How to make a mechanical keyboard by yourself

First, write a memoir of my keyboard. I really started to touch the keyboard in 2008, when I was a pure college student.

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At that time, I bought my first expensive keyboard (not counting the one I bought for 30 yuan before), which was a thin film keyboard. At that time, I didn't know what a film was and what a mechanical keyboard was. Even the function buttons or something are the first contact. I buy things entirely by brand, so my first keyboard is Logitech's whirlwind player.

At that time, it was crazy to buy a keyboard with more than 200 yuan, but at that time, I didn't know any performance at all, only that it was beautiful, handsome and had a lot of keys. Now I know, it seems that the sales of this product are general. )

However, it was later discovered that multimedia keys, such as listening to songs, can only be replaced by official music players, and others can't, but it's okay, although it's ok to feel more than 200. It was comfortable to have a hand rest, but it was popular to play dota at that time. This round F key was really uncomfortable, and later it was replaced by my second keyboard.

The second keyboard, dell8 1 15, I believe the old players are very familiar with this keyboard. At that time, it was called the most cost-effective film keyboard. You can buy one for 45 yuan, which feels as good as 2.3 hundred pieces of film. In fact, because the film keyboard has a simple structure and little difference in feel, this keyboard is included in the all-in-one machine because it is 8 1 108.

After these two keyboards, I began to slowly study some keyboard articles and comments. Later, I learned that the artifact of playing games was a mechanical keyboard, but at that time, mechanical keyboards were so expensive (money was also valuable) that it was not bad to buy one for a month's living expenses. Moreover, the domestic machinery at that time had not yet emerged, and most of the quality was not at ease, so I took the time to put the dream of buying a keyboard on hold. (For example, I bought a Feiyan x7 mouse for 2 months), so I always wanted to have a mechanical keyboard of my own.

Later, there were more and more brands of keyboards, but I never knew which brand to buy. Whether it's the original factory or the thief boat. Several domestic brands seem to have a good evaluation. But for those who have difficulty in choosing, I really don't know what to buy. So hesitate, hesitate. Then I finally found such a thing-customization!

Cognitive article

All right, let's get down to business today.

Let me explain customization first: customization is another translation of "customization", which is equivalent to "customization" Custom words originated in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and are not commonly used in Chinese mainland. From Baidu Encyclopedia.

In other words, keyboard customization is to make one yourself ~ Why can mechanical keyboards be customized? Haven't you heard that you can make a membrane keyboard? Then I'll start with the axis of the mechanical keyboard.

In fact, mechanical keyboards are nothing new. Mechanical keyboard is a kind of keyboard, which appeared in the early stage of keyboard, and was gradually replaced by thin film keyboard because of cost problems. But there are still many people who put forward higher requirements for comfort, feel and quality. So the mechanical keyboard has been handed down. Structurally, each key of the mechanical keyboard has a separate Switch (that is, switch) to control the closing, which is the so-called "axis". It is this independent switch structure that creates the possibility of customization. With the passage of time, there are many kinds of axes. Look at the picture below.

It is common to distinguish the above four axes by color. You can choose your favorite axis according to the pressure and trigger form. The black axis and the red axis have no sense of paragraph, while the tea axis and the green axis have a sense of paragraph. You can choose your favorite axis according to the pressure index. If simply understood, the black axis is suitable for the ultimate game, and the green axis belongs to the ultimate typing experience. The black tea in the middle belongs to the tiger balm.

Ok, after introducing the conventional shaft, I brushed the rare shaft body. Most of the shafts that can be called rare shafts are rarely seen. Such as green axis, milk axis, deep blue axis, blue axis, gray axis and so on. They are all low-output shafts, and most of them are common shaft deformations, such as adding a spring under the same shaft column or changing the shaft.

It is very important to choose the shaft according to your own preferences and feelings. You can buy all the shafts in Taobao and try to feel them. Because there are several mechanical keyboards in your products, I gradually know which shaft is more comfortable for me.

Tool preparation items

So, what do we need to prepare for the keyboard after we have an impression of the axis?

First, welding tools are needed.

They are screwdriver, needle-nosed pliers, soldering iron, solder, tin sucker, soldering iron holder, flux, tweezers and crowbar.

Needless to say, solder and soldering iron Fault-tolerant welding suction device. Suction in the wrong place, tweezers do some fine operations to detect pcb circuit board. Needle-nosed pliers cut off the excess parts. Flux prevents oxidation of soldering iron metal head.

