Building My Most Ergonomic Handwired Keyboard Yet...

[@joe_scotto]

Let me know what you think about this board! If you want to build one yourself, the details are here: scottokeebs.com/keyboards/scottoergo

[@tech_world_modz]

The board looks really nice, I love the fact you used clear plxei for the pico, only thing I would say is add a few leds for the pico to really shine and add that extra cyberdeck pop, but all in all your work is the best I've watched. I wish I could build boards as well as this. But I'm going to give this one a try and hope it looks as nice as yours. Also thank you for all your videos me and the kids always watch your videos and try and build some of the boards. Keep up the good work.

[@ebg4614]

Great looking!! Is there a way to make it wireless with a pi pico?

[@joe_scotto]

@@ebg4614 Nope, the Pico doesn't support wireless. There is the Pico W but it's still not supported by QMK or ZMK but maybe one day.

[@davidburton79]

Know this is a little old, but for the micro connector try soldering a wire across all of the pins you'd like to desolder. Let it cool and heat the center of your wire up, it'll heat up all of the connected pins at once.

[@mariofeared]

I have built the Fly and Scotto36 and the ScottoFly is my all time favourite keyboard ever. The only change I have made to your design was that I used a Raspberry Pi Pico for the 36 and a RP2040-zero for the Fly. I use them both almost every day and I am so glad I took the plunge to build them as my first two keyboard projects. Your videos were instrumental. Really appreciate all the hard work. Cheers! Anyway, the Ergo looks incredible and it might be my next project. :)

[@eXsoR65]

Awesome build! Tip on removing those type of SMD components with out a hot air station is to use flux. I recommend a flux pen. The flux will heat up the solder so you can use the solder sucker and remove all of the solder.

[@Omikronik]

+1 for this method. I ripped so many pads before discovering that i should be using flux. Make sure to get a flux pen or something that comes in a syringe tube like chipquik, the rosin flux that comes in tins smells nice and piney but is an absolute nightmare to work with and clean

[@sblowes]

This is the way. Flux, then lots of solder, and the whole thing will fall out.

[@Shonicheck]

Ehh wouldn't neceserally help. I'd say the best method is to add low-temp solder(like rose's metal or wood's metal) or just plain old solder(aka one with 40% pb), since manufacturers use no-pb solder, which has way higher melting point and preferabbly preheat the board on a hotplate, to like 70-80°c and then use lots of flux on top of that to help with heat transfer(can be switched with just grease or lube, since we don't care about using flux as flux, just try to avoid corosive ones). This way its easy, hassle free and puts as little thermal stress to the board as possible.

[@thundernixon]

This build is super beautiful! Imo, one evolution would be making it a little more “boring” - a USB-C port and Bluetooth with a nice!nano. And maybe using PCBs? Handwired builds seem good for prototyping, and you do an awesome job of them, but they look pretty intimidating to replicate. On a very simple level, I think this would look a little better with a smoky gray plexiglass cover. It would still reveal the pi pico, but with a mover color scheme.

[@tech_world_modz]

That board is beautiful. Very Nice build

[@biggusd534]

Looks incredible but seems a real pita to assemble. Congrats on pushing your projects forward!!

[@joe_scotto]

It was a massive pain but once the aviator was done, it was just the typical tedious sort of pain.

[@Grifffiin]

clean build and nice video!

[@NathanHedglin]

aka TAXES

[@tylerhext2237]

Cool build! I'd be interested in a video of the process for preparing your wires diodes etc for a project.

[@alexmelillo1247]

Sick build. Might look into your shop since I always have to get these things printed somewhere else 😅 might as well get it from the source

[@bromptonchris]

Hey! really great video. I love the idea of an aviator as the connector. Rather than soldering to the test pads next time you could try using pogo pins. The friction of the header pins would be enough to hold the pogos down on the pads. That way the connector doesn’t get soldered to your pi. Also, as a bonus, one of the test pads is bootsel so you could bring that out to a small button on the back to bottom too.

[@3dkeycap]

Great build and video!

[@Yellowpillow222]

Great job! looks and sounds very good, but I think that dactyl manuform is much more convenient, I advise you to try it.

[@pepe3591]

Love your videos ❤, looking forward to build my own handwired keyboard

[@Zam432F]

Love cool videos like this. Innovation always comes from the ppl. Free the patents!! Can’t wait until the ultimate input device is created!!!

[@OftenTopical]

Awesome board! Would love to see this supporting a pro micro, it'd be interesting to throw in something like a nice nano, especially with all that room for a decent sixed battery to give it a lot of battery life.

