I Invented a Keyboard and Snapped it in Half (MiRage Mech Keyboard)
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- Опубликовано: 27 окт 2021
- The goal: the most hackable mechanical keyboard. The result: trolling the pants off /r/mk.
This episode is sponsored by NextPCB! Visit www.nextpcb.com/?code=Zackdd for massive discounts on high-quality PCB's. They made the boards for this episode!
More info on the project's core, the Seeeduino Xiao RP2040: www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-RP20...
My latest project is a low-profile mechanical keyboard, with three clickable displays, CircuitPython firmware, and a fully custom PCB that snaps into an ergonomic split board or a standalone number pad. Hacker types will love how easy it is to make. Keyboard nerds will hate pretty much everything; this build is a plump, aromatic Cleveland steamer all over the mech keeb orthodoxy.
This will eventually be a product! For now, you can download the files and snoop around at github.com/zackfreedman/mirage. It's not ready for you to make, but it's close.
Watch the complete process of making this project: • MiRage Keyboard
🔴 Live project builds at / zackfreedman !
👕 Grab spiffy Voidstar Lab merch: voidstar-lab.creator-spring.com/
🤝Join our community: / discord
💰 Support our projects: / zackfreedman
🐓Follow me! / zackfreedman
🤫Fancy pics of super secret projects: instagr.am/zackfreedman
Interference SFX: Partners in Rhyme
All other SFX: zapsplat.com
Soundtrack:
"Running in the 90's (Vaporwave Remix)" by Sytricka
"Consider it Swung" by Light-foot
"Chillout Lounge Wandering" by Ron Gelinas
"Funny" by Suhov
"Come On Let's Go" by Le Gang
"That Old Grey Computer" by EMAYTEE 
Наука
This project still has a ways to go, but if you're interested in alpha testing, please sign up here! forms.gle/1NZyLnt1roZXHf4b9
The qualifications section doesn't have a field I can type in. I don't know if that's a problem on my end or yours.
Same i cant type in qualifications, i actually worked on designing some keyboards for large companies i cant tell you what ones due to contracts i had to sign
@@cockatieltime2259 It's supposed to be a section header. I just cut it, it's more confusing than helpful
So could I get a third keyboard so I can have a numberpad?
Might be a stupid question: how does being an alpha tester work exactly?
“People that don’t know how to code, like web developers” hahahahahahaha
Never felt so personally attacked. It's completely true but also deeply insulting lmao
Trueeee
Holy crap. It's been a long time since I've seen you, Barnacles. You helped ignite my personal interest in coding projects.
I humm... I don't get it.
Are we talking backend or frontend here?
Got em😂
I really love that we live in a day and age where one can say, "I'm tired of working around my hobby PCB manufacturers limitations" and just switch to another one.
That's only true for who lives in North America/Europe.
Pop gang
I really love in a time and place that i can just move to a new hobby pcb maker
The best part? I learned everything I know about the actual physical aspects of electronics by watching a few snarky assholes use their techno-powers for evil and chaos. All you need is an internet connection and something that runs RUclips. Gone are the days of spending a few hundred on a set of coding books just so you could program a cool maze generator on your Apple 2.
@@gustavrsh And only true for those who can afford their pricing ...
"Imagine you are someone who doesn't know anything about programming, like a web developer".... lmfao, spit my coffee out all of the monitor on that one. You're killing me with all these comments
My best joke of the video 😂 it's funny because it's true :)
@@rungeon83 100%. I've got 30 years in IT and moved from developing to design and architecture within the first year. 1 decade of design and 2 decades of enterprise architecture later, it still boggles my mind how drag and drop a lot of "developing" has become. It's almost "configuration" than developing.
I rarely ever developed back in the day with an IDE even, almost always writing code in a text editor. When my daughter (6 yrs old at the time) made her first website I knew "coding" had been removed from web developing.
There are very few of us hw/sw people around who have degrees in both computer science and computer engineering. Probably why I like this channel. Engineering both a HW solution AND SW solution and the integration between them, has always been one of my favorite things to do. Add in Artificial Intelligence and you have the frosting on the cake
@@Hangs4Fun And you walked up uphill both ways through 2 meters of snow to and from school, too, I presume.
I've only got 25 years in IT, so I appreciate being able to do more with less. I also appreciate building HW for fun. But you keep gatekeeping, hoss.
