How to assemble a cheap keyboard expensive

1) The 3D printed case looks bad. The layers are visible no matter how you polish them, during installation the support remains get in the way and you constantly have to remove them. Even when you are sure that you have perfectly cleaned the workpiece, the board will definitely rest against some protruding tendril. At first, the meditative process begins to irritate.

2) Relatively easy to manufacture boards are expensive. They are easy to damage. As a result, what was supposed to be a construction set for schoolchildren turned into a hobby for “rich programmers”. This is probably why IT communities are so actively promoting this idea together with related products.

3) I would put the convenience of writing code on such a keyboard in a separate article, so many things need to be done so that your craft begins to give at least some advantage over a regular keyboard for 300 rubles. The programs for configuring these keyboards have a lot of functions that you can also get for free for any other keyboard, just by rolling out additional software. Recording macros, layers, reassigning keys – you can get all this without investment. Yes, the settings will not be stored in the memory of the keyboard itself. And yes, storing the settings in the keyboard's memory is relevant if you carry the keyboard from work to home, which of course no one will do. Hence the conclusion, it makes no difference where the settings are stored. On the contrary, this may be inconvenient if you connect the device alternately to Mac and Win or let your girlfriend, grandmother, cat use the computer …

4) Fragility of the design. No matter what you print the case with, it still won't provide enough rigidity. On top of that, the keyboard assembly is quite light and even the silicone feet from AliExpress, which stick tightly to the table, don't improve the situation much. The keyboard will fly off to the other side of the table with the slightest awkward movement.

The case bends and deforms, you have to make some spacers to compensate for the curvature. That's probably why the guys from BastardKeyboard use steel plates covering the bottom of their keyboards. This solves the problem of curvature and lightness, but a new question arises: where to find a manufacturer that will laser cut stainless steel and not rip you off eight skins for it. From the most adequate offers, I got a price of about 8 thousand rubles.

Here, 3D printer owners may object, pointing out that there are a lot of materials, including fairly rigid ones. But I have not yet managed to find a material that is even close in quality to production casting.

4) Ergonomics is greatly exaggerated, and for some people it has the opposite effect. This is because the essence of open source ergonomic keyboards was for us to create individual projects. Your posture, height, weight, finger length and curvature, all ultimately matter for recreating ergonomics. In reality, everyone prints the same 3D model.

And in order to calculate your parameters, you need to create several basic models, try them on live and, by polishing the unevenness, build your own model in a 3D editor.

5) The trackball ball falls out. It would seem that this is a minus that only concerns specific types of keyboards, but it shows the principle by which projects are built. And this principle is well known to us, it is called “good enough”. By adhering to it, we will get the same quality for all stages of the project implementation. You will notice annoying minor flaws in the layout of the boards, in the quality of connections, in the space for installation, etc.

The result of your work will be a craft that is not much better in quality than Chinese analogues. And if this is your first project or you haven't touched a soldering iron for ten years, like me, then most likely the quality will be even worse.

6) The software component is excellent but not perfect. For example, it lacks switching of the backlight depending on the layer. And if your native language is not C++, you will have to be content with the standard set of functions, of which there are many, but still not enough to create truly unique, individual devices.

The abundance of software functions is fully compensated by their uniformity. For example, my Redragon keyboard, which I once bought for the price of a pack of crackers, has a lot of cool backlight effects. My favorite effect is “heating” – when during fast typing the dim white backlight gradually turns red and then smoothly “cools down”. I did not find any cool “smart” effects for Via. But there are quite a lot of them and some are interesting. If I manage to find some free time, I will gladly experiment with creating new backlight effects. It seems to me that there is a lot of room for creativity here.

But why did it end up in the minuses if everything is fine? And the minus is precisely that the user layer is not separated from the administrative one. This means that an awkward gesture and your gadget goes into firmware mode. In factory devices, such things are thought out without fail, which is why we break our fingers to enter the system settings of almost any device made by engineers.

7) If you are not a remote worker, then you need to pack another keyboard for work in the office. This is so that you can tell everyone, with indelible pathos, that I do not use your legacy of typewriters.

8) Not for work. There is always a chance to miss a deadline just because your microcontroller burned out due to crooked soldering. This is exactly what happened to me, fortunately we delivered the project on time, and I did not have time to drag a new keyboard to work. It turned out that Chinese single-board computers on RP2040 are not very reliable. Unless you manage to get hold of a genuine “raspberry”, I have not yet found them on open sale in Russia.

Reliability depends on a lot of factors, both hardware (build quality, components) and software. You never know what the next reboot can lead to.

After rebooting, which is moved to the third layer by default, my keyboard simply froze, and the active side lit up red. It was necessary to reconnect it via USB. I still don’t understand why reset was needed in the active layer. Maybe it’s some kind of spy function, rebooted, it connected as a flash drive and saved secret documents. But now it becomes clear why security officers require permission to connect personal gadgets. All this is from areas that are extremely far from my understanding.

Also, the settings completely disappeared a couple of times. I never figured out what it was connected with, but it happened during the build and did not happen again after that.

