sten0
Hardware- 15 Devlogs
- 22 Total hours
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found a keycap model that works!!! (after going through another 2)
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LETS GO
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IM SO HAPPY RN ITS UNBELIEVABLE
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THEY FIT PERFECTLY
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im so so happy
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I wasn’t sure if my white filament was enough
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so i switched it to black
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but it didn’t end up working after multiple failed prints
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so im moving back to black
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ok it printed
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but it doesn’t fit
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need to tweak the model
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i printed a keycap
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it fits!
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didn’t like the design tho
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going to use this simple one: https://www.printables.com/model/700878-simple-choc-v1-flat-keycaps/files
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printed! looks super clean
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redesigning the thing now
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wait nvm i can just cutout the pins
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it fits!
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WHAAAT THE KEEB DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE
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NOOOOOOOOOOO
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fixed it!
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it was a messy solder connectionm
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shoutout to @Naytik on slack for the help
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last night, i printed the top plate that I CADded
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to add it, i needed to remove the keycaps
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unfortunately, the keycaps got stuck
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so i have to replace those switches
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asked to buy solder wick
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tried a bunch of things before asking like using glue or the leg of a diode
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while the wick is being shipped by AMZN, i’ll design the top plate
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looks pretty clean!
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it doesn’t work
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asked in Slack
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ok apparently i had to wash the bed
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did that!
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reprinted
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printed perfectly!
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however, it its too flimsy and the screws dont fit
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reprinting the model with bigger screw holes and more thickness
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did it!
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for 30 minutes, i tried screwing it in with my screws from AMZN
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but then i realized i got the wrong type of screw
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i needed self tapping
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i went to lowes and got some
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it worked awesome! except it broke the 3d print
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ok remodeled it
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voila!
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Raygen told me to update it with more details on my exact layout
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sounds like a great idea so ill do it!
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experimenting with https://stenokeyboards.com/products/the-uni-v4 and https://opensteno.org/demo/
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done!
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i have both QWERTY and STENO
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will update README with more info
- added 1mm more of spacing
- but now i can’t 3d print it.
- im thinking to reduce space between Pico and rest
- made it smaller + moved diodes to back
- only 249mm wide
- dimensions: 249x37, 141x26
- 3d modeling time
- w cutout
- and i made a render!
- nvm i need screws apparently
- ahhhhhh have to redesign it again
- wait let me create BOM
- $53 flat is pretty good ngl
- ok back to case design
- watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLz7wpwAEoI
- learned a lot about how to make it exposed PCB
- but ill just have a front panel ig
- going to use https://kbplate.ai03.com/ for cutouts
- ok i have no idea on how to do this
- idk what dimensions to use
- i have all of it imported; asked on Slack on how to do it; will continue work after
- actually let me fully prepare the BOM
- lets ring up the PCB cost on JLC
- $21.08… nice!
- let me create BOM.csv
- ok going to upload all PCB files through a Codespace
- added everything except the CAD and CAD images in README
- time to go back to doing CAD! (started 220)
- watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7azQkSu0m_U
- not helpful at all
- manually did it
- cool section view
- ok i made it so the holes are invis
- cutout in middle also
- going to test out micro-usb cable
- it fits!
- voila!
- ok preparing for submission again
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ok time to make a better CAD!
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im thinking i’ll do a simpler backplate design with a cool frontplate so its basically a sandwich
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nvm this is too hard
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im switching to exposed PCB style
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time to look for inspo
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i came up with the following but it doesn’t seem like enough
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OMG IVE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE A CUTOUT FOR USB AND ITS NOT WORKING AHHHHH
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going to redo the PCB layout
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making it low profile now
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removing encoders; bulky and don’t look good
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hotswap also cause why not
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nvm no hotswap cause i don’t really need it personally
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using only what i need
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routed but just realized its not symetrical 😭
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ok figuring out how to round corners
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figured it out! you just use arcs and move the lines
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acon was right; this feels super nice
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ok time for routing!
