MIDI Keyboard
A custom MIDI Keyboard with cool switches and hopefully USB-C compatibility for my laptop.
Created by
Rishthewizard
Tier 3
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Timeline
Rishthewizard
added to the journal ago
Figured out PCB routing and tags for schematic
So far I have organized the schematic, watching YouTube tutorials (like this one) to understand the basics of a switch matrix, I'm finally beginning to understand the MIDI guide in the guided projects (as it has been organized in a way that is a bit confusing, possibly intentionally to encourage research and learning!).
Since my last journal I:
- Organized the matrix I began working on last time into octaves (along with fixing some minor errors)
- Set up the wiring and tags for organization
- Labeled major parts
- Began the wiring for the rotary encoder switches
By next time I need to figure out some confusing aspects such as where the rest of the wiring for the user buttons go to, as in all the screenshots of the MIDI guide it does not show the full schematic.

Rishthewizard
added to the journal ago
Preliminary Design and Practice
After making my Hackpad, I believe I have the experience to move onto a custom and more complex project such as a MIDI keyboard. I have worked with Garageband a lot over the past few years, and I believe this will help me further my music desires!
Getting started, I have an idea of what I want to create, basically a piano with Cherry MX switches, and firmware to make knobs and buttons control Garageband commands such as volume and reveb. It would also be nice to have buttons for things such as toggling a phaser on/off. This is why I want to research the ability to toggle into different "modes" (e.g. clicking a button turns volume knob->phaser).
I began by reading through the MIDI keyboard project documentation, and finding a YouTube guide on how to make switch matrixes (as the project documentation is not very clear ;-;).
My first step is completing the schematic for the switch matrix of the MIDI keyboard, here is my progress starting out:

Rishthewizard
started MIDI Keyboard ago