@@phrebh oh Lord, that sounded JUST like something my grandpa would tell me about when he was younger... Shoot me now, lol 😆
I felt personally called out by the joke... and I fucking loved it! :'D
Rather than "shamelessly" reassembling them, you could add a pair of magnets to the joining sides of your 3D print (or linking grooves to put them together like a zip) and make the headers into an elegant bridge plug, and make remerging into a bigger feature of the board rather than a mild accident that's easy to fix.
This! This is a brilliant idea. I hope Zack adds it to the next revision.
That is exactly what I was thinking.
I don’t know that much about keyboards, but isn’t there something to be said about electromagnetism
Is there a way to do that and not have some male header poking out of the side of the board? maybe a grooved keyway going along the whole height of the board would be a good way to make it look good, be functional and strong when together and protect the header?
@@mr.eggdog707 that's not a problem at all to be honest and even if it were, you could conduct the magnetic field lines away or make a shielding for it or find some other creative solutions
"Your cousin's dad is named Robert" took me longer to figure out than I'm willing to admit 😂 but the "ohhh" of realization was very satisfying. Dad level jokes here on full display.
Ugh, I still don`t get it :(
Bob's your uncle. Holy cow this took me way too long
@@raddaks2039 i dont live in british so idk what bobs your uncle means
@@p6v665 It's kind of like saying, "voilà" and implies that "quick as a snap" your job is done.
Bruh, the jokes per minute are always packed so tightly, yet delivered so well. Happy to see the channel gaining traction more and more.
Would use one of these, I think I had a chance to use a small pad with one of those lp switches and damn did they feel sexy. Low Profile should really be more mainstream with how smooth they can feel.
A jokes per minute counter should be added to it as a feature XD
Yeah I have to actually watch these videos at closer to normal speed just to digest it all haha.
@@xenontesla122 I genuinely don’t know if anyone but him could keep track of them all without serious funding, and am VERY sure that he would intentionally not count a bunch of jokes.
@@JB-fh1bb shut up then
@@Omega-mr1jg ? I don't know what convo you're in
🙋♂️ - love the compliant pcb OLED display buttons.
I love that design so much!
Are they not going to be pretty heavy on actuation force though?
here are the mike and the ketioz together the slang smugglers
This is peak youtube content. Love it. From beginning to end the chaos, the learning, the all of it
Indeed. More educational than actual school.
I would absolutely love to have one. I would probably end up using it as a streamdeck-esque numpad thing, but I would definitely at least try it as a full keyboard.
Feel free to sign up for the alpha at forms.gle/1NZyLnt1roZXHf4b9
Yeah I'm with you there, I like the design, nice degree of flexibility designed in, and those small throw proper mechanical switch I've been curious about for a while.. But probably just end up a small extra board to go alongside my trusty model M (having learnt to type on it and used it ever since its just so natural feeling), but at the very least is an interesting idea.
"Imagine you are someone that doesn't know anything about programming, like web developer"
Damn that shit hurts
But accurate, often times. Few web developers are actually developers, and only know how to write HTML and CSS.
And right after that we see CircuitPython in a "product" :D
@@feyntmistral1110 they wouldn’t be considered we developers, there is no way you can get an actual job or make any decent web app with only html and css. Your statement is just inaccurate even children code web apps with js.
@@vablo7198 LMFAO.. If thats not ironic, Im either very concerned for you, or you have the most advanced CSS the world has yet to c.
when you and your sibling are supposed to be asleep ruclips.net/video/RXqP7l3TXHA/видео.html
13:42 He totally missed an opportunity to spell mirage with a y so it said "My Key" on the other half.
and it would be my rage not mirage
Also would love a video series on just the basics like "best soldering practices, how to choose a micro controller etc."
As a newbie to the hackerspace, those are the most daunting thing to me getting started with these projects
The DroneBot Workshop channel might be helpful to you. m.ruclips.net/user/Dronebotworkshop1
This looks super fun. I've had a bunch of parts ready for my first split lowpro build for months now and I just couldn't decide on which specific layout I want. This one ticks more of the boxes I'm looking for than most. I'd love to give it a shot.
this is my first video i’ve seen from you, and holy hell, you seem like such an amazing person to talk to and i would enjoy talking keebs with you, i can help you make your keyboard sound exactly how you like regardless of the cherry switches or not, looking forward to updates on this board
Dude this is so sick. Love it. Love the video. You're just so likeable...seriously I enjoy all your videos. Keep it augmented my dude!
This is amazing; I've been planning to DIY a split keyboard for ages and this looks so cool. I would love to get my hands on this sooner or later ♥
Awesome keyboard! I like the use of io expanders. I'm going to have to look into circuit python now. Thanks!
It's a pleasure to use, but many operations are slow. I may need to rewrite this in C++ to get the performance we need for consistent clacking.