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OMG I DID IT WITH 0 VIAS
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im going to create a cool render now
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first i added back silkscreen art
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renders are awesome
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there were these random “K”s next to the diodes, so I removed them
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need to figure out where mounting holes go
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wait i dont need them cause i can just press fit with supports
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created dimensions
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according to my calculations, i need two rectangles; one that is 252x35 and another that is 147x26. 1mm filets
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idk if this will work
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added things in middle:
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added cutout!
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going to render this
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keys may not be able to be pressed
- project got rejected… 😭
- got rejected for design which i can understand
- need to make design more cohesive
- no exposed PCB ig
- ok ill make basic face plate then ill spice it up
- nvm ill just create a cool render
- the encoder keeps bugging out; need a fix
- tried like 5 diff models and tweaked a bunch of settings and it worked!
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started off with a BOM
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wait if I get some more switches I can build 2 keyboards
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ok $6 more for +1 keyboard is not bad
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soooooo that comes down to $67.64 for two keebs or $33.82 for two
- doesn’t include 3d printed case but thats not too bad
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acon told me to look at other keyboard companies
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polish #1: logo on back
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just realized I forgot screws in BOM
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ok apparently i can just use M2x3 without any hex nuts.
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adding to BOM
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ok $80.43 now; still cheaper than an Asterik
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ok going to scroll more on hardware.hackclub.com
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wait b4 that I wanted to round all corners
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wait i don’t need mounting holes if tolerance is tight enough
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idk ill still keep them
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rounded literally every corner
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idk what else to make this polished
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ok ive seen so many other keyboards and don’t see how mine isn’t as polished…
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made PCB shorter
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ok im going to reroute everything to make routing better
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moving two diodes below encoders bc they seem kinda weird
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looks better
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rerouted everything!
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ok imma make a 3d model of the key + keycap
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WHY ALL KEYCAPS ARE SLANTED OMG MGOMOGMOGMOGM
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looks pretty slick NGL
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ill create a rotary encoder w/ cap as well
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time for render!
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not working on render?
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ok its fine
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added README… ready to submit!
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after I uploaded the thing on Slack, Taran told me I needed some sort of support for the pins
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after a lot of help by him, I made the thing below:
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Taran said it looks good so
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okay he said to extrude something on bottom
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ill do that later
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ok turns out i also need standoffs for OLED
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will do
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wait i can’t extrude a logo or something on bottom bc im splitting it in half
BRUHHHH MY WHOLE JOURNAL for today GOT DELETED
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basically, I was learning how to Render KiCad
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It was this crazy thing where I had to downgrade KiCAD to 9.0 and then upgrade to 10.0
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I downloaded Blender and Fusion and tried to Render but it wasn’t working
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I watched like 5 YT videos trying to figure it out
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So I ultimately decided to have no render
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I added mounting holes + logos
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made back panel
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tried to export from KiCAD as STEP but it doesn’t work?
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ok that was a weird bug; i just had to redraw the outline
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pretty basic, ngl
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idk where to add polish
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first im going to add keycaps to make it look better
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nvm no keycaps bc very tedious
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asked for help on Slack: https://hackclub.slack.com/archives/C0B0CADUV3P/p1778990312121819
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what do we think? it looks pretty sick ngl
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idk what else to add for polish
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will look at approved keebs on hardware.hackclub.com
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liked https://github.com/KaiPereira/PR1SM, https://github.com/sudo-apt-install-tap/TaoTeChing, https://github.com/code2344/SplitCodeBoard, https://github.com/meepodeep/ErgoDecks
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ok all of them are pretty standard and i lowk didn’t gain much inspiration
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note to self: need to split the keyboard in half to print it
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wait I can just do that in the Bambu Slicer; ok ill just do that
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ok i think plan now is to finalize and then submit
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start w/ BOM
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im genuinely shocked by this
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time to see JLC.. doesn’t work?
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ok time to sleep; will see tmrw
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new day; no school!
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wanted to fully figure out the firmware aspect
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found the NKRO layout for https://nolltronics.com/product/picosteno/
- NKRO is basically a setting you can change on your QWERTY keyboard to actually register all the keys you press at the same time
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basically, ill code firmware w/ regular QMK/KMK and itll be normal keyboard firmware.
