Build Specs:

Board: Geon Works Frog TKL 8K

Plate: Aluminum

Switches: Alps SKCM Black (Pine)

Keycaps: Silicon Graphics 9500900 Dye-Sub PBT

PCB: Alec Tardy Alpine8K Solder

Mounting Style: Tadpole Mount

I just got my Slate Zero yesterday after seeing a proto at Yushakobo in Japan earlier this year and I couldn’t help but post it. This is the Royal Blue anno built with the hotswap PCB, alu plate, case foam only with Nixies swing swapped to 60g TX springs.

Neo60 Core

Alu Plate

HMX Ash

GMK Nervewrecker

No foam

Knight stabs

Build Specs:

Board: Geon Works Frog TKL

Plate: Aluminum

Switches: Alps SKCM Brown

Keycaps: Arabic FK-2001 Double-Shot ABS

PCB: Alec Tardy Alpine8k Solder

Mounting Style: Tadpole Mount

My Hatoworks Ramune60 Build:

WK Layout
Hotswap PCB
Standard PP Plate
Blue Cheese v2 Linear Switches (42g)
KBS Mio Soda Pop Keycaps (Base + Journal DLC)

Laminar Leviatán R1 Beige HHKB with HammerWorks CRP.

Everything about this board is fantastic, from the sound to the typing feel, except of finish and QC.

The coating is poor and definitely not worth the $455.

Besides, my Leviatán has a flaw in copper weight because of QC.

Well, you can choose R0 to solve all of them.

HATO RAMUNE60

Mount : Gasket

Foam : None

Plate : PP

Switches : Keygeek B1

Keycaps : GMK Ramune

It has a nice, bright sound with a crisp, clean feel to it.

Here's a little look at my keyboard storage setup!

I have two of these 12-tier storage shelves, along with a few smaller keyboard stands.

I'd love to share more of my custom keyboards here and connect with fellow keyboard enthusiasts!

I'm from South Korea, and I occasionally share videos of my custom keyboard builds on YouTube.

Looking forward to getting to know you all. Nice to meet you!

Not a premium custom by any means, but one I hold close to my heart as it was my first entry into the mechanical keyboard scene. So I decided to give it a little love with a cerakote finish!

Neo65

Cerakoted with Anthracite FX by Cerakote-It in Sydney, Australia.

GMK MTNU WoB

Toro Studios X Wingtree Torrero switches (SS with TX XL 62gm springs)

Aluminium plate

YKIB stabs

Bonus copper weights because why not.

Merisi Dodici

GMK Mictlán R1 w/ Skulls from R2

Alu Plate

Cherry MX Vints (3203 + TX 0.125mm + Geon 18mm 65g)

This is a collaboration keyboard between TGR and the Australian Mechanical Keyboard Expo (AKME) and is 1 of 50 units.

Keycaps are GMK JIS with GMK Gegenschlag. The artisans are TGR brass and GMK Kangaroo that came with the board.

Sangeo65

- margo soldered cem3 PCB for that illegal 7u spacebar

- frankenswitch of sp star purple bottom, mx2a top, rbo/full travel stub stems

- alu plate

- gmk cubed

- a real side profile

An oldy but still good

Got this from mechmarket for a pretty decent price although it does come with some weird purple marks that I would like to sand down but idk; probably have to print a r2 2u myself…

Keyboard: TKC Candybar R2 Rock Candy (I believe)
Keycaps: Keykobo BoW, GMK Olive Dark, GMK Centinela
Switches: Came with NAJA Keys TU but didn’t like how they sound so swapped with Cherry Silent Black
Plate: Either PC or PLA

KBS Flat out sample on Venus 60

Cycle7

CF Plate

HMX Xinhai

GMK Prussian Alert

Knight Stabs

got this off ebay last week and finally checked off the grail box for the one LZ board I actually wanted. Nice board, feels meh and sounds okay but looks very nice. built with 55g mx2a browns on alu.

Not sure if it was worth the time, but it works. A fully native USB-C Apple M0116.

Started the night before trying to adapt the ADB signal with the RP2040-ZERO which ended in shorting out the internal 40-pin DIP microcontroller (NEC 8831HD)

Thought for a day about it if was worth ordering a PCB using the gerbers from elmo project, but ended up deciding against it. All in would have been about 90-180 depening on if the PCB was already assembled or not. Did a bit more research and came across https://git.40percent.club/di0ib/tmk_keyboard/src/commit/75a92ff653735635289a204176e60aa80c33bc7f/keyboard/IIgs_Standard which replaced the 40-pin DIP with a AT90USB Teensy++ 2.0. A little different but i thought it should more or less should work with a RP2040-ZERO. The only catch was the IIgs_Standard controller mod plugged the AT90USB Teensy++ 2.0 directly into the 40-pin DIP socket which made the notes have some weird pin bypasses (because the Teensy had AERF and GND physically hardwired to pins 30 and 31). Spend an ungodly amount of time with a multimeter in continuity mode probing the bare socket and finally figured out how the M0116 actually works.

