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DIY RGB mechanical keyboard (from scratch)

MARCWWWOLFE

Anybody have advice of any kind for using an Arduino Nano as an RGB controller?

 

It will control RGB without relying on the Teensy controller (meaning there will likely be two USB cables, but whatever).

If I can figure it out, I'll have the Teensy tell the Arduino to turn RGB on/off by just pulling a pin high or low, but that's it.

Any advice or links to resources are appreciated. I'm looking for something that will make this as simple as "Easy AVR"

makes it to program the Teensy 2.0. I plan to have some basic presets (like rainbow wave) as well as the option to have 

a PC controll the RGB so one key can be a HDD indicator, one row can indicate GPU temp, one row can indicate CPU

temp, one row for percentage of RAM used etc.

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Even some suggestions about doing everything with cmd line and some batch files or something for sending the system specs to the controller. I'm a noob with this stuff.

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If you don't need per-key addressing you could easily do this with a single micro controller. That aside, before you can think programing it you'll need to design your wiring matrix, well 2 of them, one for the switches and one for the RGB leds.  You might wan't to look at some existing boards with per key RGB like the Zeal60 for ideas.  https://zealpc.net/collections/group-buy-pre-orders/products/zeal60rgb

 

Also this https://1upkeyboards.com/pro-micro-with-pins.html might be a better option than the Arduino nano as it's very commonly used for custom keyboards.

 

Look into QMK for programing it. It's open source and very customization and should have no issue doing what your trying to do. You can go here https://gitter.im/qmk/qmk_firmware for additional help with QMK.

 

Realistically, I'd fist get experience building just a custom keyboard with a PCB from a kit and programing it. Then trying handwriting a matrix yourself. Move on to adding LEDs. Then RGB LEDs, and finally individually addressable RGB LEDs. Learn to tread water before jumping into the deep end.

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11 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Learn to tread water before jumping into the deep end.

I'll be doing this with just the Teensy and just white LEDs first. I'm trying to find good options for the RGB before I'm actually ready for the RGB version.

Thanks, I'll read through those links. I already have the Teensy programmed using Easy AVR. I'm waiting on the parts keyboard (bottom picture) to ship from amazon; I'll rip out it's controller and wire up the Teensy to it's matrix to start, I'm not a noob to hand wire things, just the software.

 image.png.f7436e87f2a79aee0365bd1cb05b78e5.png

 

image.png

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16 hours ago, MARCWWWOLFE said:

I'll be doing this with just the Teensy and just white LEDs first. I'm trying to find good options for the RGB before I'm actually ready for the RGB version.

Thanks, I'll read through those links. I already have the Teensy programmed using Easy AVR. I'm waiting on the parts keyboard (bottom picture) to ship from amazon; I'll rip out it's controller and wire up the Teensy to it's matrix to start, I'm not a noob to hand wire things, just the software.

You might want to post your same question over on r/mechanicalkeyboards, geekhack.org and deskthority.net. You will  surely get more helpful discussions in enthusiast communities. 

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On 12/7/2017 at 5:44 PM, MARCWWWOLFE said:

 

I'll be doing this with just the Teensy and just white LEDs first. I'm trying to find good options for the RGB before I'm actually ready for the RGB version.

Thanks, I'll read through those links. I already have the Teensy programmed using Easy AVR. I'm waiting on the parts keyboard (bottom picture) to ship from amazon; I'll rip out it's controller and wire up the Teensy to it's matrix to start, I'm not a noob to hand wire things, just the software.

 

Just a small bit of progress. Flashed with Preonic compatible firmware. No lighting yet.

KB.jpg

KB2.jpg

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