@mohan

I tested all of the switches and diodes with a multimeter to make sure they still work after desoldering them. There were a couple broken diodes. I’m going to rebuild this keyboard before I finish redesigning it because I never was able to find a flaw in the design with the original. I’m going to use the same parts as I removed so I just wanted to make sure they still work. I tested the switches using the continuity setting which was annoying because I had a hard time holding down the key and also touching both pins with the probes of the multimeter (no alligator clips). The diodes were much easier to test. I just set it to the diode setting and put the black probe to the side with the black stripe and the red probe on the other side. I looked for a reading of 0.55L-0.65L and then reversed the probes to make sure it was 0L.

I layed out keys, placed diodes and LEDs, and made some changes to the schematic. I’m not sure if I used the right footprint for the capacitors (especially the two bigger ones - I feel like they’re way too big for a keyboard), which is why I haven’t been working on this project much lately. This is how it looks in KiCAD right now. Nothing is routed yet, and as you can see in the bottom left, two of the capacitors are ridiculously big. I made the layout in keyboardlayouteditor and then used the position relative to tool in KiCAD to get the keys layed out properly. I still need to test the diodes and switches from after I disassembled the first version to know if I need to order new ones.

I made a new keyboard schematic. I’m going to redesign this keyboard to have more keys and use per key lighting. I’m eliminating the OLED, but using the same microcontroller. I have capacitors every 4 LEDs and input 5V halfway through the chain so there shouldn’t be any fading towards the end of the chain. I’m still not sure what the issue with the old design was but I hope to figure it out.

I now have all parts and firmware, and everything is in the GitHub. The total cost of all parts in the BOM is $39.91 after sales but not including shipping or taxes. With that, it will probably be a little more than $50. The actual cost of everything (no sales) is $51.05. I didn’t include the 4 screws and nuts because they are optional. The screen will fit as a pressfit in the enclosure, but there are screw holes in case a user wants it more secure. I will be adding screws because I already have some M3s so I might as well. For assembly, I will 3D print the enclosure. I’ll put the switches in the top and then start soldering wires and connecting everything on the perfboard. I’ll use heatshrink for the pins of the keyswitches to make sure they don’t short each other. I don’t have a heat gun so I’ll either use a match/lighter or a hair dryer.

I did more coding. I decided to change how I want to have the screen work and how it should be organized, so I started working on that. I also made sure the wifi ssid and password use placeholders and not my real ssid and password because I don’t really want those on GitHub for the whole world to see. I also wrote out a description of how the clock should work so I can come back and continue later without forgetting what I was trying for. I changed the firmware so I think I only need alarm-clock.ino instead of a bunch of other files too. This is the new firmware folder.

I completely built, programmed, and have now taken apart the keyboard. It took me a couple of hours of soldering to get all of the diodes and keys placed. There is a lot of time I spend programming that didn’t get recorded because I thought it would be quick. It was not. In the end, I used Claude and Gemini and was finally able to get the QMK compiler to work. However, the .uf2 didn’t make the keyboard work properly. I tried several different ones and used the serial monitor and send outputs to Gemini but wasn’t able to get it to work. The best I could get was random characters. So, I decided to spend a couple hours removing all of the components so I can try it again on a fresh PCB. I’m not sure what the issue is and I inspected the PCB so hopefully I drag soldered something and didn’t see it or installed a diode the wrong way. I have ordered a new microcontroller because the old one broke while I was trying to remove it. Also, apparently I didn’t take almost any photos.

I did more CAD. I was taking screenshots to put on the GitHub when I realized there was no way to access the inside to put the parts in the first place. I just separated the back panel. It’s not an particularly elegant solution, but I think its good. I also updated the README in the GitHub. Next, I’ll make the BOM.

I wrote the firmware. It took a bit of figuring out to get started but I think it’s good now. There is a home and an alarm page. The left button decreases time for the alarm and the right button increases it. The middle button is like a mode button, so on the home page pressing it takes you to the alarm page. Then pressing it changes the focus from editing the hour to editing the minute, then back home. I’m not sure I’ll keep this structure but it’s what I thought of first so I made it.

