Actually, it’s not that expensive in the grand scheme of things, I’d say about €65-ish. That’s the PCBs (the electronics prints that you solder the rest onto), controllers, switches, keycaps (both relatively expensive because they’re low-profile) and batteries. The schematics are open source. If you want to start cheaper, build something with MX type switches, rather than Choc switches, you can find both switches and caps quite cheap. Or, if you don’t want to play “hunt the part on Ali express”, there’s companies that sell pre-collected (and sometimes even pre-built) kits.
Interesting! I saw some kits from some other company that were like 400 euros plus VAT! It made me think to myself surely I could make this myself cheaper. I like the idea of something portable so if I want to take it to work or whatever I can. I imagine you suffer a productivity hit if you have to use a regular full size setup
Thanks for sharing. Never given much thought to how my keyboard works but it’s always neat to explore stuff like this
I mean, yeah, this is pretty easy to toss into my backpack.
I have a slightly bigger board (a Lily58 that I built earlier) that lives permanently at the office. I occasionally use the regular laptop keyboard, just to keep that bit of muscle memory, and switching is usually pretty easy.
Actually, it’s not that expensive in the grand scheme of things, I’d say about €65-ish. That’s the PCBs (the electronics prints that you solder the rest onto), controllers, switches, keycaps (both relatively expensive because they’re low-profile) and batteries. The schematics are open source. If you want to start cheaper, build something with MX type switches, rather than Choc switches, you can find both switches and caps quite cheap. Or, if you don’t want to play “hunt the part on Ali express”, there’s companies that sell pre-collected (and sometimes even pre-built) kits.
Interesting! I saw some kits from some other company that were like 400 euros plus VAT! It made me think to myself surely I could make this myself cheaper. I like the idea of something portable so if I want to take it to work or whatever I can. I imagine you suffer a productivity hit if you have to use a regular full size setup
Thanks for sharing. Never given much thought to how my keyboard works but it’s always neat to explore stuff like this
I mean, yeah, this is pretty easy to toss into my backpack.
I have a slightly bigger board (a Lily58 that I built earlier) that lives permanently at the office. I occasionally use the regular laptop keyboard, just to keep that bit of muscle memory, and switching is usually pretty easy.
Full size boards look weirdly big, though. 😂