10/19/2025 - started my journey!

It is currenly 8:40pm 19/10/2025, I have started making the concept to my keyboard and plan to fully deep dive into this project starting tomorrow.

I have also done the following
-install CAD
-learned rerouting PCBS
-decided on the ALICE LAYOUT
-done some research on the components needed

10/20/2025 - Day 1 : General outline done

Had some free time after running and drafted out the first schematic!

I've decided to commit to the 75% format as well as the ALICE I had originally intended, the build will be plastic milled (hopefully) and will feature LED (compatible under VIA) and have hot-swap sockets to make it convenient to modify in the future. It will also be gasket mounted to eliminate possible damage to the PCB through contact with screws.

The proudest feature would definitely have to be the K N O B. All hail the K N O B.

As for the specifications it hasn't been CADed so it'll be in the ballpark of my Keychron V1 MAX of
40cm x 20cm x 5cm

note: i don't think i will include bluetooth and a battery because it is too complex for a beginner such as I. Tomorrow I shall CAD and try to design a PCB for it

10/21/2025 - Day 2 : finished the schematics

After checking, double checking, and triple checking, it works!

This took a long time because this was my first time making pcbs, I had to look up countless guides, youtube videos, and various materials, huge thanks to the FateNozomi (creator of the Arisu) for making the files public and also MrKeebs who let me mess around with KLE. At the end of the day the schematics features a relatively simple design with 84 switches and LEDS.

Note: I was struggling like a buffoon before I asked for help from my friend Anson at hour 6 so thanks to him too for helping with the power components!

With that day 2 is done and I shall make the actual PCB tomorrow.

The clock says 8 hours, but most of the time was staring at the screen, I have changed it to 1.9 instead which is more realistic.

10/23/2025 10 AM - Day 3: Finished the rough outline of the PCB

There were a few kinks to knock out from the previous day, but the main issue for today was getting used to the PCB editor on Kicad, I spent around 1 hour just having a nervous breakdown on why my components aren't lying on the grid, and because of the weird tilt that half the keyboard has there were lots of intersections that didnt look the nicest.

10/23/2025 4 PM - Day 3.5: Polished everything

Backtracked to my last successful attempt and tried to implement some stuff because some pcbs online had nasty intersection, still took a long time as I had to redo the schematic and add a function key, as of right now I just have to finish placing the other components and begin wiring to finish the PCB.

Unrelated note: I have worked out in my head several designs for the keyboard, I was thinking of engraving a panel from Initial D to the back as well as add some design to the top right seeing as now I have space, the only thing left would be the sides, traditionally keyboards dont feature designs on the side but I'll see how it goes

[engraving on the back]

[design on the function row]

10/29/2025 - Day 4: Redid the entire layout and tweaked PCB

Had a bunch of issues that needed to be corrected, this is again because of the unique layout of ALICE. I had to scratch my old layout because of alignment issues so I redid it all on KLE and came up with the following. This was to ensure a smoother process in the future when making my plat and designing my cases, still figuring out the wiring.

Also I had to tweak some stuff in my schematic because the placements for the switches do not match those on the KB-placer plugin but other than that I haven't been doing much journalling because it is exam season and my priorities must be made.

10/30/2025 - Day 4.5: Had my plate done

Light day but still somehow took an hour, I was scouring the internet because the plate generator from the hackpad guide wasn't good enough for me so I had to find another. Other than that I had to change the LED's on my board because the ones I used weren't the correct ones.

11/2/2025 - Day 5: Resolved the issues of the plate

The previous plate generator I used could not account for the tilt and left some of the bottom stabiliser out, I resolved this through using a different website and added some gasket mounts in Autodesk.

The 3d modelling part took embarrassingly long because my computer was running slow and Fusion 360 wasn't behaving the way I wanted it too.

Other than that I had also switched out the sockets from my old design on Kicad to ones that support hotswap to save me from a headache in the future.

11/4/2025 - Day 5.5: Redid the plate

There was some issues regarding width of the previous plate so I made all borders at least 4mm, I also spent some time looking up the dimensions of my case and I'm starting to get some ideas on how to do it for tomorrow. It is still quite unfortunate this took such a long time to accomplish.

11/10/2025 - Day 6: back to square 1, redid the layout

I have gotten ahold of the step files for the keycaps and saw in the 3d viewer there was too much space between the tilted and non-tilted keys so I booted up KLE and worked on it, the fix wasn't and still isn't pretty but it will work for now. I really do hope the models are accurate otherwise the whole project will end in failure.

as you can see from the photo above the keys on the top left resemble a receding hairline while the bottom right keys resemble the titanic and the iceberg

Unrelated note: MY EXAMS ARE OVER!!! I can spend the next week or so building SELENE and hopefully be done by the end of the week and get into contact with chinese suppliers to fix any additional issues before shipping my projcet.

11/12/2025 7 PM - Day 6.5:"For god's sakes it's too late now!" -Kimi Raikonnen

I had to scrap the plate and pcb.

