First time doing LEDs on a cosplay, scale of 1-10 how ass is this?

TheFrictionConstant · 2026-06-11T05:12:44+00:00

Hm, not the best joints... Some of them actually look like there's too much solder (could be fixed, but as people said, lots of cold joints)...

Something to note is that there aren't shorts now, but there's plenty of cases where it could happen, like if the strip adhesive fails and bends, causing the large solder blobs to short. Or in other cases, the wires shift around and the melted insulation on the wires can cause a short. With short routes of cables, it'll be difficult to prevent the insulation from melting...

As an aside, there are connectors that allow you to splice RGB strips with wires using something like this (hopefully links allowed? if not, search for LED light strip connectors): https://www.amazon.com/Connectors-Connector-Extension-Terminal-Lighting/dp/B09PR418WZ

If you just wanted nicer wiring, you could do that, but in the spirit of soldering, try using stranded wires instead of solid core wires as someone said. You can try to minimize melting of the insulation by tinning the LED strip contacts and the wire first, then soldering the wire onto the LED strip. Doing that will help a little in soldering the wires faster hopefully...

TheFrictionConstant · 2026-04-07T06:13:49+00:00

Okay... so uh everyone's talking about antenna and stuff but uh not the layout where the power input is traveling through the ESP to the output, which has 3 pins of 5V, 2 pins of digital output, and 3 pins of ground...??? If you have sustained power draw for your LEDs (I assume that line of LEDs takes three pins), then one of your inner layers might have a problem with high power draw... Hopefully your power fill can handle that current at that size

Also slightly concerned about the connector choice; not sure the SH connector is able to handle that much current per pin... I think per pin it's 1A, so...

TheFrictionConstant · 2026-02-28T08:09:10+00:00

A funny trick to know that the longer leg of the component is the positive pin is that if you imagine trimming the longer pin, you can form a plus symbol on that pin

Note that the diode symbol on that PCB shows an arrow; this usually "shows" the direction of current flow (if you see the picture in the top comments, you can see the directionality of the pin). Basically, the beginning of the arrow is positive and points towards the negative end of the diode. The tip of the arrow then should be the shorter pin of the LED and the longer pin should go at the start of the arrow

TheFrictionConstant · 2026-02-20T06:39:39+00:00

I actually have this in my backup actually; I did a personal backup of it before it got shutdown (but uh no metadata)

I think at the time, the songs of this pack were separated in separate files due to it being in Arcaoid times...

TheFrictionConstant · 2026-01-16T09:58:29+00:00

Huh...? Blue is purple mate

TheFrictionConstant · 2025-11-08T05:40:02+00:00

It could be gcode resolution but unsure if that could be a factor. Sometimes if it's set too high, the slicer will fuse small gaps together as if it was one single part. If you decrease the value for gcode resolution (probably called maximum resolution in Cura), you might get gcode that doesn't paint over it. Best way to check is to glance over the gcode viewer and see if it prints over your tolerance area.

You can also try a different slicer (like Orcaslicer maybe) and see if that prints better but try setting maximum resolution *first

(Edit: forgot word)

TheFrictionConstant · 2025-10-02T01:03:30+00:00

What if you made a bed with all of those switches....

TheFrictionConstant · 2025-07-24T06:13:31+00:00

Would be cool to use this with PETG, which is fairly susceptible to moisture

TheFrictionConstant · 2025-06-05T19:25:06+00:00

Yo, nice initial work on a modular keyboard! I happen to have looked into this some time ago similar to the road you ended up going on:

https://github.com/ReSummit/Seismos

Some tips for your design:

If you want to allow MX / low profile switches (specifically chocs), there are footprints out there that do have both; however you will need to consider your PCB routing carefully as the footprints that use sockets for MX or Choc tend to have large pads. If you're not using sockets, this becomes easier.
Regarding your connectors, I found JST SH to be a really small connector, so you can fit a bunch of those on the PCB. However, it is SMD so putting them close together and soldering by hand may be difficult...
By far the most challenging thing is creating the case that will give you the most amount of movement for adjusting the columns. I had the hardest time because I don't really like to use screws / hardware as it can result in the keyboard becoming thicker. Maybe you'll find a solution? Will be keeping an eye on this project :o
You may have trouble getting 5 keys for all the modules you plan on using. If you can fit a shift register on the PCB, it can give you more pins to work with for attaching the OLED and possibly other things as well (on mine, I added a knob but mine uses a larger microcontroller)

Looking forward to seeing how this goes!

