I built a new keyboard recently. It looks like this:
It has some interesting features:
- It’s entirely wireless (the left half speaks Bluetooth to the right half, and the right half speaks Bluetooth to my computer).
- The bottom of the case is tapped for standard 1/4-20 tripod-mounting threads.
- The bottom of the case also has some very strong rare-earth magnets.
The tripod mounts mean that I can “tilt” and “tent” the keyboard however I want, with some basic camera mounting gear:
Even at pretty extreme angles:
And since it’s wireless, I can mount it to the arms of my chair, and I don’t have to worry about a TRRS cable locking me in:
(My particular chair has tiny T-Rex armrests, so this isn’t really a thing I would ever do, but I still can do it.)
Meanwhile, the integrated magnets let me use it like a normal keyboard on my (ferromagnetic) lap desk, without them falling off when I pick it up.
I had never built a keyboard before, and I did some dumb things and some smart things. If you want to have a keyboard like this, you might be able to copy some of my smart things and avoid some of my dumb things by reading this incredibly long build diary.
But first, let me just say: building a keyboard is really easy.
I bought a kit and I assembled it, more or less. I had to buy a soldering iron too. I had never soldered anything before this build, and I was intimidated by the prospect. But it turns out soldering isn’t hard at all.
At least, “through-hole soldering” isn’t hard. There’s an advanced kind of soldering called “surface mount soldering” which is a little bit trickier, but most keyboard kits only use through-hole components, so you don’t have to worry about that if you don’t want to.
I bring this up to say: if you’re interested in a weird wireless keyboard like this, you can have it. Don’t be afraid. It’ll take a few hours to assemble, and it’ll set you back a few bucks. But it’s very attainable.