Tools and skills needed to keyboard building
Skills needed
Basic electronics and soldering
Honestly, a keyboard is a very simple thing. By basic electronics I mean knowing what a switch, a diode and a controller (development board) does and how to wire them. That are all the components required to build a keyboard.
Here is my basic electronics guide (in progress) for more info.
People new to keyboard building are usually freaked out by soldering. Well, you shouldn't.
Soldering (I'm talking about handwiring) is easy and very useful not just for keyboard making but to fix all kind of stuff at home.
You can watch hour long videos on this topic, but you better grab your iron and try to solder instead. Here are my tips on soldering.
I spent a lot of time with research, looking for the perfect soldering iron, materials and accessories, but with hindsight, I overcomplicated things. With buying the first and cheapest iron I would be probably at the exact same stage of keyboard building I'm now.
Minimal set of tools needed
Without the right tools, building or repairing keyboards can be frustrating at times. Fortunately, you should manage to do everything with a:
- soldering iron (+solder wire),
- wire cutter (+wires),
- tweezer and
- exacto knife
Tools on the picture and where I bought them:
| Tools | Price [USD] | Tips |
|---|---|---|
| Soldering iron (with a pointy tip) | 150 | You don't need this expensive model, I wouldn't buy this again either. I saw irons starting from 4$ on aliexpress. |
| Wire cutter | 6 | A set of 4 different pliers from a nearby supermarket. |
| Tweezer | 5 | A set of 3 tweezers from aliexpress. Plastic tweezers will melt, you need something more durable. |
| Exacto knife | 1 | Well, a sharp little knife will do it too, but this one is great and cheap. |
| Screwdriver | ? | I'm pretty sure you have something like this laying around at home. |
Good to have tools
This is a shot with all the tools I used during the S.Torm build.
| Tools | Price [USD] | Tips |
|---|---|---|
| Soldering iron | 150 | You don't need this expensive model, I wouldn't buy this again either. I saw irons starting from 4$ on aliexpress. |
| Wire cutter | 6 | This was a set of 4 different pliers in a nearby supermarket. |
| Tweezer | 6 | Again, a set of four tweezers from aliexpress. Plastic tweezers will melt, you need something more durable. |
| exacto knife | 1 | A sharp little knife is perfect too, but this one is great and cheap. |
| Screwdriver | ? | I'm pretty sure you have something like this laying around at home. |
| Multimeter | 18 | For checking continuity, switches, diodes, controller pins, troubleshooting etc. |
| Wire stripper | ? | Not necessary, but sometimes useful. |
| Third hand | ? | Not necessary, used once or twice only. |
| Steel ruler | This is useful combined with the exacto knife when cutting things. | |
| Solder sucker | I'm not a big fan of this. Maybe a more expensive model would make a difference. | |
| Scissors | Mainly for cutting cardboard. Both for cardboard prototying and little cardboard pieces protecting plastic parts while soldering. | |
| Keycap/switch puller | Comes with some keysets or you can buy one separately. | |
| Carpenters square | To bend diode legs. Not necessary, find something at home which is the perfect shape and size to bend diodes. | |
| Soldering mat | I don't like this and tend to lay a sheet of paper/cardboard on it while soldering. That said, a sheet of paper is all you need. |
And pretty much that's everything you'll need to build your first macropad or custom keyboard.