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I took apart a mechanical keyboard from the 80's and reused the switches and keycaps to transform it into my own keyboard.
Skills
Hand-wiring
Ergonomic Design
Firmware
Soldering
Why?
My keyboard wasn't working so well anymore. Instead of buying one for a hefty price of $30, I decided it would be a good idea to build my own while reusing the parts from an old keyboard. I'd surely learn a lot. Little did I know this would end up costing me over $100...
Layout
After pulling desoldering all of the switches and removing all the keycaps from the old keyboard, it was now time to find my optimal layout. Here's what I landed on:
Keyboard Midframe
First I tested dimensions for a single switch, then I printed the whole thing.
Wiring
This took a while... I wired the switches in rows and columns to create a matrix. Typically keyboards are wired through a PCB, however I thought it would be fun to try handwiring it. As fun as it was, maybe I do this in a better ventilated area next time.
Firmware
I used QMK as a start to make the firmware for the keyboard. This is basically where I program the keyboard so the A key registers A, B as B, and so on.
Testing and Troubleshooting
Of course there were problems... I solved each one at a time until everything was working harmoniusly. This included some resoldering, rewriting and reuploading code, modifying aspects of the design, making compromises, etc.
BEHOLD. Mjolnir! The mightiest keyboard of them all.
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