💾 Archived View for gem.pwarren.id.au › gemlog › 2020-06-17.gmi captured on 2022-07-16 at 13:26:55. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-09-24)
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Well, I thought that while waiting for the interminable time I was under the impression it would take for my KBDFans order to come through, I'd get a head start on building a similar by slightly less expensive mechanical keyboard. Enter the 68keys.io[1] project. A website guide to building a ~65% keyboard from scratch, ordering PCBs, laser cut aluminium parts, keyswitches, keycaps etc.
And because I know I'm reasonably handy with a soldering iron, I ordered 10 PCBs, as the total delivered cost was only AUD $42! But hen I started ordering other parts, and now it's not looking so cheap! current per keyboard cost is looking at around AUD $150 without even getting to the switches and keycaps.
But, I put my first ever mouser order in today, ~$75 for the required diodes, USB ports and LED driver IC's. Should be a bit of fun, though I guess at this point I'm not even considering profit on it. I will not even get close to my hourly rate I'm sure.
But yes, my KBD75 is still wonderful. I have tried to practice not slamming down the keys as hard as I normally do, with mixed results, It is much more relaxing when I don't press os hard, but it's still not in muscle memory. And the clackety clack of the longer keys is starting to annoy me a little. But as mentioned yesterday, I have a plan for that.
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