Too Many Keyboards?

Last night, I happened across an article by Tanveer Singh over at XDA Developers. I don’t know the author personally, but XDA Developers started as a mobile development forum and did pivot into many other things, and I have followed them for some time. More recently, they have been posting a lot of mechnical keyboard themed articles.

The title of this article was, “5 Signs My Mechanical Keyboard Obsession is out of Hand.” Singh isuses a warning that is a good one for any hobby. Don’t let something you enjoy become something compulsive or obsessive.

Like him, I worry I may be acquiring too many keyboards because I also like to try things. I’ve had to make some compromises.

• I’ve tried to scale down purchases in certain categories
• I sold off some inventory to others(contact me if you want to buy anything)
• I’m trying to find unique designs, not just new versions of the same thing.
• I want to have some aluminum cases, but that is where the money is. Either I’m buying discounted metal cased boards, or I’m going with other materials. I found a keyboard layout I wanted to try…the circuit board is on sale for $33, the case is $165.
• I’ve printed my own cases(from other people’s designs) and am trying to get better at that. I’m printing one as I type.
• I’ve experimented with printing my own keycaps as well. Over $100 for keycaps when all the other parts are $50 seems wrong to me.
• I’ve turned my collection into wall art. Sitting above my work desk is an adjustable wall of keyboard in a multicolor display. I regular swap and take them off their hooks when I feel like something different.

Keyboard Construction As A Hobby

The ones I soldered together and built the cases for are akin to someone who does woodworking and keeps building bird houses. It is the activity of construction. Singh misses that aspect of it. Even if you just go for simple assembly of a hotswap keyboard(adding switches and keycaps), I have boards that turned out to be poor decisions that I have either been purging or trying to modify so they sound better. I have projects I’ve been tweaking.

When I restarted 3d printing after being turned off by my lemon of an Ender, I got the A1 Mini on the theory most of what I’d printed before was less than 180mm square. But when I started with keyboard cases a few months later, I quickly needed something larger to be able to print entire cases. I still didn’t spring for a printer that could do anything larger than a 65…maybe a 75 if I stretch it, in a single piece.

I haven’t tried designing my own case or handwiring yet. Handwiring would be designing a case and wiring it without a circuit board, instead wiring the switches directly to a controller. Credit to the keyboard community for being very supportive of my questions and encouraging me to try new things.

However, despite the fact I’ve pivoted to try to pick more interesting pieces…like collecting southpaw keyboards(southpaw is where there is a number pad on the left side as opposed to the right), there are still a lot of opportunities for diversion. I always wanted to have a crafting hobby. i’ve done many project over the years, but this is probably the most craft-like of them.