Building a Japanese mechanical split keyboard Pt.2
I continued putting together the Corne Chocolate. This split board still has a long way to go before it’s complete though! Watch me solder all the things, flash firmware onto the boards and enlist chat’s help more times than one.
This was streamed on Twitch on Dec 17, 2020.
Special thanks to Jesse Vincent of Keyboardio for loaning the Corne Chocolate and sending the Keyboardio Atreus!
00:00:00 Stream starts
Happy Thursday!
Scotty pulled a muscle in his neck so Ambrose is back home as Scotty didn’t think he could manage the stream and Ambrose.
@obrajesse joins chat.
Jesse is the same Jesse from Keyboardio (Pronounced Key boar dee ohh)
Scotty does an introduction of Keyboardio and Jesse and where he knows Jesse from.
Scotty welcomes new and regular viewers alike – welcome one and all!
Scotty busts out the microscope – Let’s get back to the Chocolate!
oh_bother Raids with 130 raiders!
Scotty remins chat what he’s building and what it should look like while interacting with oh_bother
00:07:26 Keyboard status and next steps
We left off the keyboard last time after all Diodes where soldered to the boards by Scotty.
Thanks to new Followers and subs! Great to have you all join the community!
Scotty reminds chat he’s shooting a new YT project in some of the streams; USB-C in iPhone 12!
Links to the microsocope video from chat
Answer a question about USB IC used (Arduino Pro Micros)
00:11:20 Soldering TRRS jacks to the boards
After refreshing on next steps using the build guide, Scotty starts with the TRRS jacks. (Same as 3.5mm audio)
Jesse shares that this specific chocolate kit was purchased in person by himself in yushakobo.jp’s Retail shop in Tokyo.
Scotty shares a link to Yushakobo
Scotty shares how he came to be in temporary possision of the Corne Chocolate.
00:21:14 Soldering reset switches
TRRS jacks are done, time to solder the reset buttons and pin sockets.
00:27:25 Soldering pin headers and pro micros
Pro Micro time
The pro micro parts need to have pin headers attached to the boards first, the actual pro micro’s then solder to the pin headers.
Scotty “knowlls” the pro micro parts as he recalls some trivia/anecdote to offer to a chat channel points submission.
Scotty tells chat about one of the first times he met Jesse of Keyboardio
This took place in “Secret Sushi” a sushi place on the 17th floor of a random office appartment.
Using the guide, Scotty gets the pin headers in the correct holes (There are multiple choices depending on board orientation)
Scotty starts soldering the pin headers.
Scotty grabs the 16mm Olympus Macro lens to give chat a different view of the soldering.
Resuming soldering with the macro lens.
For some reason the microscope switcher still switches even though it should have been turned off.
This is fixed.
Soldering of pin headers on one board completes, Scotty then solders the first Pro Micro board.
Some banter between chat and Scotty about YT video production, qualiy of streams and Twitch.
Chat reminds Scotty of the OLED jumpers that have to be soldered before the Pro Micro board, Scotty now has to desolder the Pro Micro that he attached one row of pinheaders too.
It’s not a huge mistake, just a few minutes of desoldering.
Using a solder wick and some flux, Scotty starts to desolder the Pro Micro from the pinheader.
Jesse shares a desoldering gun
00:45:00 Desoldering pin headers for OLED jumpers
Desoldering the Pro Micro is time consuming and tedious.
Scotty changes tactic and desolders the pin sockets, thinking he can maybe poke the OLED jumpers under the Pro Micro.
Desoldering proving to be more tedious than expected, Scotty gets his multimeter to test the jumpers to work out if he can short them some other way to save from desoldering.
To be on the safe side, Scotty reverts to removing the pin sockets. Back to solderwick and flux!
Scotty gets his board holder to try hot air to liquify the solder and remove the pin socket.
Hot air method worked!
Scotty manages to bridge the jumpers under the Pro Micro and short them with solder.
@DJMarlus recommends to fix the OLED jumpers on the other board to ensure it isn’t forgotten. Scotty agrees and immediately does them.
01:09:40 Resoldering pin headers.
Back to soldering the Pro Micro, now everything is sorted. (Not everything; the 4 Pin socket hasn’t been put back on ;))
Scotty quickly finished soldering the Pro Micro to the pin headers.
He then cleans the 4pin sockets and removes old solder before replacing the socket.
