Take your kit and its components out of the packaging. We’ll go have a look at identifying the parts in your kit, and the various places they can go into and onto your PCB.
Your package might not include all parts and not every component is required to complete your build. Most optional parts can be skipped and added later, although we do recommend assembling it all at once.
The PCB
✅ This is a required component, included with your kit.
The PCB forms the basis for your keyboard. PCB is an abbreviation for “printed circuit board”, and you can think of it as a fancy way to hold a bunch of wires together.
The PCB consists of various layers of material, the most important of which are the fibreglass material base and the conductive copper layers on both sides of the base. Those conductive layers ensure that electrical signals can move through your keyboard, to and from the microcontroller.
It’s unlikely but possible to damage these conductive layers while soldering. Since they’re essentially just wires, they’re easy to repair with any conductive wire as well. We don’t think that’ll be necessary during your build, though, but it’s good to know not everything is lost if it does happen.
Which side? Each PCB has a bottom side and a top side. Look for the markings in hexagons on your board: you’ll see an arrow pointing toward the top on one side, and an arrow pointing toward the bottom on the other. Similarly, each kit has two PCBs: a left side and a right side, denoted by an L and an R within a hexagon on either side. These markings are used throughout the guide to help you find where to place the components.
Diodes
✅ This is a required component, included with your kit.
Diodes allow the flow of electricity in one way, while preventing it to move the other way. Diodes prevent ghosting in your keyboard, which is when keypresses happen while you didn’t press the keys. Diodes also allow you to enable N-key rollover, which allows you to press more than six keys at the same time.
Diodes can look like little glass beads on a piece of metal wire (called the “legs” of the component), but they can also look like a little black box with metal legs on the side. They’re both about as easy to solder, though we recommend beginners to start with the glass-looking ones.
Resistors
☑️ This is an optional component, included with your kit
Resistors provide some amount of resistance to electricity. They help direct or restrict the flow. In our kits, they help keep the signals to the OLED display high. If we wouldn’t do this, some displays might not react properly.
Backlight RGB LEDs
❓This is an optional component, sold separately.
RGB LEDs provide colourful light. These backlight LEDs have little legs that allow them to be mounted from the back of the keyboard, shining light through your switches and maybe even through your keycaps. They’re quite small, but the legs make them easier to solder.
Underglow RGB LEDs
❓This is an optional component, sold separately.
RGB LEDs provide colourful light. These underglow LEDs are a little bigger than the backlight ones, but don’t have legs. They glow toward the bottom of your keyboard, which can make for a cool effect with an acrylic bottom plate.
Reset Buttons
✅ This is a required component, included with your kit.
Reset buttons are small, tactile buttons that provide the function to reset your keyboard. Its working differs slightly depending on the controller you use, but in general you can press this for a second or two for your controller to enter “bootloader mode”, in which you can flash new firmware to your keyboard.
TRRS Jacks
✅ This is a required component, included in your kit. Don't like black? Other colors are sold separately.
You might be familiar with these already: they’re 3.5mm jacks that are also used for wired headphones, among many things. For our keyboards, they’re used to connect both halves together using a TRRS cable.
They are optional when using a wireless controller, but you can install them anyways.
TRRS Cable
‼️️This is a required component, sold separately.
A TRRS cable is a cable with a 3.5mm plug at both ends. You can identify it by the four sections it has on each end: a Tip, two Rings, and a Sleeve. It is used to connect two halves of a keyboard together. Because of the way it is constructed, it’s best to only unplug this cable after you’ve disconnected the USB cable from your keyboard. You risk damaging the controller otherwise, as removing the TRRS cable will short its contacts.
Aurora kits are also compatible with TRS cables, but not with TRS-to-TRRS ones.
For more information, see What is a TRRS cable and why would I need one?
This is optional when using a wireless controller.
Switch Sockets
✅ If applicable, this is a required component, included with your kit.
Switch sockets are used to be able to “hot swap” the switches on your keyboard. This means that you won’t have to solder your switches directly, and can thus easily remove and replace them if you’d like to try other flavors or if one happens to break.
The MX Hotswap and Choc Hotswap variants of the kit will come with their required sockets included, the Handsolder variant can optionally use Mill-Max sockets which are sold separately.
Microcontroller
‼️️This is a required component, sold separately.
The microcontrollers are the brains of your keyboard. For our kits, you’ll need controllers that are Pro Micro-compatible, which includes quite a range: from the powerful Liatris controller and Elite-Pi, to a wireless controller such as the nice!nano, and of course the less-powerful but frequently used Elite-C and budget Pro Micro.
Having troubly choosing between the Elite-C and Pro Micro? See Pro Micro vs Elite C: Why choose one over the other?
Microcontroller Sockets and Pins
❓This is an optional component, sold separately. You need one set per controller.