@@ZackFreedman let us know how it goes! I've been noodling with using a microcontroller with enough pins to use one per switch, but they tend to get more expensive.
There are some aspects of keyboard firmware design that are not obvious, such as n-key rollover. I have noticed that a lot of keyboard manufacturers don't get it right, and the result is a lot of transposed characters when typing, especially when using modifier or shift keys.
@@filker0 Right? “N-key” is suuuuch a diluted marketing term.
@@ZackFreedman or maybe use the even cooler rustlang 😎
What a perfect day for this to come out. I’ve been looking into a split keyboard for my desk, but am generally not a fan of most of em. This would be a perfect project to do. Count me in!
"Your thing on your head" is the core reason im still watching
"Zack Freedman of proudly mi key one half is a three halves a cyber" I dig this new style of rap
The thought you put into this made the engineer within me very happy. Great inspiration
This is so incredibly awesome, I love what you're doing!
Also as someone who hates physical electronics but like software stuff it's extra impressive
Zach this is so great. I love how your jokes just flow throughout the technical bits. Also this keyboard is amazing!
Absolutely amazing. That’s some top level design right there. Would love to alpha test it. Down with the mk hegemony!
The alpha-test signup list is right here! forms.gle/1NZyLnt1roZXHf4b9
Can't wait for the bugs to be ironed out. Looks like an amazing project. Would love to help test if I wasn't a complete noob with this stuff
Got to start somewhere
I really appreciate the clean IO expander. Awesome video and thanks for all the documentation. I feel like few people document keyboard projects to the point where other people can actually do it too, which I feel is the exact point of documenting projects online. Thanks Zack! Great video
genuinely one of my favorite channels, can't wait to see it all come together
This is awesome. Perfectly illustrates the sort of homebrew-ethos that made me fall in love with the custom keyboard community. Thanks for the great content
I love how inclusive you are to the vast cyborg community.
this looks absolutely awesome, great work man, really gonna keep this on my radar - love the display buttons!
You are humorous and extremely informative at the same time , i am getting in building my first split low profile keyboard and this video was information packed. I learnt so many amazing things and concepts i cant thank you enough for what you have shared via a video. Keep rolling out your journey on building mechanical keyboards. Subbed.
Thumbs up for the web developer gag alone :)
Columnar stagger would like to have a word with you about ergonomics. It's low key vastly better than a grid layout especially with tenting and angling the halves
At least the matrix/grid layout is much better than the slanted layout.
Columnar stagger might be the ideal, but at the cost of making the circuit traces much harder to make and likely consuming more space in footprint.
9:09 "That's like hammering a nail with the deathstar"
I love this line lol
This is beautiful! I am definitely wanting to follow this close and see how it goes. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Options and all of them!
I want (and applied for) one of these. Basically everything I was designing for myself! Though I would like to say as a web dev, I also code in Rust which makes me doubly insufferable.
Ew yuck gross. Might as well add lua and Java ;)
@@voxexsulis9022 Hey Lua is a perfectly useful embedded language. ;)
At least I don’t use FORTH anymore.
@@underscorenul Love it, been meaning to really try to get to grips with Rust myself, seems like a very good idea, but just not found enough reason to yet.
hey ! i'd be really interested on working on this project and adding my personnal touches (like maybe replacing one of the screens with hot swap addons like a rotary encoder or a trackpoint !), or maybe adding some hinges on the split keyboard to make it able to fold in 1 small piece and store it safely. Tho i have to admit that i have never worked on keyboards that are not using qmk, that could be a very nice experience nonetheless (:
I may actually cut the screens myself. They look cool and work great, but I'm not sure I can prevent the OLEDs from cracking if users mash them down. They also take a while to update, and flicker on camera. I may replace them with wheels or modular snap-in controls.
@@ZackFreedman i think that a small piece of clear acrylic could do the trick, tho i don't think that they are as useful as they seem at the end of the day. Maybe you could use a smaller 128x32 oled screen if you want to display informations about those said wheels and snap-in constrols and leave more space to work with. I was thinking of something else too, i have a keyboard that has the option of soldering a bunch of stuff on a single space, either a keyswitch, a rotary encoder, an oled screen, a slider etc.. and i think that implementing this kind of design could lead to better modularity and more options for the end user, if it was done on let's say, the far right and far left columns of the keyboard. Thanks for the reply though!
Oh my god, I love it! I’d love the bottom row to be ortholinear as well and to split the board one column to the left, but apart from that, it’s pretty much perfect!
