Can we design the teensy alternative for keyboards?

pdc · 11 Feb 2017, 16:01

I am planning on building a hand-wired board and am wondering whether the ELF controller is the controller I should use. The keyboard-specific form factor is very attractive. Is there anything that makes it unsuitable for a newbie relative to the more usualTeensy 2++? Apart from its not yet existing, obviously?

rominronin · 11 Feb 2017, 18:58

pdc wrote: ↑I am planning on building a hand-wired board and am wondering whether the ELF controller is the controller I should use. The keyboard-specific form factor is very attractive. Is there anything that makes it unsuitable for a newbie relative to the more usualTeensy 2++? Apart from its not yet existing, obviously?

Is the ELF board ready yet? Because if it isn't, timing might be a good reason NOT to use it!

pdc · 13 Feb 2017, 13:42

Not quite ready yet, but from the last few messages above messages it is getting pretty close.

HeroXLazer · 28 Feb 2017, 03:47

Is this going to be open sourced or not?

pomk · 28 Feb 2017, 11:10

Yes. What are you interested in? I can send the schematic to you if you wish to use the same mcu in some design of yours.

rominronin · 28 Feb 2017, 11:48

Can anyone say how far away we are to getting a batch of these produced? I do have several projects in the pipeline and I'd like to hold off if these are on the horizon...

matt3o · 28 Feb 2017, 12:49

I'm still waiting for some quotes. The board is finalized. The project is open source, everything will be released soon

Wodan · 28 Feb 2017, 14:01

matt3o wrote: ↑I'm still waiting for some quotes. The board is finalized. The project is open source, everything will be released soon

Gets my hopes up we will be seeing 5$ clones on aliexpress soon

pomk · 28 Feb 2017, 15:47

If you make maybe 10 000 of them you could get that price

)

Wodan · 28 Feb 2017, 16:01

Okay random Chinaman ... there is EASILY a market for 50k+ out there ... go for a 10k batch!

matt3o · 28 Feb 2017, 23:27

we would need a very aggressive preorder for that

HeroXLazer · 01 Mar 2017, 00:40

pomk wrote: ↑Yes. What are you interested in? I can send the schematic to you if you wish to use the same MCU in some design of yours.

I'm thinking about using this in my RGB keyboard build instead of the ATMEGA32U4.

rominronin · 21 Mar 2017, 13:52

Are we there yet?

Marzukr · 28 Mar 2017, 23:35

Hey guys, I recently finished a hand wired keyboard build with the Teensy 2.0 (typing with it now!). I am thinking about improving it with a custom pcb and possibly bluetooth soon, and this controller looks really promising to simplify that process. Do we have a timeline for when this will go into production? Also thx matt30, your posts on your hand wired keyboard were very detailed and useful for building mine!

rrrsss · 12 Apr 2017, 23:27

any progress on this? really interested in how this would turn out! i'm tired of trying to find a place to chuck the pro micro in a cramped, ratnest, handwired keyboard..

Sythe · 15 Apr 2017, 06:01

I think we are kind of at a waiting point for Matt3o to have the time required to organise this.

matt3o · 15 Apr 2017, 14:07

I'm busy finishing up the hi-pro set. In a couple of days should be ready and I can get back to the ELF board. Sorry guys I'm moving to a new house and things are a bitty messy.

pandp · 29 Jun 2017, 17:33

DKrause · 09 Jul 2017, 18:40

Had to create an account, just to post...

WANT!!!!

Sorry. How about..

NEED!!!

That's better...

rominronin · 11 Jul 2017, 11:28

A lot of time has passed, I've built quite a lot of boards already. I'm not sure how many (if any) I'll need anymore...

Kr9er · 29 Aug 2017, 21:46

Hey matt3o,

Will a GB for this ever happen? I have a build planned and would love to use one of these. It would make everything so much nicer. I would order like 10 of these.

I know you are very busy, but I hope we can get our hands on these soon. I hope all is well.

rrrsss · 27 Nov 2017, 03:46

are there any updates on this project or am I necroing this thread? Really interested

matt3o · 28 Nov 2017, 07:41

I have everything ready. I need to make some test runs (another €500) and then production. I had to put this on hold because I'm moving to a new house and I'm momentarily on a temporary location for another month until the new place is ready (I don't even have a soldering iron right now).

Problem being that the final product wouldn't be the cheapest. I'd say in the €15-20 range and seeing people already complain about €12 for a teensy I don't know it this project has actually a future.

pomk · 28 Nov 2017, 15:06

Well it’s a lot better than a teensy

Teensy 3.2 which is a comparable board with less IO and a footprint that is not as well suited for keyboards goes for 20 USD.

rominronin · 26 Apr 2018, 03:37

Agreed, it’s perfect for prototyping keyboards and custom builds.

I understand if you want to drop the project, but then at least share the files for others who wish to pursue it?

biothundernxt · 24 May 2018, 20:17

Hey matt3o, any update on this? I for one would be more than willing to pay more for the board than a general purpose micro. 25 seems reasonable.

What connector is it going to have?

0100010 · 25 May 2018, 04:24

This little guy caught my eye. Only 20 pins, but columns could be 'doubled' to fit.

gallibep · 07 Nov 2018, 06:39

Matt3o and anyone, any updates on this?

Been looking at https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/com ... at_mounts/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... _handwire/ and stumbled upon this and wanted to see what was up.

matt3o · 07 Nov 2018, 22:52

at this point we should change MCU and put a USB-C. I'd like to work on that, but custom keyboards are not that famous anymore. maybe there are keyboards for everyone already and there's no such pressure to build your very own.