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Andy Warburton ❌❌❌ | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @e53e3529 it’s actually a keyboard of my own design. I call it the Mech 50. Entirely made of FR4. Supports normal and low profile switches. It’s a 50% Ortholinear with three extra hotkeys on the left. Keycaps are Kat Cyberspace. Files are available on GitHub (although it has some issues with the rgb https://github.com/andywarburton/Mech-50).
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5e3866e2 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @cfb7be51 So it's caseless, essentially? With the FR4 as a support structure? I'd love to build my own board, but so far the only thing I've done is a switch replacement, along with o-rings and lubed switches. I might also try and get some better stabs for my spacebar and enter keys.
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Andy Warburton ❌❌❌ | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @e53e3529 yup! Completely caseless. I got into mechanical keyboards when I started working from home in 2020, bought an off the shelf model, then built a Discipline and Gherkin from kits, designed a couple of macropads, then handwired some keyboards and then eventually felt confident enough to build this which I’ve been really happy with (I do need to build a revision 3 with the RGB fixed but I’ll get to that eventually!
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5e3866e2 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @cfb7be51 So did you design the PCB as well? If so, where did you get it made? Also, how difficult was it to handwire one? I've been learning about the kind of grid setup that keyboards use because I've been building button boxes for my sim rig, and I'm wondering now if that skill might be transferable to building my own keyboard.
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Andy Warburton ❌❌❌ | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @e53e3529 yup, I leant KiCad and went for it! Ordered from JLCPCB. I was really happy with the quality and the delivery was pretty fast (only downside is you have to order at least five which means I have four R1 boards I never used and three R2). Handwiring is actually pretty easy. It’s time consuming for sure but there are loads of great tutorials out there now (and awesome firmware like KMK which is a lot less hassle than QMK because you don’t need to compile each time!)