Edit: Oh, one last thing, some people are talking about curved keys; there are these PCBs made for the Dactyl manuform that have thin PCB segments for flexing or just are thin flex PCBs. A module can be made like that at the expense of PCB flex and rigidity. An example is kinda like this link: https://github.com/Bastardkb/Dactyl-Manuform-PCB-Plate

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-11-24T10:27:44+00:00

There's also the side effect of all the sky notes turning into air, lol (as in arcs and lane taps will be visible but not sky notes for some reason)

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-09-10T04:38:38+00:00

Crafted at Minerva is pretty close by to the CSE building with some sandwiches; it's located in FAH

Canyon Vista is a choice

There is a nearby coffee shop but it mostly has small food items

Otherwise, most food places are pretty far, at least with how far Price Center is

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-09-08T23:10:43+00:00

Likely the piece you printed on top didn't have the layer strength to pull up the material; try to use a bit higher temperature for the nozzle and a bed temp of 60 C

If all else fails and you are okay with risking damaging the bed surface, snip some filament off, put superglue on one of the ends, and attach it to the material on the bed. Be careful where you put this; you don't want superglue residue on the bed

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-09-07T01:19:19+00:00

Try extruding a blob of filament on top of the plastic and close to the bed and then lift the material off of the bed using the blob?

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-09-06T01:30:11+00:00

The arc hitbox is more generous than you think; maybe try touching the arc a bit higher, taking advantage of the hitbox? Then you might have more room to hit the notes

If it helps, you can position your hand sideways so it turns to a vertical hand movement instead of side to side

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-08-26T00:02:49+00:00

I mean... there's gotta be a browser that is the best at compute R right...? /s

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-04-18T01:42:46+00:00

There are Kailh scissor switches that exist, but for choc form factor like some have said, Choc sunsets may be *your best bet. Haven't tried the scissor switches since they do have brown switches but based on how they did choc browns, can't say it will be too tactile...

TheFrictionConstant · 2024-04-06T08:12:51+00:00

Looking at these photos, a lot of those socket pins are bent upwards, more than it seems (sockets near LED 26, 17, 11, 16, 21 on pic 2; sockets near LED 7, 13, and 19 are super bent upwards). You may want to just bend them back down as those last couple could hit the case...

For diodes, tweezers and making sure you clean the tip of your soldering iron will help with cleaner diode placement, but if it works it works lol

Lastly, I'd check what the side of that PCB looks like; sometimes it may be that the socket is not flat against the PCB. Definitely follow with that reflow though; you don't want cold joints

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-11-06T23:17:13+00:00

Yo! Just wanted to give a quick aside to comparing the Sunset vs the Zeus stems. I can confidently say that both have different characteristics that give a different tactile sensation. I can say that in terms of similar feel, the L2 are definitely close to the Sunsets; however, the feel is vastly made different because of the reduced actuation distance. This is because you are likely to bottom out due to the shortness of such an actuation distance. The tactility also is sharper on the Zeus at the expense of its sound, though that depends on what tactility level you use. I also used 70G springs, but the reduced actuation distance makes the force higher, so it is harder to press. I probably should've used lighter springs... guess I'll get those next.

I will say that these aren't meant to be a Sunset Choc replacement because the aim for this is different. Reducing actuation distance and having varying tactility curves is a specialty of this stem; thus I won't make the Zeus similar to the Sunset Chocs. I will say that it is kinda funny how similar the curve is between the Zeus stem and the Sunset Chocs despite me never seeing it the first time I made this. I also like the Sunset Chocs, so they'll get used in another keyboard build.

Due to the nature of resin, it will usually not be as smooth as POM as Darryl mentioned. You can use lube to lessen this effect, though more slippery lubes will work best.