Product preparation

What I bought this time is steel plate, shell, separator, PCB, keycap, shaft and lamp bead. In fact, some can not buy. It's just that this obviously can't satisfy my man show. So I bought a separator, which is easy to carry. I bought a lamp bead to scare my eyes! So if the budget is insufficient, or people who don't care, you can light the beads. You can also save some money.

Give you some close-up photos.

Bought an ABS wildcard keycap. Keycaps are chosen according to their own prices and feelings. ABS and PBT are both good choices. Just according to your own preferences.

I bought an ice blue lamp, which is my favorite ~ pay attention to everyone. If you buy a lamp bead, you'd better change the keycap to ABS or PBT keycap. Otherwise, the effect will not be very good.

Also, I recommend you to buy two of these things. This is a solder practice version. Solder the solder into the hole, and then solder the keyboard when you are proficient.

This is the welding plate I practiced, and the back is getting better and better, so I won't practice it.

Actually, that's all for good preparation. It seems difficult, but it's all a matter of choice, and it takes a lot of brains. Eggs must be ready, or you will be half done on the keyboard, which is really uncomfortable.

The price will not be disclosed for the time being, and I will tell you after I finish writing the film.

Write an article

Ok, the next step is to make a nervous and satisfied keyboard.

Take the course of steel plate (fixed plate) as an example. First of all, let's talk about the steel plate, that is, the fixed plate, because the shaft body has a certain height and an independent button with spring stroke. Generally, we buy a 3-pin shaft body (according to the primary production, a 5-pin shaft body is not needed). After this kind of welding, especially personal welding, and the circuit board is slightly thinner, it will be easier to collide and fall off, so it is fixed with steel plate. Of course, whether cherry has steel buttons or not, it shows that its pcb circuit board workmanship and welding technology are excellent (as folk fans say), which can improve the use experience of the shaft body (as officially said).

In fact, the gap is not big, there is no comparability, just like some people like red, some people like blue, there is no right or wrong. But the feedback with steel plate bottom and without steel plate bottom is different. The steel plate is very strong, and you will hear clang. Those without steel plates will be slightly weaker, after all, the circuit board is directly below. According to personal preference. But it is true that the steel plate can better fix the shaft body, which is more suitable for novice welding, because it can be placed on the keyboard in advance to determine the area before welding. Let's take the steel keyboard as an example.

Well, because of the fixing method of the steel plate used, it is recommended to use the satellite shaft. After all, it is convenient for beginners to use. Snap-on form, just click it directly, which is very convenient.

Generally speaking, merchants will only connect your card. Note that this metal bar is placed under the steel plate. Then it was installed at one point on both sides.

That's it. And of course, the balance bar device. Compared with the satellite axis, the balance bar has better elasticity and good feedback feeling, and will not consume too much power of the axis. However, the balance bar is difficult to install, clean and shake, so it is recommended for beginners to use the satellite shaft. Although it will feel softer, it will be less worrying.

Then check the circuit board.

Because after welding, no matter which one does not return or change, it is necessary to test whether each circuit is a path before this. Actually, it's very simple. It can be done with tweezers. That is to say, you link your motherboard, then plug it into the computer and short-circuit the two holes directly with tweezers. Then at this time, you download a KeyboardTest software to check whether each key is easy to use, and then you can go to the next step. There is also a lamp holder, which is very easy to use as long as you plug in all the lamp beads you bought. You can check not only the circuit, but also the lamp beads. Finally, remind the lamp beads to be positive and negative, and remember to look at the logo on the pcb.

Well, after installing the satellite shaft, there is one more important thing to confirm, which is to confirm the distribution of the shaft and lights. Of course, if you are a unified axis keyboard, you can skip this section, but if you want to make a mixed axis, just take a look. The lights are the same.

That's what happened. Mark the distribution areas of shafts and lamps with drawings, and then weld them by areas. Many people like gradient marquee selection. You can directly search the gradient map of the marquee on the Internet. I am an ice-blue lamp, so I don't think about lamps. Then I'll show you my axis distribution map.

When I first came into contact with making a keyboard, I really wanted to make a good keyboard, so we read a lot of posts about mixed-axis keyboards to find the best ratio of mixed axes. But then an old hand told me that what I like is the best, so I abandoned the best ratio of various positions and configured a set of mixed shaft ratio that I thought was most suitable for me.

