bowiten65

Summary

This is going to be a mechanical keyboard with a 65% layout, supporting stepped caps lock, split enter, and/or a 7u spacebar. The PCB and case are designed by me, with inspiration from a few open source keyboards. It supports MX style switches, and also has support for PCB mount stabilizers.

Plan

I used some open source keyboards/PCBs as a starting point, such as kkatano’s bakeneko65 and dededecline’s SST60. I also used some guides such as ai03’s pcb guide, Masterzen’s blog posts, and Sleepdealr’s RP2040 design guide. Some of these guides are slightly outdated, but overall still helpful.

I plan to salvage some switches from an old keyboard by desoldering them. I’ll lube them with the Krytox 205g0 that I have somewhere. I have some spare stabilizers from another keyboard that I have, which I will be using. I also plan to lube those with Krytox 205g0. After I receive the PCBs, I’ll flash them with firmware that I created using Vial, a fork of QMK. If everything works, then I’ll solder the switches in, add stabilizers, and assemble.

Budget