I recently bought the Cooler Master Quickfire Stealth, https://www.massdrop.com/buy/cooler-master-storm, and surprisingly, have been missing my number pad. As part of an adventure I am going to begin my journey on making my own number pad, design the circuit, design the PCB, get the PCB printed, and code the appropriate chips with the features I want on it.
Design
I already have everything pictured in my head on how this board will be laid out and have yet to get designs made. I am going to design a simple circuit that is actually well known and used often, the technique of soldering diodes to each switch and have them arranged in columns with each column being processed based on signal power.
The basic way this is assembled is as follows:
Most number pads have a few keys that are two-wide that use stabilizers. In an attempt to clean up my design and have a basic board, I have come up with a simple 4x5 matrix with blank key caps.
So, instead of this:
I am going to do something like this:
As far as the PCB itself is concerned, I am going to use Eagle CAD to design the basic device and get OSH Park to print the board because their manufacturing is so sexy compared to normal boards. Their boards are also around $5 per square inch for two-layered boards, so that isn't bad
:
I haven't done any other work other than theoretical work so I am going to keep this thread updated with my progress on the board as I work on this over the summer. From what I have estimated I can build this board for $150 max and around $120 if my design works flawlessly from the start. Heck, I may get 3 prints made of this board, which will cost money, but will still be worth it since this is an educational venture and my parents will maybe probably possibly just maybe fund it. if I go straight to getting a PCB designed and printed, however, I would like to get a test one made before I get the board printed. But since I do not have any of the equipment to make it myself since I have no plate to mount in on nor tools to use to make it like that, I am probably going to get the print made.
Just going to throw this in here, I am probably going to use a Teensy 3.1 https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/teensy31.html
) then I will be happy to send them the board, just the board, nothing else, so its a DIY minus the board.