Also, thank you so much for splitting the bottom plate this way to make it easier to print and assemble, that’s a big one.
Hey Zack, you have a crazy good channel! I love all your projects. And, your smart ass attitude as well lol. I appreciate the knowledge man! I just started getting into this stuff like learning Python, (for now, being that it is the easiest) 3D printing, microcontrollers, Single Board Computers, etc etc. Your videos inspire me even more!
Again, thanx for the knowledge and honesty 🫡✌🏼
Would definately love to be an alpha tester. My main keyboard just suffered an unfortunate fate so it would be the perfect forced excuse to force an alpha test board into the role of my main for a while.
As a business owner, this keyboard would be immensely powerful when a customer comes to me with a common question, I need those macro buttons 🤪 Need this in my life 💪 excellent work!
Such a sick project! Well done👌
Amazing project and amazing humor. Great video for sure. Felt thoroughly entertained
Love your content and love keyboards! Match made in heaven. Def going to go watch the build on the VoD
ahhh this is seriously so cool, the amount of side things you thought of and put into the design is fantastic and inspiring. if I ever get a 3d printer this'll be on the to-do list for sure.
... Or find someone who has one and ask them to print it out for you. Pay using beer of course.
i would love to test this, you just addressed a good hand of my beefs on DIY custom keyboards and im so excited with the result.
oh that looks like all sorts of fun, can't wait to see later revisions. I recently swapped to a Moonlander Mark 1 Split keyboard, never going back to slabs.
First vid of yours I've watched and your humor instantly made me sub.
wow, I almost forgot you existed! so happy to see a new video! Great Job!
This has been the best keyboard project I have sees so far. best vertical integration, and big thumbs up for ditching old tech.
I love how he made shure that we all get to do the keyboard acording to OUR needs, and (even more important) OUR posibilities. This guy is our friendly neighborhood Nerd tech man an i love him
I have been a mechanical keyboard fan for years!!! I love this design!!! I'm so happy to see someone actually take it to the next(pcb) level I would love to have one of these keyboards can't wait to see the cyberdeck in its full glory!
Saw this one during the streams,. Great to see how well it turned out
Amazing keeb! can't wait to see it as a cyberdeck. As a ergodox infinity owner, i appreciate the ease of use immensely!
Great video as ever!!! Hopefully due for the part 2 soon! :)
This is awesome! I was thinking of picking up a pre-built optical keyboard. But now I really wanna go back to the idea idea of making a keyboard.
As someone who is in the Keyboard community whom loves split keyboards, oleds, and ortholinear, I love love love this project! I love how you are challenging the meta by not accepting what is commonly done! I would love to try out the alpha, but I know that I will not enjoy the Kailh Chocs (I have tried them out myself). Something about the flat keycaps is not comfortable for me. I shall keep watching and wait patiently for the MX version :D Best of luck man!
The comedy here is gold, Congrats on making a channel that combines a keyboard niche to people who might actually watch, Love the channel!
This is do damn cool! I've been looking at building a keyboard for a while now, but this is way cooler than the same tired builds in r/mk. Has all the cool factor of a DiY build without the elitest mentality!
This is amazing mate. I have been bummed out since you went to Twitch but kept it to myself. I tried watching the streams but due to work it has been impossible even though I did manage to get on a couple of times.
I printed the Sick-68 (Uniqorn) for the wife out of Glow in the Dark Hatchbox PLA and all the keys are wired and ready to be soldered on the Teensy.
I also printed out the Redox Handwire. The base was made out of Ziro Sparkle Red and the top out of Ziro Diamond Black. Now you come up with this! Why would you do this to me!
Seriously though, I am so pumped just to see a new vid from you that you've made my whole day, week and year. All I do is work and have little spare time for my projects but thankfully that has helped my build a more than modest lab upstairs with a ridiculous amount of parts and components. This way, when I do have the time, I won't have to wait too long for items to come in while I work on other areas of my build.
I love the new design! I don't like leaving things half finished so I'll finish the "Uniqorn" and then it's off to this. I've signed up. I'm drugged to the eyeballs in peanut M&M's. I have a work log that will make building the pyramids look like a smoke break but I'm in!
Sorry for the long write up but I'm so pumped right now. I'm excited watching the new video. Seeing you and most of all, the new build which I cannot wait to get into!
I wish you the best and thank you for all the great content. You've been my greatest inspiration.
This is one of the most inspiring and impressive things I have ever seen. Great job man.
This project is absolutely amazing. As a (amateur) Pcb designer and a software engineer (almost, still 3 classes to go) I can say that you did a great job. Port expander are way better than the matrix system. Also, your jokes are the best.