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user runs Plover software on their computer
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Plover converts each regular key press to steno
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this way, I can have the OLED + rotary encoders be super easy to code up
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i removed the labels from the front + back silkscreen to make it look better / cleaner
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ill do only firmware today
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i created the keymap:
column 1: Q W E R T Y U I Y P [
column 2: A S D F T O J K L ; ’
column 3: 2 C V [mute/unmute] [video on/off] N M 8 ’
- this looks super simple but it isn’t bc i messed up in schematic / placement and some of the keys were swapped around; instead of rerouting, imo fixing it in firmware is better and faster and thats what I did
- wait nvm i messed up; this should be good:
column 1: Q W E R T Y U I Y P
column 2: A S D F T O J K L ;
column 3: 2 C V [mute/unmute] [video on/off] N M 8 ’ [
- im creating firware w help of Claude (pretty hard to do firmware w/o parts)
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adding the mounting holes
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realized I only have to press “a” and add M2 hole
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need to position it properly
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i want to make the PCB black (or white i haven’t chosen yet)
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looks pretty mid ngl
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okay time to do case
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idk what software to use
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ehhh ill just design a logo today
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time to hop on figma
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nvm my internet went out??????????? why did this happen to me
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uhhhh ig i can’t do much so ill end it here for today… unless it comes back
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before starting the schematic, I wanted to look at other open source Steno boards
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found https://plover.wiki/index.php/DIY_steno_writers
- they are cool, but none of them have encoders or OLEDs
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omg i just realized my layout is off
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i need another two keys on the left side
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i did not expect almost all steno keyboards to be not aligned?
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thats actually so weird, but ill change my design
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i also need to move the bottom row down by 1 unit
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how did i make all these mistakes wow
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ok that was ez to fix
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time to hop on KiCad
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watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXpGTIbxlQ to learn a little bit
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got matrix done
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schematic done! it was pretty ez
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assigned footprint
- spent 5 minutes looking for EC11 + cherry mx footrpints but realized they were built in after alex told me
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time to start PCB!
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finished the keys, encoders, and pico placement; need to do diodes + OLED
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routing time!
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oops forgot to flip the diodes… ill do that rn!
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routed!
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added 3d models for keys
- took so long for no reason
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added all the other 3d models… these were shorter!
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aight going to call it for a day but great progress today!
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thought about required costs
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decided to make BOM for some reason
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im going to source a lot of parts from Amazon
- Aliexpress has misdelievered packages
- lot easier to get parts, replace parts, etc.
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i alr have a bunch of Picos lying around so i’ll use one of those
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PCB probably going to be around $20
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realized i need to figure out firmware because it is complex
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found Plover (most popular firmware)
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ok this is a bit weird but basically I can program the keyboard firmware to be like a regular keyboard but Plover will translate the regular keypresses to Steno
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(in this image, I would set the top left key on my PCB to be a “W” on QWERTY which would be translate to the “T” sound on Steno
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ok i basically have firmware figured out!
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ill use a 7*4 matrix layout so I can get the 2 rotary encoders and make them keys
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i tried to draw out the matrix but its hard so ill prob just figure which keys are what after schematic done
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nvm ill use 3x10 cause its easier and i have enough keys and it would be easier to route
- created idea after seeing StenoKeyboard’s outrageous pricing on https://stenokeyboards.com/products/the-uni-v4
- i’ve seen videos of people typing at crazy speeds with steno
- what if i made a cheap steno keyboard?
- v1 is going to be basic but i want v2 to be hotswap + RGB
- i could still do hotswap with this thing called “mill-max sockets”
- they basically plug the PCB holes and make a regular MX footprint become hotswappable
- require kapton tape
- ok ill decide this later
- created the thing below
- was originally going to copy the StenoKeyboards layout but Taran told me to make it more unique so I tried doing that
- ok ill first design w/o LEDs and then add them in v2
- goal of this project is to be ultra-polished in every way possible
- want some sick renders