Realised this late into the project that the alignment for the stabilisers were off because of the north facing setup, which were uncompatible with the layout softwares I was using. Today I changed the layout of course but on top of that I tweaked the problem keys' position from yesterday. Hopefully the models I have used are accurate to real life otherwise I would get a glorified paperweight.

11/12/2025 9 PM - Day 6.75: I've given up

From my design it isn't required to have perfect alignmnt, so I worked out some leeway for my keyboard with straight enough plate to pcb contact, that way I can grind out any awkward positioning between the two.

From what I've observed all the outer keys are aligned perfectly

but the curved keys all have some issues, they are all parallel but are just slightly off with the left side being slightly to the left and the right being skewed too much to the right

11/13/2025 6 PM - Day 7: The fall of Icarus

I had gone too fast too recklessly, specifically the semicolon kye was tilted at a 5 degree angle and didn't look pleasing so I had to go online again to find inspiration for layouts, specifically fell in love with the Adelheid and also the Kusuguru.

With this I purged myself of the old mindset that keys have to stick together and came up with this beauty, this again took surprisingly long because KLE is generally a pain to work with.

11/13/2025 10 PM - Day 7.1: She haunts me

Everywhere I go my ADD will not let go of the misalignment so starting tomorrow I will start finishing what I have started which is to painstakingly adjust the position of the misalignment one key at a time.

(the green part is the plate outline)

also yes I did spend an hour on this looking for possible solutions such as from Adelheid and also from their creator as Mudkip had made a layout on KLE

11/14/2025 - Day 7.5: Perfectly balanced

IT FINALLY ALIGNED!!!

Relatively short day today, did what I said I was going to.

For those still unclear the green (the plate sketch in Fusion 360) needs to align with the mesh (blue) otherwise the switches wouldn't clip in properly

On another note, I shall quickly tidy up the plate and gaskets since I had done it before and finally get started on my top plate.

For the plate I'm still deciding between POM and FR4 I have experience with FR4 plates, but POM has some attractive qualities such as its "thocky" sound and that it is slightly flexier which complements the gasket mounted design.

11/16/2025 - Day 8: A new mountain

Started this the day before but had to do some configuration so it took a little longer.

What I accomplished was I completed a case that is tilted at 9 degrees which is what I prefer in my keyboards. This does present some issues in the future but for now it's fine since its a solid block I will have no flexibility and also it looks like the cybertruck. There are already added grooves for gaskets that are too exact so I may have to sand them down when I get the parts.


The only thing yet to finalise are the screw holes and a compartment for the daughter board.

11/17/2025 - Day 9: To the end

Started on the top case today

The alignment is a bit off but it might be due to my methodology, I will be fixing it tomorrow but it looks pretty good already.

All that's left to do is to make space for a daughter board and double check some items then I can ship it :D

11/19/2025 - Day 9.5: Friends are great

A friend of mine told me about the projection tool but also the offset tool which worked wonders for my alignment

I only have to shift some outlines slightly outwards and get rid of the large curvature then I can extrude and have my top case :D

11/20/2025 - Day 10: "Done"

I have a lot to do such as adding the visuals and what not but I think I'll do those changes after I ship it, other than that I just have to generate a bill of materials.

11/23/2025 12:51 AM - Day 11: NOT DONE. NOT DONE

Apparently I had forgotten to include that my wiring is a dumpster fire, there were tons of issues I had to fix. This took about 4 days so I will put 4 days worth of entries here.

Firstly they were all not placed correctly and the plugin I had installed wasn't doing it well so I had to hand place every LED, Diode, and Capacitor.

I also added new components for a daughterboard because the gasket mounted style would move the board constantly.

11/23/2025 12:52 AM - Day 11.25 :

After the rows and columns were swapped accordingly to the schematic (it got jumbled because of the plugin in the first place)

I added copper plans to have a functioning PCB

11/23/2025 12:54 AM - Day 11.5 :

Lost some sleep because I had to go back to school now which means more grinding so it was a light day of wiring the left side of my keyboard, I was still rusty with the whole process because the only time I practiced was when I followed the macropad tutorial.

(i had forgotten what a VIA was and only discovered 1 hour into the process)

11/23/2025 12:56 AM - Day 11.75:

The right and top part of wiring went smoother because I had gotten relatively familiar, still confused about how the wiring worked and that it should be a cohesive mess instead of a random one.

11/23/2025 12:58 AM - Day 11.99:

The power management component can be seen off to the side like the black sheep of the family so I finally placed it in a place where I can have peace of mind, by far the easiest thing out of day 11.

11/23/2025 1 AM - Day 12: a waste

I think that failure is an inevitable part of one's journey to success.

I had spent the entire of today deleting all the previous case files because they were made when I was inexperienced and everything was inconsistently placed, this meant alignment was off for everything.