9) If you don't know how to type with ten fingers, forget it. It's easier to learn on a regular keyboard first and then, as they say, feel the difference. And if you do know how to type, don't even think about dragging your freshly soldered miracle to work right after assembling or buying it. First, you need to master the layers, figure out the arrangement of letters, symbols, numbers. Test everything in the end! Despite the fact that everything is quite convenient, you won't be able to work normally without practice.

10) Skeleton-style keyboards (with wires sticking out) have no right to exist from a purely technical point of view. Even if we assume that you work in absolutely sterile conditions and drink coffee without leaving the coffee point, you can simply touch a wire with your finger, thereby shorting some contact.

Having examined all the skeletons, it became clear that they were made this way solely to reduce the dimensions. If you close all the cracks, you will need to increase the scale of the case, and at the same time there will be space for convenient installation of boards and wires.

11) The split keyboard requires two microcontrollers to work. At the same time, each half, connected separately, worked as the right one. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature. It seems to be a problem with my particular assembly.

Now to the advantages

A lot of material has already been written and filmed about the advantages, but I will note what I personally liked the most.

1) For now, the trackball remains a really convenient feature. Fans of Vim, Tmux and other zsh will be happy. But these same people can tell you that Vim combinations are nothing more than an attempt to programmatically rethink the ergonomics of existing keyboards. We have also heard from them about the need for mice, trackballs, trackpads, etc. Nevertheless, I have not seen a single expert in key combinations of all the OS in the world who would not have a mouse on his desk.

The trackball works great. Once you figure out the controls, your hand stops twitching to the right. Your hands are on the keyboard and it would seem that this is happiness. Until we connect the keyboard to macOS. Surprisingly, the trackball does not have all the problems that third-party mouse wheels have. Everything works smoothly, the modes behave as they should. But I still could not get rid of the trackpad or Magic Mouse. The super-convenient gestures for scrolling through full-screen modes that you get used to from the very first day cannot be configured for the trackball. At least I did not find a way to do this, if you solved this issue, you can make at least one person happy.

2) Straight arrangement of keys. For my crooked little fingers, which do not want to bend towards the hard sign and the letter “ё”, this is a huge plus.

3) Online software. Via allows you to customize the keyboard on almost any device and from any place. So if you really are one of those who go everywhere with their keyboard, then this function is very useful. No need to download and install additional software.

4) Layers and macros help to customize the device to your needs. If you have any. It seemed to me that it would be convenient to place the IDE commands in a separate layer. In practice, I almost never used this layer, and I do not use the commands themselves often enough to get used to and remember the location of the keys to which I tied the macros. But the standard layers are quite convenient and you really get used to them quickly.

5) The ability to assemble a custom project exclusively for yourself. I have listed the disadvantages of printed cases, but no one has canceled the creative component in assembling a keyboard “for yourself”. The best of all that I have seen is a wooden case made with a CNC milling machine, impregnated with linseed oil. It looks impressive and you can immediately see who the main system administrator is in the village. The problem is that this is only suitable for flat keyboards.

And by the way, the most convenient and aesthetically attractive projects are flat splits. In terms of availability, they are still not affordable for every schoolchild, but the materials for assembly will cost half as much as their ergonomic counterparts. I think the reliability is also better there, flexible boards laid on a curve after the allocated supports, a layer of plastic and fixed with switches soldered to them do not inspire confidence. But here there is reliable fixation and there is the ability to install hot-swappable modules and a screen with a cat. Isn't that happiness?

Drawing conclusions

What did I learn from assembling and using this keyboard? First and foremost, these keyboards are NOT for programmers.

I don't know if there are keyboards for programmers, accountants, test pilots, builders, janitors?

Marketing aside, keyboards and peripherals in general that you can assemble yourself to show off to your colleagues exist exclusively for those who like to spend their nights soldering boards. For whom the romance is breathing in flux fumes and burning through your mother's favorite desk with a soldering iron.

In my opinion, if soldering is your hobby, there is no point in buying ready-made board kits. There are examples of pin layouts online and the complexity is not very high. If you approach it thoroughly, then reliability and quality can be raised to a level not lower than ready-made boards, or even higher.

To achieve ergonomics, individuality, uniqueness. It is worth looking for friends with a 3D printer, if you do not have your own. Experiment with 3D models. There is every chance to get the best result, for a reasonable price.

If you are looking for a keyboard for work, buy a ready-made one. Made at the factory, with a manufacturer's warranty. Fortunately, there are enough split keyboards on mechanics. I was unable to find one with a trackball, but it does not play any decisive role for work. But nothing will fall off if someone hits the table with their fist. Yes, it will be more expensive, but the difference with what is offered as an alternative is colossal.

By the way, it's not that hard to google a Russian manufacturer of ergonomic keyboards. They sell them twice (!) cheaper than designers. These are the same OpenSource splits, only assembled by people with experience. I don't know what about compliance with licenses and other moral aspects, I have no contribution to the project, so I can't judge. They print the cases on 3D printers, still not production casting. The models are redesigned, stiffeners and all sorts of little things are added. I didn't have a chance to touch them in real life. Not a single “keyboard for programmers” was found on the site, so there is nothing to discuss.

So, the idea is great. A do-it-yourself kit, with a huge number of manuals, stories of successful builds and a friendly community. And yet, a kit for schoolchildren should be affordable for a schoolchild. Otherwise, they start selling it to anyone.