I finished the CAD of the project, which is pretty much the whole thing except the assembly. It’s a very simple design. The main body clamps on to the desk/table. The end cap gets glued to the dowels on one side. The dowels then go through the holes in the main body. Then, the phone tray part gets glued to the other side. I chose not to make it clamp onto the phone and swivel so there are less potential failure points and I can keep my phone in any flat position.

The CAD is now done. I gave the clock a bit of an angle and added screws and nuts to the CAD. I think the angle is good because it will make it easier to read while I’m sitting at my desk or lying in bed. The final design uses 3 switches, a piezo buzzer, 4 M410mm screws and 4 nuts, an ESP32 C3 mini, a 2.8 inch ILI9341 LCD screen, a 70mm50mm perfboard, pin headers, and jumper wires, along with a USBC cable. For firmware, I’ll use wifi time so I don’t have to set the time. I’ll also add a place for it to show the current weather from openmeteo. There will be an alarm, a timer, and a stopwatch. The screen is touch sensitive so I can add functionality for that later. For now, though, the middle key will be snooze when an alarm is going off. Otherwise, it will switch modes (home, full weather forecast, alarm, timer, stopwatch. The left and right buttons will help change the time for the timer and alarm. I may also add a web-based dashboard to set things from my computer.

I chose the parts that I’m going to use, made a schematic, and did most of the CAD. I’m going to use an ESP32 C3 mini, a passive piezo buzzer, a 2.8” ILI9341 LCD, cherry mx style switches with keycaps, and a 100 ohm resistor, along with perfboards. I chose to go with perfboards instead of a PCB because it will be faster, and I think its better because I’m going to be wiring the switches and screen anyway, so there’s no point in paying and waiting for a PCB just to hold the ESP32 and the buzzer. I also did most of the CAD. I might go back and make it look a bit better but I think its fine as is. The only changes I think I may make are closing the sides and giving the screen a bit of an angle.

I made a lot of substantial changes, but I think my website is now done. The home page is now significantly more interesting with the featured projects. Many of the changes I made were just content on the extracurriculars and projects pages, but I learned how to add image carousels which was cool. The navbar also now shows what page you’re on. Seems like I need to do more software projects to balance out the software section of my projects page.

Finding parts: This project is going to be a lot more complicated (and more expensive!) than I anticipated, so I’m not going to make it an FPV drone. The parts I’m getting should allow for upgrading it in the future to have FPV. I don’t think Hackclub will cover all of the costs because its over 200 bucks with fourth of July sales and so it will probably be over 300 by the time I get funding. The prices in the BOM don’t include sales. For example, the 85 dollar motors are on sale right now for just over $40.

I did a lot of formatting work and started to do project stuff. I now have one hardware project there and it should be easy (other than the actual content) to add other hardware and software projects to my website. For the hardware one I have, I embedded the build demo video. I also put the connect with me stuff on the home page as well as the connect page. There is now a tab icon, too. The website is now deployed at https://mohan-east.vercel.app/

I started the home page, developed the connect page, and worked on CSS. I had to get creative to get rid of a weird LinkedIn badge glitch - I had to add a border encroaching on the badge to hide the weird border.

I started assembly. I still don’t have enough funds for the PCB (Blueprint please fulfill my order for a grant from the shop 🙏). I inserted all of the switches into the 3D printed top plate , which is a necessary step prior to soldering the switches to the PCB.

CAD work - after the first print of the top plate I realized a couple of issues. First, I hadn’t made holes for the stabilizers. Second, and this was just cosmetic, there were partial labels for the diodes from the KiCAD .step export in my top plate, which made the edges of the key holes look messy. I fixed both issues.

I mainly focused on the about section, where I have links to some socials as well as a short bio and some projects I’ve worked on.