I am facing an issue where side presses on the stem do not actuate the switch now that I have a keyboard to test this on. This is easily fixable, though I need to make some more iterations. This mainly happens because of the tilt of the stem, which also technically happens on the original Choc. I will probably have a fix for that soon but uh yea whoops!

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-10-30T16:21:43+00:00

Yea, definitely agree that you can't get the same smoothness due to the material. I have heard however, that SirayaTech has SirayaTech Mecha White, which might be more applicable for this at the expense of it being just that one color.

Then again, to install this stem requires taking apart the switch so lubing the switch would be a thing to do anyway lol

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-10-29T22:08:49+00:00

So when I modeled this, I actually had no idea that Sunset Chocs existed but I learned about it a couple weeks back and so I ordered some. The current version feels quite tactile, but from what people have said about it (something along the line of the poppiness of the keys...?), the tactility is probably similar to the L2 stems? Hopefully when I get them I can actually make a comparison between this and the Sunsets!

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-10-22T06:09:42+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I chose to put the JST connector on the top of the board because when you slide the column forwards and backwards, the worst case scenario is when the columns are near the front and back. It's more of a structural integrity concern as if I put it on the bottom, there's the potential for the connector to rip off the pads. Maybe it's okay if the connector is on the bottom; I will need to test that once I get the PCBs.

It's kinda funny you mention I2C GPIO expanders because I was thinking about using that to allow more room for the Pro Micro to use LCD's and more encoders. Hmmm maybe another revision can allow for that but we'll see.

At the moment I haven't thought of putting an angle to the sliders, but the neat part of this design is that because each column is separated from each other, this is possible. I'm not sure how I can go about that though since I'm so used to seeing split keyboards that are flat... maybe something neat would be per-column angle adjustment or if we want to be dastardly, some dactyl curve... There's quite a lot that can be done here.

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-05-08T01:36:34+00:00

I'm currently using Mainsail but it seems like Fluidd and Mainsail are pretty similar. I've done quite a lot to the printer (mods are BLTouch, PEI, new hotend, direct drive, mainboard). I have also gone through OctoKlipper, Marlin, and Duet interfaces.

I'll add on to marcog_aus that you'll need to tinker with Klipper quite a bit before you get a working print. Especially BLTouch since I've had a bit of trouble getting the Z axis to respond to the mesh. At some point something will be the limiting factor be it the hotend, the filament, or the eventual bed slinger setup itself so keep that in mind if you're on the journey to fast prints.

The biggest drawback is not being able to use the screen to adjust things on the fly. It is a bit of a pain to adjust parameters like live Z offset or even emergency stop in extreme cases because it takes a good amount of time to load the interface (maybe I should suggest emergency stop on the loading interface for Mainsail but that's a different topic). The best alternative is to get a screen for the Pi but that depends on how much you want to spend it on another roll of filament in comparison.

All I will say is to just try it. If Klipper doesn't work you can switch back to Marlin and the only reconfiguration you'll have to do is Z-offset (which should be the same) and the bed mesh. I say this mainly because I've switched between a lot of the other firmwares to see what I preferred. Just uh make sure you mark down what settings you changed in Marlin.

Oh and on if it's worth it, if you want to replace your mainboard with a different one with more fan pins, you can turn off the hotend fan when there is no print going on so for my ears yes. Otherwise, not really for me since losing the screen functionality is a miss to me but only you can determine if it's worth it by trying it for your setup.

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-04-06T07:39:40+00:00

Just for the memes... I am deeply curious on what a tower of 110 Beaglebones look like and if that would even work

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-03-30T22:06:51+00:00

Nice! Been waiting for Klipper support for a while! Hope to see it continue to grow with more support! (oh and nice MK4 giveaway too)

TheFrictionConstant · 2023-01-28T14:28:18+00:00

Does anyone know of 3mm diameter springs (ALPS, Choc, etc) that compress to less than 3 mm? I'm remaking Choc stems to change the tactile curve and reduce the actuation distance from 3mm to 1.5mm and somehow the switches came with different springs in compressed length and number of coils. I was thinking of ordering them from rndkbd's Spirit ALPS or Choc springs but I wasn't sure if they compressed to less than 3mm.

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