Keyboard Warrior
Let’s build a keyboard because why the heck not.
Everyonewho works for a gaming or tech magazine has something in particular they have more of a passion for than any other product. For some people it’s GPUs, other people it’s storage. For me it’s keyboards. I’m a bit of a keyboard fetishist. Every time a new one comes in to test I can’t wait to get it hooked up and start typing. There’s something special about a good keyboard. It adds an extra level of pleasure to work when you are typing on something that gives the right amount of bounce and feedback, making your hands feel agile and fast and giving the impression that words are just flowing freely from your fingertips. It’s a bit of a weird thing to be passionate about, but everyone has their specific bent.
My love of keyboards was based solely around commercial products until around the middle of 2017, when my colleague Ben Mansill, the head of the games and tech department, alerted me to the mechanical keyboard community on Reddit. In amongst reviews of different keyboards and people talking about their favourite brands and switches, we stumbled upon a whole community who make their own keyboards. That single revelation lead me down the rabbit hole of obsessive research looking into parts, providers, key switches I’d never heard of and a growing passion to build my own keyboard.
My personal preference in keyboard are ones that in some way remind me of the typewriters and word processors I used to have back when I was in school. They all had some kind of tactile feedback and, by and large, had rather stiff keys requiring quite a bit of force to depress them. At home I use two different keyboards. One for work and one for gaming. The work keyboard uses Cherry Blue switches as I find the clickiness very appealing while typing. Due to hysteresis (a delay between actuation and reset) in Blue switches, they’re not the best for gaming, so when I’m playing something twitchy, like a shooter, I switch out to a keyboard with Cherry Speed switches. They’re linear and fast and feel great for twitch gaming.
DECIDING ON PARTS
Early on while planning the build I decided that the keyboard I would make would be a 60% board strictly for typing and would be my go-to work keyboard. A 60% keyboard is a size smaller than a tenkeyless keyboard, so not only is it missing the numpad, it also has no arrow keys, the nine key block above the arrow keys is missing and no dedicated function keys either. They’re tiny and only really good for typing.
There are six major parts needed to make a keyboard.
PCB
The printed circuit board is the backbone of any keyboard and for the most part there is little in the way of variation between them apart from size. Most of the large Chinese retailers like Banggood, Alibaba and the like carry keyboard PCBs, as do specialist keyboard sites. The most common, and cheapest 60% PCB is the delightfully named Satan pre-soldered DIY GH60 PCB. The PCB comes pre-soldered with all the components so all you need to add are the switches and RGBs if you so desire. As you probably know, I’m not a fan of RGBs, or “arglebargles” as we call them in the office, so I’m not planning on adding any to the build. These PCBs cost between about $30 and $45 depending on the prevailing winds.
SWITCHES
While I really enjoy typing on clicky switches, we have a ban on them in the office as they have a habit of driving everyone in the vicinity insane. I still like tactile feedback in a typing key so initially I was going to get some Brown switches (probably opting for a Cherry clone due to switch pricing, sourced from Greetech, Kailh or Gateron) but through my research I discovered a company called Zeal PC. Zeal PC originated from a keyboard enthusiast’s forum. The company started off making custom cables for keyboards but branched out to making other custom components for keyboards, including keycaps and switches.
The Zealio Purple switch is a tactile, non-clicky switch like a Cherry Brown, but with a few major differences. The switch comes in six different variations but I opted for 65g transparent top, milky bottom plate mounted switches. What that means is that the keys take 65g of force to depress (regular Cherry Brown switches take 45g and Cherry Black, the stiffest common switch takes 60g), and the milky bottom makes them more lenient on first time builders as any potential solder burns won’t show up as clearly as they would on clear bottoms.
The combination of a clearly defined, but silent tactile bump and a stiff actuation force should make for a keyboard very reminiscent of both my old word processor as well as the old Buckling Spring switches used in early PC keyboards.
The other important factor to consider when buying switches is whether they are Cherry MX compatible or not. The compatibility isn’t important when it comes to performance - Topre make some fantastic switches - but when it comes to buying keycaps, it’s a hell of a lot easier to find Cherry style keycaps than any other brand. As a simple rule of thumb, any switch with a keycap mount that looks like a plus sign will be Cherry keycap compatible.
The switches weren’t cheap, setting me back nearly $1 USD per switch, but thankfully due to the size of the keyboard I only needed 65, 61 for the keyboard and a few spare in case of problems.
MOUNTING PLATE
Switches come in two main form factors - those that require a mounting plate and those that mount right onto the PCB. As this is my first build, I opted for switches that require a mounting plate as the plate gave me a better look at layout, where each switch should go and added a layer of rigidity to
the keyboard that might otherwise be lacking. 60% mounting plates are usually constructed from aluminium and have cutouts that the key switches can be put into, holding them in place and leaving only the mounting pin and contact points to connect with the PCB. They come in a wide variety of colours to match the overall aesthetic of your keyboard, but as I hadn’t begun to think about keycaps when I ordered the mounting plate I chose to go with basic black because that looks good with everything.
An aluminium plate for a GH60 PCB will set you back around $20.
CHERRY STABILISERS
Stabilisers are special mounts for long keys that ensure that they depress evenly and actuate no matter where you hit them. These stabilisers, or “stabs” as keyboard aficionados seem want to call them, are found under the space, shift, enter and backspace keys. Stabilisers come in full packs of four short and one long, so any pack should work with a 60% keyboard. They’re also nice and cheap for compatible nonCherry knockoffs, setting you back around $7 for a set. If you want to buy brand name stabs, they can cost up to around $25.
CASE
Depending on how much you want to spend and whether or not you have lighting in your keyboard, there are a number of different options for a 60% keyboard case. On the cheapest end there are opaque plastic cases in a variety of colours. There are also transparent or translucent cases available if you want to mount some kind of lighting. GH60 PCBs support under-mounted breathing RGBs which seem quite popular on the DIY keyboard circuit, but they’re definitely not for me. A plastic case will set you back around $20.
At the top end of the scale are anodised aluminium cases, also available in a number of colours. These cases are strong, heavy and offer the most rigidity in a keyboard build. I considered an aluminium case but changed my mind the instant I saw the one I would buy. Aluminium cases cost around $70.
I opted for a wooden case, because I’m a sucker for electronics encased in wood. The wooden case has no real benefit over a plastic case aside from being slightly more rigid, but I think it looks fantastic, proving either that I’m shallow or I have more money than sense. The case cost around $50 when I bought it but due to the capriciousness of the Chinese online marketplace they are going for around $65 at the time of this writing.
KEYCAPS
The only component I didn’t buy myself. Australian PC tech vendor,
www.mwave.com.au has begun stocking a range of keycaps for keyboard customisation, allowing users to change up the look of their favourite keyboard. Mwave carry a range of Tai-Hao and Varmillo keycaps, the major difference between the two brands being that TaiHao keycaps come in full sets of predetermined colours, and Varmillo is more of a mix and match proposition, with the alphanumeric caps available in a pack and the other keys coming in another allowing people to choose colour combinations. From Tai-Hao I opted for orange and grey keycaps, grey for alphanumerics and orange for other keys, and with Varmillo I went for red alphanumeric and black for extras.
The most important things to look for when choosing keycaps (aside from if you like the way they look) is that they are compatible with your switches and that they are well made. Avoid any switches with painted on markings.
A set of Tai-Hao keycaps will set you back $59 and Varmillo keycaps will set you back $35 per set.