Switches | About Split Keyboards - Build Guide

First things first: straighten up your switches. We receive switches from our manufacturers in bulk, and that means the legs can get bent during transit. That's normal, and thankfully it's not something to stress over: they can be bent back.

You can bend them back with a fingernail or by carefully using tweezers. Try not to bend them many times, bending them back once is sufficient.

Don't skip the straightening. Pushing a switch with a bent leg into a hot swap socket can risk pushing the socket off of the keyboard, which can break the pad it was soldered to.

A bent switch leg on an MX switch can be bent back in shape.

A bent switch leg on a Kailh Choc low profile switch can be bent back in shape.

You can now install the switches when using a case, or install the switches directly onto the circuit board when not using a case.

Using a case

First, when using acrylic plates, remove the foil off of both sides of the acrylic. One side will usually be coloured foil, while the other side will have clear foil. The clear foil can be hard to see, but you'll still want to remove it.

Removing the foil from an acrylic plate.

Put a screw through one side of a mounting hole and thread a spacer onto the screw from the other side.

You should use the following spacers:

If you're using MX switches with a thin top plate (thickess of less than 2mm), such as an aluminium, brass, copper or FR4 plate, you should use 8mm spacers.
If you're using MX switches with a thick top plate (thickness of more than 3mm), such as acrylic, you should use 6mm spacers.
If you're using Kailh Low Profile Choc Switches with any top plate, you should use 6mm spacers. When using acrylic plates with choc switches, you may be able to get by with 4mm spacers too, which are not included by default.

Installing 6mm spacers onto the plate for use with Kailh Choc low profile switches. When using MX switches, use 8mm spacers instead.

Hand-tighten. If you feel resistance when the screw is threaded in fully, stop. If you keep turning the screw, too much force will be applied to the acrylic, which can form cracks or damage the spacers.

The other side of the plate, with screws holding the spacers in place.

Both plates are symmetrical, so make sure to do it the other way around on the other half so you get two unique halves.

Support the back of hot swap sockets. If you're using hot swap sockets: Push on the back of the socket while you press the switch into the plate with your other hand. This prevents the socket from dislodging from the PCB if the switch pins aren't exactly aligned.

Due to tolerances and their surface finish, metal plates can require switches to be pressed into the plate with significant force before staying seated. Especially with Kailh low profile choc switches, it can help to push the side clips in with your nail or with a tool if pressing them into the plate proves to be difficult.

Aligning a switch with the top plate.

The switch seated into the plate after pushing it down.

Put a switch into two opposing corners of the switch plate and align the plate with your PCB. Carefully insert the switches into their respective hotswap sockets or solder pads.

Using a sound dampening plate: When using MX switches, you can optionally use a sound dampening plate. This plate should be placed on top of the PCB, and the switches are then inserted through both the top plate and the sound dampening plate. The dampening plate fills the space that would otherwise be empty.

Switches installed in opposing corners of the top plate, which is then seated onto the keyboard.

Then, one by one, insert the switches. Bend their legs back into shape if need be, check if you've got it lined up with the hot swap socket or pads, and push down.

Aligning another switch.

Another switch, seated in the top plate.

All of the switches seated into their sockets through the top plate.

If you're using hot swap switches, you're now done and can proceed with installing the OLED displays. If you're soldering your switches, continue on below.

Soldering your switches

If you have a kit without hotswap sockets, solder the switches from the bottom of the PCB.

Kailh Choc low profile switches aren't the best match for acrylic plates. This combination can sometimes cause the switch legs to not poke through the solder pad entirely. Though finicky, you'll be able to form a solder joint by heating up the leg and the pad at the same time and applying solder as usual.

The legs of a switch sticking out the back side of the keyboard.

Confirm the switch is seated correctly before soldering It's awkward to reseat a soldered switch later. The plastic of the switch should be touching the PCB. Before soldering the second leg, be sure to check the seating again: it's still easy to correct when only one leg is soldered, but it gets quite difficult after the second leg is done too.

A switch viewed from the side. You can see the body of the switch touching the keyboard PCB, which means it's aligned properly.

The solder pads for switches on Aurora keyboards are quite big. You won't need the solder to cover the entire area: focus on creating a volcano-like shape instead.

A soldered switch.

Caseless

Not using a case? We recommend using a case to improve the longevity of your keyboard, but if you decide to not use one, here are some tips to install the switches.

Keeping the switches aligned. Without a plate, you’ll want to spend some effort to align the switches, as you’ll easily see any misalignment after installing the keycaps.

To align the switches, solder only one of the switch pins first. Then, after soldering a column of switches, you can heat up the soldered joint and slightly turn the switch into alignment. Solder the second pin after you’re happy with how it looks.

There are tools that can help you align switches in a caseless build, like a switch comb. You can find 3D-printable designs for this online.

Rotary encoders

Rotary encoders allow for both rotation as well as push actions.

OLED displays

Display the status of your keyboard, or personalise it with your own image.

Questions? Help us improve!

Do you have questions after reading the documentation? Do you have feedback about this page, or about the documentation in general? Please send us an email. You can use the buttons below which will open your mail client or app with a template, or send your mail to support@splitkb.com.

I have a question I'd like to share feedback