For the very basics of KiCAD, their own intro is helpful. I had to wrap my head around the workflow: first schematic, then PCB.

Once you grasp that, some keyboard specific stuff is described by Joe Scotto in this video. He tends to rush his tutorials though, so best to go through the KiCad page first or revisit the video after.

For resources, I found Ai03’s library of footprints to be perfect, except that his vertical 2U were not oriented how I needed them, which I realized too late, LOL. Then, the kbplacer plugin by adamws was absolutely invaluable and saved me so much time. I used JLCPCB, because even when US-China tariffs were at their worst (and goodness knows they could be again if Trump gets a hangnail or something), JLC was still the cheapest option for me.

If you’ve never done a PCB before, I might humbly suggest keeping to a fixed layout for the first go-round. I did that on my first board and it worked perfectly for what I intended it to be. I got a little ambitious with this one, and ambition+inexperience+impatience led to a flawed project.

SKCM white. Both switches and keycaps (and the front feet, actually) came from a fried early-90s Focus keyboard that had a trackball where the arrow keys go, and the arrows were around it on mouse micro switches with little flappy “buttons” that are part of the case, also very mouse-like.

For the PCB, lots of YouTube and searching Geekhack, deskthority, and (yes) Reddit to see how to use KiCAD for mechanical keyboards. Mine uses the “cheat” of mounting a Raspberry Pi Pico clone to the underside so I don’t have to know as much about electronics (that part actually went perfectly).

The mistakes were two tiny bits of trace that got deleted but I didn’t see, and some placement issues for the Alps version that I had to work around. I have four of them left, so I’ll just use MX compatible switches and a normal sized spacebar for future builds and avoid the worst of it.

It’s implied in the music.

That was like, half of the kalkite, at most.

Get any QMK board with enough keys and the other features you need, particularly if its got a VIA/VIAL config. It’s inherently programmable (literally every key) and cross-platform. The “easy” answer here would be a Keychron, but there are others.

If you can drop in size just a touch, where you still have a numpad but a small number of keys are moved, removed, or resized, then there are many enthusiast and near-enthusiast boards with “96%” or “1800” layouts, the main difference being whether the arrows, F-row, and numpad are fully compacted into a rectangle or slightly separated to guide your hands.

Dagwood’s got a pretty nice table saw, though Mrs. Mullican needs to use the fence and a fuckin push-stick.

The very specific combination might not have been done, but full size PCBs are out there, especially as replacements for vintage boards. If you don’t mind ISO and only a row of LEDs rather than per-key, there’s THIS, which seems to have Bluetooth. They seem to have made some interesting choices with the numpad as well, which is for the most part NOT electrically distinct from the numrow.

There’s also this collection, which might send you in the right direction. If you can do some coding in QMK/ZMK, you might be able to make one of the BLE enabled Pro Micro clones work.

Yup. American Christmas lights basically ARE very thin extension cords with the bulbs (hopefully) wired in parallel. Back in the day they were pretty much all incandescent and in series, and a single burned out bulb meant everything went out and Junior got a joyous new holiday chore!

I have heard there are ways to use these to back feed power from a generator into a house’s system, at least on one breaker, but by definition that bypasses the breaker panel, and the only safe way to use your generator for your house is with a proper cutover installed by an electrician. I can think of literally no other use for one of these cords, except maybe fixing your fuck up if you install Christmas lights backwards.

So yeah, dumb, dumb idea.

Pretty decent, if overpriced. I like the Chicken Tikka tacos.

My father was a deeply flawed parent to minor children, and a disastrously bad one to adult children. My adult life was punctuated with discoveries and realizations and interactions that revealed him to be a fuckin’ mess. He was better and kinder than his own parents, but that’s damning with faint praise.

Yeah, but it usually pretty obvious which is which.

Every once in a while there is an old painting or photo where the style of the artist and subject combine to present a visual that I find eerily modern. Something about this guy just screams “project manager who’s been working from home for three years.”

Then there’s the dude with the beard…

And that lamp is definitely a bong.

I mean, as long as Bob is into it…

67g would be a good number to pop into various search engines. For the Outemus, the Oranges are sort of intended to be a slight refinement of their basic brown. I’m not surprised you found them similar feeling.

Zealio tactiles are supposed to have some pre-travel, as are “Moyu Blacks/Everglide Dark Jades”. I haven’t tried either, but it seems more common to push the tactile event to the top front of the curve than to leave it in the middle. NovelKeys Cream Tactiles may be have some weight and pre-travel as well. The force curve for Kinetic Labs Penguin also looks promising.

One outside the “box” (LOL) would be Kailh Box MUTE Jade. These are “silenced clicky” switches that are supposed to have a very distinct event in the middle but not have the sound profile that we clicky degenerates love but so many people don’t.

Even some Kalih Box clickies of his preferred weighting would be better, though I have to admit the bottom-tier Outemu “dustproof” Greens I have on some of my boards are surprisingly nice if you’re into clickies.

Nice choices! the QK seem to hit that sweet spot of Group-Buy custom features at 1/3 to 1/2 the price. I’ll get one someday, I reckon, but right now I’m having too much fun building junkboards from scratch.

Well, it came out great! I’ve always liked the concept of ortho with normal keycap kitting, though it’s kind of amusing that you went with a custom and unsculpted set for the one and only ortho that didn’t need them. Absolutely no judgment, though. I have spent a lot of time making “bespoke” boards in my garage that are barely any different from commercial offerings.

Is that texture on the case from your build plate or the fancy new topside fuzzy skin algorithms?