I was planning to replace my 15 years old keyboard, and considering building one (after watching your first video). Now I'm totally convinced.
I love to build stuff, and off the shelf keyboard cost a fortune.
Keep up the good work, you and your projects are awsome.
I understood very little of the technical verbiage. I was still so fascinated with the process. I love making ideas come to life. I hope I can make something of this scale one day. Thanks for the videos!
what a wonderful thing!
Thanks for taking the time to create, make, dicument, and share :)
Really love your videos. Always makes me want to start building something. Keep up the great work.
"ZACK FREEDMAN OF proudly MI KEY
ONE HALF IS A THREE HALVES A CYBER"
Perfect, I'll buy your entire stock
I am so mesmerized. It combines so many hobbies and passions: programming, mech keyboards, circuitry, 3D printing, qmk, and more. I would really be interested in building this and would like a low profile mech keeb like this.
I have a submitted handwired keyboard for qmk, so I'm interested if the firmware you are using supports layers.
I am so glad I stumbled on this channel. I have been working on Python scripts for a full RPi to do cool stuff with custom keyboards (I wanted to be limited as little by the actual HW). Besides this being an amazing concept worthy attention it also uses MicroPython amd some of those features can be added later. I think keyboards should be as personal as knifes, screwdrivers and any other tool you use for years without replacing it. Anything from basic typo corrections to command snippets for daily analysts.
As much as I'd love to alpha test, I'm a networker by day, and 3d printer/painter by night. Good luck with the tests and I can't wait for the full release!
I would really love to alpha test this. I have to wrtie a lot of formulas on a laptop and the advanced efficency of being able to type all those special characters on an extra keyboard would be a godsend.
Also really impressed by your turnaround time of these projects, I can't even get a simple MosFet to behave correctly
This is amazing, great work!
Frking love it, that's the kbrd that I been looking for, it's exactly what i need
The split version is deffently going on my wish list, looks really good.
Zack, I don't even care about keyboards that much, or really electronics at large (Mechanical engineer for a reason), but I love your videos just for the entertainment value alone. You are my new favorite channel.
Buttons clicked, Great Project, shame your not considering a full sized 104+ key module/expansion too.. even so its probably gonna jump to the top of the queue for projects i want to emulate will be following this with anticipation, Thanks..
This is shaking my mind. Amazing job Zack.
great engineering man taking what you have learned and combining it all into a cool board
This cyberdeck looks like something I want to build. I always love your projects!
Great video! I love the patter.
Zack! You are a mad bugger, but jebus you thunk about a lot of thinkings in this board! Kicking mech keys into 2021…
Seriously nice work mate!
Ok, im getting into this one. Never soldered or touched a circuit board or screws this small but you inspired me to just go for it.. wish me luck.
wow, can't wait to see then whole project!
Great content as always bud!
Wow, super cool! Gotta love a custom board with the potential to be three different types.
I absolutely love this keyboard. If there is still an opening I would like to help alpha test this. I love what you do here. Keep it up.
Looking forward to the next video on this project!
RP2040/CircuitPython FTW! Nice work, Zack
Smart, funny, looking like a caveman. I love it. Every single aspect of this showcase video does everything that wants me to throw money at you no matter how much it costs. I would really love to be an alpha tester, mostly because I now feel ashamed of my cherry mx keyboard I have been daily driving as a programmer for past few years and have been thinking bout upgrading. This project sounds awesome, looks even better and with community this flavourful I hope many customizations either for firmware or for the casing wil surface in near future. Good luck to you sir. Mraz
Thanks Zach for inspiring me to get into this moneypit hobby, yesterday I finished a fully custom split keyboard, thats handwired, got two promicros, lots of diodes and qmk that I did myself and Cherry style switches lmao.
content and delivery on these vids are always both 10/10 and idk how you do it but damn it's good
bro this is the best keyboard I have ever seen!!! would be very interested in alpha testing. subbed and belled!
Love it! Now get a laser etcher and start making some custom keycaps! Also add a rotary encoder! And underglow! ALL THE THINGS!
Wonderful.😎 Thank you. (and a huge👏 for the fast pace of all your jokes.)
Now that is something I want to buy/make/semi-diy. I will follow this project with interest.
This is amazing. Well done
It's been fun watching the streams of this while I'm working on, well, work. I've signed up for the alpha, but will save up my pennies for the final version.
Huge respect for the level of thought (and effort) you put into this 🙇♂️
This looks insanely cool. Very nice.
Lol good catch at the end! I loved listening to the patron list!