I’ve had a ROG Azoth (don’t judge) keyboard for about a year now. Been using it for both programming and gaming, and I really like it, but there are a few issues (software being the obvious one). So I’ve decided it’s time to put together my own keyboard. I started watching some YouTube and yeah… I’m out of my depth here.

So I was wondering if maybe people could share things they wish they knew when starting out so I don’t mess up to badly.

I’ve already found this switch tester which I figured would give me a general idea of what kind of switches might be for me. Other than that, I’m not really sure how to proceed 😅.

I’m not interesting in doing any soldering.

  • Lembot_0001@lemm.ee
    4·
    3 months ago

    My keyboard has a few modes of backlight. Most of them are crazy shit without any purpose. I can’t disable them programmatically as their shitty shitware doesn’t work under Linux. So after every reset/turn-on I cyclically run through those blimping abominations of backlight modes.

    I miss old IBM or Mitsumi keyboards that were just keyboards.

    • otacon239@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 months ago

      You might like WASD Keyboards. They’re super minimal and chunky. You can even get blank/custom key caps as a factory option.

      Edit: Just checked and apparently they are no more 😭 Damn. One of the better ones, too.

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    Thankfully when I first got into mechanical keyboards the flood of the cheap slop hadn’t happened. So like worst keyboard you’d find is like a sturdy plastic housing with a metal backplate.

    Switch tester to find what you like. Then buy once cry once. Don’t get gamer garbage, find one that works out of the box the way you want. Maybe QMK so you can program it once to do what you want, then you never need the software ever again.

    • alehel@lemmy.zipOP
      1·
      2 months ago

      QMK is definitely on my requirement list after having read about it.

      My biggest job right now is figuring out who is quality and who is slop. There’s so many brands out there now.

  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    3 months ago

    There are well known and respected brands for keyboard bases, switches and caps. Combining those should yield fine mechanical keyboards with a satisfying level of customization.

    I personally am very happy with my combo of Glorious GMMK base, Glorious Fox Heavy switches and Cerakey ceramic keycaps. I ordered some other switches with even more resistance and since compatibility is high for all widely popular components, replacing them should not be an issue.

    • xfc@lemdro.idEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Ceramic key caps? I didn’t know that was a thing. What would you say the benefit is?

      • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        3 months ago

        I honestly don’t know why they are not more popular. They feel amazing to the touch, look stunning and give a deep, rich sound. The white ones also diffuse RGB lighting beautifully.

        They are quite heavy, though, I would definitely recommend switches with high resistance.

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 months ago

    Ok, so you said put together your own keyboard, that involves soldering. However it’s very likely you don’t need to.

    Finding which switches you like is a good first step, as a general rule I think there’s only 3 types of switches you should worry about, let’s call them Red, Brown and Blue since that’s the colors Cherry MX uses for them so they’re sort of the standard. Red are fully linear, i.e. they feel the same from start to bottom. Browns have a small bump midway through (when the switch activates). Blues are like Browns but they also make a click sound. Only choose colicky switches if you have a room for yourself, they can be VERY annoying to other people, be considerate. That being said it’s personal preference, I personally like Browns although I have used Reds and honestly I don’t feel that much of a difference.

    Next important is figuring out the size you want, do you plan on moving it a lot? If so a smaller form size might be better.

    Then there are some ergonomics, personally I love Split ortholinear keyboards, you can buy premade ones but for me it was cheaper to build one for myself, but I’m okay with soldering. That being said if you’re going to solder, I STRONGLY recommend you get a nice modern USB-C pen style soldering iron, I bought a cheap one from Amazon and it was very difficult to use, didn’t heated up properly and had a very large tip (the small one never got hot enough to melt the solder).