[@joe_scotto]

You’ll like a board I have coming out soon. Basically it’s a larger version of this one but it uses a nice!nano for wireless :)

[@wasichowdhury2332]

Would love to see an ergo build with extra number rows 🎉

[@purplelord8531]

suggestion for evolution - choc switches? low-pro? folding? ofc if you are thinking of your own use then it's whatever you want

[@matthewelliott8198]

solderwick will likely pull the solder off better than the suction, always has for me when desoldering throughmount components.

[@lowbeam5005]

Leaving tools aside but including materials (filament, switches, arduinos/raspberries etc) how much does it usually cost you to build one of these?

[@elonmoishkrl8981]

What printer do you use? I'd love to make this but the case doesn't fit on my printbed :(

[@AmateurVillain]

i now want a scotto ergo on choc lows

[@EZ3KIEL2517]

Awesome build. Love the design and Im trying to build one. The case STL you graciously provided on github is not watertight so Cura doesn’t let me slice it. It tried fixing the model in various 3d software without luck. Any tips?

[@joe_scotto]

There are settings you can use in Cura to make it watertight. Search something like “Cura mesh repair”

[@lenartkosel3717]

Nice keeb but why have you made the pi pico hotswappable and then put a peace of glass on top that perminantly closes it?

[@joe_scotto]

Initially the idea was to have it hot swappable but I realized by connecting the aviator to the back pins, it wouldn’t be. The sockets are a nice way to mount controllers regardless.

[@semputs]

very awesome build and I'd want to build one myself, save to add an extra pinky column on the sides since I main on 40% layouts. Would it be possible to just edit your stl file? Need to learn all of that tho.

[@joe_scotto]

You could edit the STEP file. This board in particular will be a bit more challenging than any of my others to modify though because of the way it’s tented.

[@semputs]

@@joe_scotto thanks! totally forgot about the tenting. well noted!

[@michbushi]

hot air desoldering should work for removing the usb socket

[@thanhvinhle2893]

how do you use the diode leg to mount to that round pin female socket? I have the exact same female socket but my diode leg is too thin (around 0.3mm diameter while the socket hole is 0.6mm). As a result, the diode leg can not be firmly plugged into the socket. (I am looking for a way to have low profile hotswap MCU like yours)

[@Bndzi_B]

I would like to see the PCB version

[@joe_scotto]

Maybe one day, I had thoughts of doing a partial handwired build... essentially the switches connect to a board and then you handwire the controller.

[@srcuyo]

i love it, but i think would be better with oled screen instead of plexiglass

[@NathanHedglin]

Sean from Long Island Audit, is that you? lol

[@lanzecki]

What Firmware do you use with the PI?

[@joe_scotto]

QMK firmware. You can find the exact firmware files I use here: scottokeebs.com/blogs/keyboards/scottoergo-handwired-keyboard

[@lanzecki]

@@joe_scotto Ahh, OK. I've only just started to look at the Pico after years with Pro Micros. I never even considered one until I saw your video. Thanks for the quick reply

[@vdubmerc3]

Great keyboard! Why the aviator connector tho?

[@joe_scotto]

Because I thought it looked cool and gave me a reason to use the test points on the controller.

[@vdubmerc3]

@@joe_scotto it does look cool! If we wanted to modify the build to allow room for and power the pico with the usb-c connector would it still work?

[@joe_scotto]

@@vdubmerc3 You should be able to. USB-C has been hit or miss for me but if you can find a cable with 4 wires, there’s no reason you couldn’t just hook that up instead.

[@vdubmerc3]

@@joe_scotto Thank you!

[@dagger6498]

Hey Joe! Would be awesome if you would hand wire a keyboard with optical switches :)

[@claudeloomes7985]

beaut!

[@henryrussell7392]

Is it vga compatible?

[@joe_scotto]

You could easily swap the connector for VGA.

[@Jack-pi8ur]

waiting for pico w bluetooth keyboard

[@joe_scotto]

Not possible as of right now without manually coding the firmware. QMK and ZMK don’t support it for wireless.

[@zoenagy9458]

But it's not split, thus not the most ergonomic

[@anonuser2640]

Very interesting also no offense but a lot of mistakes in one video

[@joe_scotto]

Mistakes are inevitable when building handwired boards, it's part of the process.

[@anonuser2640]

@@joe_scotto Yes of course I absolutely agree just a friendly reminder nothing bad