Desoldering a microcontroller is a tall order, especially for people new to soldering, and is still quite cumbersome for seasoned builders. Controllers can also be costly, and sockets can help avoid damage while desoldering and promote reuse when you’d like to use your current controller on a new keyboard. If you’re confident in your skills, sockets aren’t a necessity, but we definitely recommend using them.
This goes doubly so for the Pro Micro, whose USB connector is known to break off quite easily. Our other controllers use a more durable USB-C connector and are less susceptible to this issue, but doing a Pro Micro build without sockets is probably a bad idea.
Instead of the pins we sell alongside the sockets you can also use the leftover legs from diodes as well. They’re a bit more finicky to work with than the pins and less durable, but if your kit uses through-hole diodes they’re also free.
Microcontroller socketing is explained in more details in Why would I want to socket my microcontroller?
Switches
‼️ This is a required component, sold separately.
Switches are the parts that make the actual keypresses work, in conjunction with the diodes and controllers. They are available in many kinds: the common “MX” style switch which encompasses a great number of brands and characteristics, and low profile Choc switches which are also available in many flavors.
Of course, the MX-style switches are compatible with MX-style kits, Chocs are compatible with Choc-style kits, and the handsolderable kits are compatible with both.
The product page for your kit will tell you how many switches you’ll need.
Choc v2 switches are not compatible with either kit and aren’t sold at splitkb.com.
Keycaps
‼️ This is a required component, sold separately.
Keycaps are the (usually) plastic bits that go on top of your switches. Sure, you could type without them, but it’s not very comfortable!
You’ll need MX-style keycaps for MX-style switches, identifiable by the ➕-shaped opening on the bottom of the keycap. For Choc-style switches, you’ll want to look for two bar-shaped stems, like I I.
The product page for your kit will tell you how many keycaps you’ll need, and in which sizes.
Case
❓This is an optional (but strongly recommended) component, sold separately.
A case consists of several parts, usually at least a top plate, bottom plate, and hardware to mount it: screws and spacers. Usually, a transparent cover is also purchasable for the OLED display. For some cases, an opaque cover is also available when you want to hide the OLED area.
Although some hardcore enthusiasts choose to use their keyboard caseless, you will probably want to include at least a plate case in your build. Please do not try to use hotswap switches without a case - the switches will not remain in place.
Bumpons
☑️ This is an optional component, included with your case's hardware kit
Bumpons are adhesive rubber domes which you can mount on the bottom of your case (or directly to the PCB when not using a case). They provide friction so your keyboard won’t slide around, and they protect both the case and the work surface from scratches.
Bumpons are also available separately if you want to create your own case or go caseless.
Rotary Encoders and Knobs
❓This is an optional component, sold separately.
Rotary encoders make the knob go round - they make it easy to control things like volume, display brightness, but also make it possible to skip through windows. You can map any key to the twist (and press!) of an encoder, and so doing more advanced things like scrubbing through history is possible too, simply by mapping CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y (or equivalent) to your encoder’s layout.
For more ideas on how to use encoders, see How can I use a rotary encoder?
OLED Display
❓This is an optional component, sold separately.
An OLED display can display status information such as the currently active layer, words typed per minute, and can also display graphics like a custom logo or background. There are many other uses for OLED displays, and they come in various sizes, like the common 128x64 pixels, or the taller 32x128 pixel display.
Each kit will have a preferred OLED size it works with, though you might be able to swap out a smaller display for a larger one if it fits. The kit’s product page will list its preferred display size.
OLED Sockets
❓This is an optional component, sold separately.
If you need to remove your OLED display, for example when you need to rework your controller or would like to remove it, sockets will make desoldering the OLED unnecessary. Desoldering the OLED can be relatively easy, but it’s a nice comfort option to have.
JST Jacks (Wireless only)
❓This is an optional component, sold separately as part of the Wireless Expansion Bundle.
Only useful when using a wireless controller like the nice!nano, a JST jack is supported on most Aurora and other splitkb.com kits. They allow you to click in your battery instead of soldering it directly to the board. Pay attention to the polarity though - make sure the plus lines up with the plus, and the minus with the minus, because batteries can get spicy otherwise!
Power Switches (Wireless only)
❓This is an optional component, sold separately as part of the Wireless Expansion Bundle.
Only useful when using a wireless controller like the nice!nano, a power switch allows you to cut the power between the battery and the controller. While the controllers power saving mode is pretty efficient, you might want to prevent accidental keypresses while carrying the board, and so every kit supports a power button.
Batteries (Wireless only)
Image © Adafruit
❓This is an optional component, sold separately. Batteries are not sold by splitkb.com due to shipping regulations.
Only useful when using a wireless controller like the nice!nano, a battery powers the actual board. While it is possible to power your board using a USB cable, that’s not exactly why you got the wireless controller. 😉
Unfortunately, due to (understandably) very strict restrictions on shipping batteries internationally, splitkb.com currently does not sell batteries, so you will have to acquire them somewhere else.
We can recommend the following stores, or their resellers: