Tips: Ask your laser-cutting workshop first, they might be able to provide the material for you.

The most popular controller chip is the ATMega32u4.

An Atmel AVR controller board with hardware USB is a safe choice, it is:

* Our procedure supports both Cherry MX and ALPS compatible switches.

Head over to 'KLE' ( keyboard-layout-editor.com ), and start designing!

KLE can output "KLE Raw Data", a partial JSON metadata which is the community standard to describe any keyboard layout.

Example of standard matrix arrangement for the QMK firmware (COL2ROW setting)

QMK Firmware

Advanced users can download the source files and make further customizations using the QMK Firmware.

http://qmk.fm

Some features not available from the generator: leader key, mousekeys, Unicode output, audio output, Bluetooth, Trackpoint, and more!