed & manufactured these keyboards all myself. They're using a pair of AdaFruit Feather nRF52's, same as the ErgoBlue keyboard I wired together myself. The reason for the new designs are two-fold:
- A better fit for my thumbs. The ErgoDox thumb cluster took a couple weeks to get accustomed to, and when I've gone back and tried it after having grown accustomed to my new FreiKey, I have the same problem: the cluster is too far away. My thumb doesn't naturally 'rest' where the cluster is.
- A reasonable place for an "Arrow-T". Yes, I could have mapped an arrow cluster somewhere on the ErgoDox, but whereever it went, it would have been moving around a key that I didn't want to move/relearn. FreiKey has an arrow cluster (and, on the other side, a pgup/pgdn/home/end cluster) directly below the home row. You just have to slide your hand down about 2 inches!
The walnut keyboard (top) I've called 'FreiKeys'. It's got an aluminum keyplate and a 2500mAh battery in each half. The lower one is called 'Karbon'. The keyplate is milled out of 1.5mm carbon fiber. The middle layers are 3D-printed PLA (space for a battery, etc...) and then the back 2mm carbon fiber. Karbon is the second generation of my custom keyboard. The primary problems I had with FreiKeys are that the placement of `/~ and =/+ were pretty hard to hit reliably, which is frustrating while coding, and I just don't really use the bottom row (except for the curly brace/brackets) and when I did, they were highly inconvenient to actually hit. So I removed the bottom row, and moved around the thumb keys enough so that hopefully it will be easier to hit the `/~ and =/+ keys with my thumbs. I'm enjoying it thus far, though typing this paragraph is the first time I've used this keyboard :D.
For these keyboards, rather than cutting an aluminum plate and manually wiring the matrix, I designed a PCB, with a spot to put the Feather controllers. This was the first time I've designed (and milled) a PCB, as well as the first time I've milled aluminum, and carbon fiber, so it's been an adventure. A few key points worth noting:
Stuff I've learned from FreiKeys:
- Small end mills break easily (particularly on Aluminum)!
- Large 'V' bits don't break easily (certainly not while ripping through some copper clad PCB blanks)
- Clearing away the spare copper of a PCB isn't necessary. You just need to make sure each circuit that matters is isolated (much faster to mill.)
- Aluminum is much harder than wood
- Milling aluminum is messy (either using cutting fluid, thereby extending the life of your bits, or just those damn aluminum shavings, which aren't magnetically responsive and behave like glitter)
- New router bits cut aluminum much better
- I still haven't got the right speed/feed for milling the copper off of copper clad PCB's cleanly
- Sanding your finished PCB can get rid of the messy edges, but can also sand off pieces of the trace you care about!
- Surface mounting something that isn't really designed for it is awkward
Stuff I've learned from Karbon:
- Carbon is theoretically slower to mill than aluminum, but if you mill it in a water bath, it's super easy to just start the program, and ignore it, as the water keeps the bit from overheating.
- Sharp small V-bits hold up just as well as the big spiral V-bits, and leave a clean edge!
- Fusion360 has Eagle circuit stuff built in now, but it's still restricted to circuit boards smaller than half a keyboard, so I'm still just doing everything manually...
The Good Stuff
Here's stuff that doesn't live on GitHub (A bunch of AutoDesk Fusion 360 projects)
FreiKeys stuff
- The aluminum keyplate is the same for both the left & right hand.
- The left side PCB.
- The right side PCB.
- The wooden cases in a single project.
Karbon
- Everything for this keyboard is in a single project, here
LapType
- I should get the project up here, but right now, I haven't bothered...