Then let me explain why it matches, esc milk axis, purely for fun, 10 yuan a rare axis purely for fun. F 1~f 12+ right 9-key tab and capital key are not commonly used, so I always use the green axis. There is another reason, which can prevent misoperation, because the unique paragraph sense of the green axis will not trigger when a certain stroke is pressed, which can prevent misoperation in a sense. Needless to say, I use the red axis for common keys, especially the position of 37 keys or the keys that can be involved in the game. Because my keyboard is more functional, I have to work and play games, so the red axis is placed in the position of common keys. Shift is the black axis. Let me explain the reason to you, because these two are big keys with satellite axes. If you use the red axis key, it will become soft, so I use the black axis with greater pressure coefficient than the red axis to adjust it, so that the pressure coefficient of the black axis can be integrated. Use feelings to improve. Backspace key, enter key and space bar have the same principle. Because of the satellite axis, it is still commonly used, but these three keys are afraid of misoperation, so I use the green axis, which has a greater pressure coefficient than the green axis but a sense of paragraph. Of course, the space bar can also use the gray axis or the milk axis.

Well, the shaft can be welded next, because it is fixed by steel plates. After the spindle body is clamped, it can be directly turned to the back for welding, and the test can be carried out after the whole welding is completed.

After welding is completed, you can do tests one by one to check whether there is any virtual welding at the welding points. That is, the solder is suspended, because this later stage will lead to insensitive or malfunction of the keys. When welding buttons for the first time, about four buttons failed. After welding again, they worked normally.

By the way, the temperature of soldering iron can reach 450~480, but I don't recommend using this temperature. Unless you are a very skilled student, you can guarantee to finish a solder joint within 3~5 seconds, otherwise the solder pad may be burnt out, so it will be very troublesome later. If you don't handle the whole circuit board, you will die, so I suggest you control the temperature at about 300~350 degrees, and buy a better solder wire, which will be very good.

Then let's talk about lighting.

Because the lamp bead is small and easy to move, it should be folded in a fixed position after being inserted in the back to facilitate welding. Remember not to cut the tail after welding, test before cutting, otherwise the tail of the lamp bead will be too short and the lamp bead will be wasted. After the test, you can cover the keyboard, screw on the screws and cover the keycap.

This is my original keycap, and I will finish making it with this photo. Next, we will enter the chapter of comparison and keycap.

Contrastive article

If you make a keyboard, you must compare it ~

As far as the red axis is concerned, it is true that the cherryG80 keyboard feels pure. Because this keyboard has no steel plate, the typing is pure and quiet. Here, thanks to @ Meizu Technology. This is from Meizu technology, and there is a set of Meizu keycaps. The quality is very good. Moreover, the style is very retro, and the standard function key 104 is not used, which shows that this keyboard is a sharp weapon for code words. And after such a long time of use, it also proves the comfort and practicability of the keyboard.

Ok, the next chapter is pure Sao, so we can go through it again.

Keycap price article

They all told me that keyboards are cheap and keycaps are expensive, just like keycaps are as deep as the sea. . I can feel it now, but I am still rational, so the price is still within the acceptable range on the whole. First of all, I bought two sets of white keycaps, because I didn't like the original one very much. I changed the big key, and then changed the blue pbt key cap, 37 keys, which looked very refreshing. Later, I customized an ESC keycap just for fun. Then I bought a set of 12 constellation abs font, 6-key expression font and 1 Bikachu keycap. Oh, I forgot my key cap. Hey hey hey. I bought another one and regretted it. . . This is a metal keycap. At first, it was used to play games. Later it was found that the metal keycap was too heavy. I use the red shaft itself, and the spring is soft, which will press the soft spring. So remind everyone not to tamper with the keycaps in the 37-key area, especially the heavy metal keycaps.

I took a wooden pallet, full.

Then there is a sad story. . About money. The following pictures all include postage.

The total price is close to 1 120, and this is not the price of the tool! ! ! This is a sad story. . . But I think it's worth it As you can see, most of the money is spent on installing X, so it's actually very cheap to make a keyboard casually. Of course, the premise is not to buy a keycap!

Then please enjoy my beautiful keyboard picture. Thanks to @ Xu Lijun Cuba for filming.