In the last installment, I told you I was building an open-source, split, ortholinear keyboard called the ErgoDox. I’m doing this because although I totally love my Kinesis Advantage, it has made me want to crack my knuckles and explore the world of split keyboards. Apparently there are several of you who want to do the same, as evidenced by your interest in the I’m Building an ErgoDox! project on IO. Thank you!
Well boys and girls, the dust has settled, the soldering iron has cooled, and the keycaps are in place. The ErgoDox is built and working. Now that it’s all said and done, let me tell you how it went. Spoiler alert: not great. But I got through it, and it keyboards just like it’s supposed to. I’m gonna lay this journey out as it happened, step by step, so you can live vicariously through my experience.
My big blue pile of fail.
Ode to Diodes
It all starts with the diodes. Every switch gets a diode because of the way keyboard controllers work to detect key presses. When every switch has a diode, there should never be any unintended keystrokes on the screen, a problem known as ghosting. You should also be able to press as many keys as you want at the same time, and they will all register correctly with none missed. If your keyboard does this, it has n-key ..
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