Mechanical Keyboard KiCAD Templates

A collection of KiCAD templates to help the budding designer start designing their own mechanical keyboards.

Table of Contents

• About The Project
• Requirements
• Installation
• Contributing
• License

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About The Project

This repository contains a collection of KiCAD mechanical keyboard templates using a variety of MCU's. Within each templates are schematics that lay out the basic connection between essential components as well as sub-sheets where the designer can implement their own key matrix and, in some cases, RGB LED underglow implementations. In most cases the KiCAD libraries in use were provided by ai03

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Requirements

• KiCAD v5

Installation

• git clone https://github.com/CaninoDev/Mechanica_Keyboard_KiCAD_Templates $TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY where $TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY is the path to templates by your version of KiCAD. You can view and set the path by starting up KiCAD and going to Preferences --> Configure Path --> KICAD_USER_TEMPLATE_DIR
• Once installed, go to File --> Start a New Project From Template and select the desired template from the list.

Notes

Key Terms

MCU / Microcontroller ESD Voltage Regulator Decoupling Capacitors Pull Down Resistors

Design Guidelines

PCB Design

• Keep traces from the connector to the MCU as short as possible.
• Generally, avoid the use of sharp bends when laying down track.
• Power and Ground traces should be wide.
• Place the crystal as close to the MCU as possible.
• Isolate the oscillator as much as possible:
  • Separate the ground plane underneath the crystal generally.
• D+ and D- traces should match up in distance as close as possible (so the signals are in sync). Use differential(90Ω) traces.
• Fill Zones: It is not necessary to fill the entire PCB with ground/power plane. It is sufficient to encompass the crystal, USB and MCU footprints in a ground fill.

Reference Keyboards

Please note, some of the following keyboards have schematics that may be incomplete. I try to make note of those keyboards but cannot guarantee that I have caught them all.

atmega32

• atmega32u4
  • cpm43
  • ErgoDox
  • helix
  • KBD8X-MKII
  • Lily58
  • Plain60
  • Voyager60
  • wc40noled
• atmega32a
  • Planck - Throughole Variant
• at90usb1286
  • JayKey1
  • CoquiKeyboard

stm32

(NOTE: The stm32 MCU series are, for the most part, interchangeable with minimal changes. Pay particular attention that the F072 series have a built-clock suitable for USB data transmissions.)

• stm32f0x2
  • f042
    • stm32 mech keyboard
  • f072
    • DashKey
    • Shi-Chi
    • st40 incomplete
    • ut47.3 incomplete
  • f103
    • stm60
    • Hammerhead
• stm32f3
  • f303
    • CO60
    • keypad
    • Shark
    • SteamVan

Disclaimer

As I am still learning how to design keyboards, there may be some implementations that does not represent best practices or may even be incorrect. In such cases, please make a pull request and I will incorporate the corrections promptly. When creating a new design from template, KiCAD copies over the local libraries but doesn't preserve their respective git. This results in a relatively larger project with the inability to effortlessly update local libraries.

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Contributing

As noted above, there may be some mistakes in implementation or improvements could be made. If you note either, please:

Step 1

- 🍴 Fork this repo!

Step 2

- 👯 Make a branch concering the variant that will be modified.

Step 3

- HACK AWAY🔨🔨🔨

Step 4

- 🔃 Create a new pull request using <a href="https://github.com/CaninoDev/Mechanica_Keyboard_KiCAD_Templates/compare/" target="_blank">`https://github.com/CaninoDev/Mechanica_Keyboard_KiCAD_Templates/compare/`</a> detailing in the comments whether it is a correction and reference the reasons either by explanation or datasheet reference. If it is an improvement, explain the improvement. This is so  that not only I can learn from mistakes but so that others can as well. 

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Thanks

The following people have been invaluable in my journey in learning how to design keyboards:

• Worldspawn#9316, Abec13#3342, Comrade. SeungheonOh#4283, and The_Royal • 🍦 GMK Fro.Yo 🍦#3000 at the '40% Keeb' Discord server.
• ai03#2725, PheonixStarr#0371, Xaetral#3486 at the 'ai03 Design Studio' Discord server

KiCAD libraries to aid in the schematics and pcb design

• ai03's MX/Alps Hybrid
• my fork of ai03's MX/Alps Hybrid that includes hotswap variants as well (pull request approval pending).
• ai03's random keyboard parts
• keebio's parts

These resources were immensely helpful

• ai03's wiki
• delapoite's list
• benroe's awesome list
• komar's 'How To Make a Keybaord - The Matrix' blog post
• blakesmith's 'Making my own USB Keyboard From Scratch' post
• Steamvan

These are related resources to mechanical keyboard design

• 3D Hub's guide to CNC Machining
• Keyboard Layout Editor
• Swill's Plate Building Tool
• GeekHack's Making Stuff Together forum
• ElectronicDesign's Make the Most of your USB Functionality
• Crystal Oscillator Design
• Make the Most of Your USB Functionality --

License

• MIT license
• Copyright 2019 ©