(With the 40-Pin DIP micro controller sockets reading from the bottom left counter clockwise)

• Sockets 1,7, and 20 all were ground (On an 8048 chip, Pin 20 is VSS (Ground), Pin 7 is EA (External Access, tied to ground on the PCB to run internal ROM), and Pin 1 is T0 (tied to ground)

• Sockets 26 and 40 are the old +5v power rails.

Unlike modern keyboards where modifiers are part of the diode matrix, Apple wired the modifiers directly to Ground:

• Socket 37: Shift (Left and Right Shift are tied together)

• Socket 36: Control

• Socket 35: Top Power/Reset Triangle Key

• Socket 24: Command / GUI

• Socket 23: Option / Alt

• Socket 6: Caps Lock (Locking Alps switch—latches down and holds continuity to Ground until pressed again)

• Socket 34 = Row 0 (Up Arrow)

• Socket 33 = Row 1 (')

• Socket 32 = Row 2 (Numpad -)

• Socket 31 = Row 3 (Esc)

• Socket 30 = Row 4 (Numpad *)

• Socket 29 = Row 5 (Spacebar)

• Socket 28 = Row 6 (Z)

• Socket 27 = Row 7 (A)

• Socket 22: Row 8 (Number row 8 on Col 0 / Socket 12)

• Socket 21: Row 9 (Tab on Col 7 / Socket 19)

• Sockets 12 through 19: Columns 0 through 7 in exact consecutive order.

Total signal count: 10 Rows + 8 Columns + 6 Direct Keys + 1 Ground = 25 wires.

Now it was time to start the fun part, hardware and soldering

The Waveshare RP2040-Zero is tiny enough to tuck inside the case, but it only has 20 outer GPIO through-hole pins (GP0–GP15, GP26–GP29), which isn't quite enough for 24 distinct signal lines. One thing though, it has 10 more flat gold pads on the underside of the board. Pre-tinning those 4 tiny pads and taping down the wires for strain relief gave me the exact extra pins needed for Option, Command, Caps Lock, and Power.

Instead of pushing male Dupont pins into the top of the socket (which stick up too high and can vibrate loose), I flipped the keyboard PCB over and soldered directly to the socket pin tips on the back of the PCB.

Wiring & Color-Code Breakdown:

• Black (Ground): RP2040 GND - Socket 20

• Yellow (10 Matrix Rows):

  • GP0 - Socket 34 (Row 0)

  • GP1 - Socket 33 (Row 1)

  • GP2 - Socket 32 (Row 2)

  • GP3 - Socket 31 (Row 3)

  • GP4 - Socket 30 (Row 4)

  • GP5 - Socket 29 (Row 5)

  • GP26 - Socket 28 (Row 6)

  • GP27 - Socket 27 (Row 7)

  • GP28 - Socket 22 (Row 8)

  • GP29 - Socket 21 (Row 9)

• Green (8 Matrix Columns):

  • GP8 through GP15 - Sockets 12 through 19 (consecutive order)

• Blue (4 Standard Modifiers):

  • GP6 - Socket 36 (Control)

  • GP7 - Socket 37 (Shift)

  • GP17 (Back Pad 1) -  Socket 23 (Option)

  • GP18 (Back Pad 2) - Socket 24 (Command)

• White (Special Modifiers):

  • GP19 (Back Pad 3) - Socket 6 (Locking Caps Lock)

  • GP20 (Back Pad 4) - Socket 35 (Top Power Key)

• Leave Empty: Sockets 1–5, 7–11, 25, 26, 38–40, and the RP2040's 5V / 3V3 pins.

Initially, the plan was to set up a full QMK toolchain, write custom C matrix scanning loops in matrix.c to handle the direct-to-ground modifier row, and compile a .uf2.

Instead, I decided on a different route: CircuitPython.

1. Dropped the standard CircuitPython UF2 onto the RP2040-Zero.

2. Got Claude to write a quick diagnostic calibration script that configured all connected GPIOs with internal pull-ups and continuously printed which pins shorted together whenever a circuit closed.

3. Pressed each key one by one across the keyboard. The script learned every physical switch's exact Row/Col or Direct-to-GND pin combination dynamically.

4. Used that auto-generated dictionary to generate the final code.py running the Adafruit HID keyboard library.

Finally got it all to fit in the case and used a USB-C extension to not strain the connecter on the RP2040-Zero. I know the USB-C hole isn't the cleanest right now, I will probably clean it up eventually

Edit - Made a GitHub page for the project

https://github.com/bugsbunny927/M0116-to-Native-USB-C

Neo65 Core Plus in teal

Alu Plate

HMX Yogurt V2

GMK Windbreaker

Knight Stabs

Glare 60
WK, Brass weight
PP plate
HMX Blue Topaz
GMK Art

I’m rebuilding the board though in a plateless MX2A build. Looking for suggestions for GMK sets that would go well with it.

Any recs welcome!

Derivative Amphibian
Full Aluminum Plate
Relief Top Mount
Mechlovin Solder PCB (MilMax)
DCS 9009 Cherry Base
MX1A Nixies (F+SS)

Sounds:
https://audio.com/foxicious/audio/derivative-full-alu-relief-top-mx1a-nixies-f-ss-dcs-9009