kad
Keyboard Automated Design (KAD) is a Golang library for designing mechanical keyboards (by swill)
orch
A mostly ortholinear keyboard PCB that fits GMK keycaps. (by htpkbs)
| kad | orch | |
|---|---|---|
| 93 | 6 | |
| 229 | 5 | |
| - | - | |
| 3.2 | 0.0 | |
| about 2 years ago | over 2 years ago | |
| Go | ||
| GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 | BSD 2-clause "Simplified" License |
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
kad
Posts with mentions or reviews of kad.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-05-21.
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(WIP) Designing a QAZ-inpsired 35% keyboard for 3D-printing and hand-wiring.
As for switch hole sizes, I haven't designed anything myself but heard ppl use http://builder.swillkb.com/ to design their plates - it's some generator with size standards for switches and stabs.
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3d printed keyboard from scratch
Not 3d printing, but found this site which can generate files for laser cutting http://builder.swillkb.com/
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[Troubleshooting] plate mount stabilizers not actuating on printed build plate
In terms of workflow: I'm using a generated layout from Plate & Case Builder - swillkb after pasting in the raw data from http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/ : if there's a better workflow out there im all ears and open to trying anything new.
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[Handwired] POV: You want a Planck, but don't want to buy the 40% kit
Use SwillKB to create layer design files
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The Daxter. My 2nd handwire.
I design my own key layout and copy paste the raw json file to this site to generate the case and the plates. http://builder.swillkb.com
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Keyboard and PCB from scratch ?
The only thing is, it's hard to do a plateless design with handwiring - but not many customs are plateless, anyway. You'll need to get a plate cut, but that workflow can be quite streamlined using a tool like Swillkb's builder.
- I have this idea to make a acrylic case for my handwired macro, the problrm is I dont have knowledge to make an acrylic cut file :( can someone help me make acrylic cut file?
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I call it Dreadnoughtus. Info in comments!
I used this incredible tool to generate the top and bottom .svg files for the switch portion of the plate and a vector graphics editor to make the silly screen bump on the top right. The cost for the plates on this one was around 180USD after shipping but they charge by area so I was at a distinct disadvantage. I wish you luck on your keeb! This project was very fulfilling once all the bugs got hammered out, I hope yours is as well.
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Lights Out!
If you can't find a plate file, make a QAZ layout with KLE, import it to this plate generator to make a plate file. The thing is, the generated plate file will be without mounting point or holes. If you want more control, use this one, it's more complicated but with more options.
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My first non-off the shelf keyboard, and I designed it all*.
I just swiped it off of here. seeing as it's a custom board and all hahaha.
orch
Posts with mentions or reviews of orch.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2021-09-05.
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Giving “Less, but better” caps another try
I wasn’t super into these keycaps at first, but decided to give them another shot and I like them so far. Keyboard is a custom build I designed and cable is from https://swiftcables.net/.
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New job, new keyboard
Yep! They’re here: https://github.com/htpkbs/orch
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Latest build of my "kinda ortho" PCB, now with rotary encoder
PCB is custom and open source, I call it the orch
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Keyboard Builders' Digest / Issue 12
The orch is a mostly ortho, GMK-friendly layout and PCB by u/oldoverholt with open source design (git & gallery).
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First custom PCB! Mostly ortholinear layout with GMK keycaps.
The PCB is my first time doing a full keyboard PCB and I did it in KiCad. The files and everything are open source and available here. The Keyboard PCB Guide here and the Designing a keyboard from scratch series of blog posts were both really helpful, along with the ATmega32U4 datasheet of course! I got the PCB fabricated by JLCPCB (the first order I made, I had forgotten to connect the rows to pins on the MCU lol).
What are some alternatives?
When comparing kad and orch you can also consider the following projects:
ergogen - Ergonomic keyboard layout generator
Acrylic_3D_KB - 3D keyboard made by lasercut acrylics
keyboard-layout-editor - Web application to enable the design & editing of keyboard layouts
dactyl-manu-tide - Dactyl Manuform with extra curvy and tight layout
flatbox - Low profile hitbox-layout fightstick
trackbowl-mk2 - The ball is the trackball
keyboard-pcb-guide - Guide on how to design keyboard PCBs with KiCad
J73K_keyboard - a 15*5 ortholinear keyboard
key-ripper
fnrow-pcb - KiCad files for the FnRow mechanical keyboard
Augio - 40%-ish keyboard with a numpad
keyboard_stl_generator - Generate a 3D model from a keyboard design from keyboard layout editor and split up the design so it can be printed on a 3D printer