@permalmberg Do you know how to stitch front and bottom ground planes in KiCad?

@carlw Thank you! Looking forward to it!

@nimakro Thank you!

@User uploaded a file: TornadoKeyboard

Behold, it's the TornadoKeyboard 😁 🌪️

@edvin Awesome, looking forward to the final result

I just ordered 5 PCB's from China, arriving next week. There will be multiple iterations I imagine, but I'll soon hold the first actual keyboard in my hands. This has been a frustrating but wonderful week. I've learned so much about electronics, keyboard firmware and mechanics. Really interesting. But now it's back to TornadoFX and Kotlin for a while!

What firmware are you using?

@nimakro I've based mine off of TMK for now, but I'm going to rewrite it from scratch to use an interrupt based approach instead. That way I can lower the power consumption and switch to Blutooth later. I also want to build in a password manager using the on chip encryption, so I might change the MCU to something a bit more powerful.

I will start working on a TornadoFX interface to program the layout. This software will also flash the board directly with the changes you make, and possibly update your GitHub repo with your layouts 😁

@edvin Nice that sounds promising. Are the software parts in you git repo?

Yes 🙂

That's the firmware, will publish the TornadoFX program once I start it.

I will need the new TornadoFX Keyboard layout for that, so need to do another release soon 😁

Very nice, I also have already a usecase for your new layout 😉

@edvin I use arrays of regular vias

@permalmberg OK. I ended up creating a custom footprint for a via connected to GND. Seems to work. Don't know how many it is smart to have on a keyboard, I added some scattered around and then some where I had islands.

@edvin You should have vias all around the edges, with an unbroken groundplane

@edvin And you can't have too many...that's what I have learned at least

@permalmberg Spaced how far between? And will it not work without that many, or is it just sub optimal to have few?

@edvin It is for reducing EMC issues. About 5.08mm c-c is a good figure I've learned

what made you start building your own keyboard?

Oh wow. OK, will need to add a lot more for the next batch then. I'm having it express produced in china right now, 5 pcs coming my way tomorrow!

@permalmberg Carl tricked me into trying mechanical keyboards, and I got hooked. Then I started looking for the optimal layout and realized that it didn't exist. Same story as everybody else I think 😁

You might want to look at the ESP32 chip, awesome chip with Wifi and BT

@permalmberg Thanks, I will!

I'm writing a C++ framework for it

..though if you just want to "get it done", you could go for Arduino-based software