So I’ve been wanting to downsize and bluetooth-ize my keyboard lately, and I’ve been looking for PCBs that support the Adafruit Bluefruit Feather. People have been wiring up their own keyboards using this microcontroller, and I was thinking it would be awesome to find one.
But there are practically NO Feather-compatible PCBs.
It never occurred to me that this was something I could MAKE.
And so easily! I downloaded the free KiCad software pack, read over this quick tutorial, and whipped this prototype up in no time (after staring at the microcontroller pinout overview trying to make sense of it).
Right now, it supports:
- 48 Keys in an Ortholinear (grid) format
- Bluetooth via the Adafruit Bluefruit Feather microcontroller
- Hotswapping MX compatible switches via Kaihl Sockets
- a bunch of mounting holes for whatever 3D print stuff I want to attach to it
- Some crazy graphic
I’m still debating whether to turn this into a low profile keyboard by switching the footprints to the Kaihl Choc low profile Hotswap sockets (but there aren’t really any custom keycaps available for it), add another row of keys, or investigate a split keyboard option.
Also, I need to get Shirley to illustrate the Silkscreen print.
Knowing I can CAD up a custom PCB and order a small batch online is a pretty cool new playground.