Some banter about Cyberpunk 2077 between Scotty and chat.
On to solder the other Pro Micro to the other board!
Smalltalk about CyberPunk (no spoilers), Twitch PArtnership, YT filming and soldering happens
01:27:26 OLED Modules
Scotty breaks out the OLED modules as they can now be fixed to the Pro Micros
Discussion on Soldering and ventilation or extraction of fumes continues.
Scotty reports he wants to interleave or alternate the keyboard and robot project. Next stream will be the robot.
The Hakko FA-430 fume extractor is shared
With one OLED module done, it’s on the the second one.
A discussion is held about delay in hearing your own voice over speakers and the practical uses of such a thing. How it can help stutterers or shut down protesters.
01:37:00 Testing and flashing firmware onto boards
The guide now recommends to test function and flash firmware of the Pro Micros.
It’s QMK Toolbox time!
@tzarc is outed as one of the maintainers of QMK.
Flashing worked on the first board!
Scotty shows an OLED with text, the board shows as a keyboard on his MAC so all looks ok so far.
He links the 2 boards with a TRRS cable and flashes the second board, it too works immediately.
01:47:25 Show & Tell: Is it me or is it USB?
– While preparing to start the next step, LED’s, we sidetrack a bit.
Scotty returns to the “Is it me or is it USB?” tool.
Recap; This tool shows which circuits in a USB cable are complete to differentiate between an power only and a data cable.
Scotty found a power cable to demonstrate; only 2 LEDs light up!
Scotty found a broken datacable to demonstrate; only 1 data line LED is powered which means the other dataline is broken.
01:59:35 Soldering underside LEDs on the left board
Let’s do more soldering!
Reading the destructions, iron temp needs to go way down to 270C as the LEDs are heat sensitive.
With the help of rrittenhouse in chat, the iron is converted from C to F.
After confirming some instructions from the guide and repowering the microscope switcher, Scotty proofs LED alignment. it’s a little weird but should work.
LED soldering starts.
After soldering the first LED, Scotty tries to power the board but it seems lifeless now.
Discussion starts on placement – the guide is consulted again.
IT appears the LED itself is orientated upsidedown.
Scotty uses hot air to remove the LED.
The LED works after placement!
Taking lessons learned about placement, Scotty makes quick work of soldering LEDs 2-4.
During the soldering, chat is shown conditions outside. It’s cold but the snow has stopped and the back road behind the shop has been ploughed.
Scotty quickly tests the LEDs.
After fixing one solder joint on LED2, all 4 are confirmed working!
LEDs 5 and 6 are dealt with swiftly and tested working.
02:33:01 Soldering underside LEDs on the right board
Scotty moves to install the same LEDs on the other board.
Build guide is again consulted just to be sure on positioning before diving right in.
While chat discusses how the LEDs work (did you know PC RGB uses WS2812?) Scotty gets LEDs 1 and 2 soldered and tested.
LEDs 3 and 4 are tested ok, down to the last 2 underside LEDs!
Once those are done and tested, Scotty links them through TRRS to sync the LED colors (before that, one board was red and the other blue)
Now it’s time for the keycap LEDs. Scotty checks out the build guide as positioning on these is different, these LEDs need to face the other way.
@Alexotos raids with 264 raiders! Welcome Alex Raid!
Scotty recaps the keyboard project for the raiders.
Alex reports they were reviewing some upcomgin keyboard group buy projects.
02:49:21 Soldering keycap LEDs on the right board
Still explaining some other projects to the raiders, Scotty starts soldering the keycap LEDs.
These LEDs face up (down on stream cause board is reversed) and are pushed into corresponding holes so the top of the LED is flush with top of the board.
These illuminate the individual key switches and backlight the caps.
After a minor out of order, false start, Scotty gets the order sussed out and rapidly solders and tests the next lot of LEDs.
After a discussion about LEDs and the uses of them etc, Scotty tips chat to watch MikesElectric 2019 Hackaday Supercon talk
Scotty notices he skipped a LED!
By now it’s an easy fix as Scotty is used to soldering these now.
Some discussion on browsing and visiting markets in HQB
Scotty almost completes soldering and tests but it appears something isn’t quite right.
one LED, as Scotty expected, is dead and he has to replace it.
Replacement success!
Scotty solders in the last 2 keycap LEDs on this board and tests it’s ok.
03:27:00 Winding down
Scotty winds down the stream and raids scanlime