I built the new case from the ground up, everything looked really nice
-the new board was tilted at 5 instead of 9 degrees which made it more comfortable
-it was thinner which saved a lot of money
-more structurally sound because the plate wasnt dangling from just a tiny prong but was encased

The major drawback was after I had finished everything and asked for it to be reviewed by a friend who is more experienced at hack club where he point out the following issues

(it was supposed to be 14mm)

Forgive me for the trauma dump but I just had to show the design process for anyone that wants to do keyboards
I have only counted the hours it took to make the plate because it was the only good thing to come out from today

11/27/2025 - Day 13: A new beginning?

For the past week or so I've felt a drop off in motivation because school is starting again and I've just not felt like continuing this project.

In other news, worked on the new layout or a bit. I wanted to cramp the keys together and this new layout is at least 10% smaller than the last. I had to do this because the CNC for its aluminum case is $220 lol.

I'd say the new one looks pretty good though

11/28/2025 5 PM - Day 14.1: Let me be clear

No matter what I did CNC aluminum was just too expensive. Looked into resin printing but my friend told me its not safe for contact and the one that is stable is $130.

I looked around for a while and was toying with the idea of a complete plate style keyboard like ADELHEID and was looking for ideas and found this.

It's beautiful
especially with my devil may cry/snoopy idea :D

(also my school has one that I can operate for free so it saves around 80% from the original budget)

11/28/2025 9 PM - Day 14.5: Berry Delight

So I drew up a rough sketch because I was unable to sketch on Fusion (PC couldn't connect to wifi and I just did not want to lose progress if it crashed which it does often)

Doohickey/Thingamabob/Wackadoodle/Gadget/Whatchamacallit/Whatsit/Dingus/Doodad/Whatnot/Gizmo/Mechanism/Dingbat/Contraption will be 3d printed by a friend who will do it completely for free even though I offered to pay him. (THANKS ANSON <3)

(I did count the 20 minutes I spent on autodesk before the apocalypse hit)

11/30/2025 - Day 15: i8

Finished the sketch for the respective layers there are 4 unique ones
Tomorrow I will slice the top and bottom to add svgs of designs

The board will be transparent so it'll be rly cool :D
All thats left to do is:
-contact JLC
-contact suppliers for acrylic
-add screws
-add space for the daughterboard
-generate bill of materials

(btw the case is tinted black because fusion is trying to make it easier to see and identify certain areas)

12/1/2025 - Day 16: takin it easy

Just added screwing platforms for the general structure but also added the screws for the daughterboard, after I finish writing this, I have already made screw holes.

12/2/2025 - Day 17: im a screw up

Really basic day because I have schoolwork to catch up to, just added screws and a spot for the daughterboard.

I was at school today and discussed on how to secure in the case in the simplest way and that was through a nut that ran through the whole board that was secured by a bolt. It isn't elegant but it is the only solution my brain can handle.

In the hour I also spent in researching some SVGs to put on the case and I should be able to render it by the end of the week.

12/3/2025 - Day 18: Done?

Finished the designs for the case I just have to configure the thickness now :D


This did take a while because I had to juggle between websites and had to work a bit to get the dimensions correct since they were SVGS.

12/4/2025 - Rough render :D

It may look darker than in real life because the tint in fusion 360 is heavier and I have no idea on how to change it.

Overall I'd say its about 80% done, I may change the plate structure and thickness as I see fit to increase manufacturability? but also the general feel because the gasket mount design will not work if certain plates don't give enough room for the PCB to flex.

12/11/2025 - BOM pt1 ($55 for case)

So I don't have any entries for the past week and I don't wanna seem unproductive :3

Here's a rough cost for my case

Tinted acrylic plate A3 sized
(5 plates of 3mm, 4 plates of 2mm)

Assorted nuts n bolts

For the plates they come out to 26 Malaysian ringgits each

And the nuts n bolts come to around 37 ringgits

As of 11 Dec 2025 MYR -> USD is around 4.11 to 1

The total in Malaysian ringgits is around 300
In USD it is around

$75 USD
by after vouchers the total comes to around $50 USD
I am going to add around 5 dollars to have a safe estimate.

12/14/2025 - BOM pt2 ($53), total for the whole board roughly $131)

Quote for pcb (rounded to $25)

($8 for gaskets)

I think I will cut a custom acrylic plate, this will be an additional
$8

For the components I'll estimate around
$20

Keyboard switches
$25

(I have spare keycaps I think I will just use those.)

12/17/2025 - Redid the pcb for the new layout

I had shifted the right side closer and eliminated the gap, but I only did it for the layout
thus, I have rewired the whole keyboard. This should be the final changes and I couldn't be happier with how my keyboard is right now :D

12/21/2025 - ULTIMATE BOM

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HhUbN8RjStem5c-GuSeoW5QdeNMDSWr7G5TiqxfZy0k/edit?usp=sharing

TOTAL ( RM495.52, USD 121.52)
I will buy the switches and keycaps myself

also the quote from JLC,