Please help me build/buy a custom orthlinear keyboard

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I realized that I need an extra keyboard on the side of my regular keyboard, and I need it to be a grid of standard-size keys.

This keyboard will not be for typing, but for hotkeys for assorted software I use at work. Ideally, it would have 80-100 keys.

I could use something like this but I want something with mechanical cherry mx switches.

Also, I want to be able to swap out individual switches so that I can use multiple types or replace faulty switches.

I imagine it would be something with sockets to receive the switches, as opposed to having the switches soldered directly to a circuit board, as seems to be the standard.

Also, it needs to be fully programmable, where a key press can activate a standard key command, a three-four simultaneous key press macro, a mouse movement, open an application, etc.

And, I need it to run on recent Windows 32 and 64-bit operating systems.

Something like this is pretty close, as you build it yourself with the cherry mx switches of your choice. However, you have to solder them in permanently. Also, the programming is quite involved, with add-ons, modifying scripts, flashing chips, the rolling of chicken bones, and so on. I don’t mind that stuff, per se, it’s just my experience that the more hoops you have to jump through the more time you spend maintaining said finicky hoops…

I don’t mind building it myself from basic parts. Beyond what I’ve already stated, my main concerns are that the programming is clean, the final product is durable, and both are reliable.

Any ideas? Thanks!

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You are going to need to design your own circuit board with sockets to accept the switches (which may be a problem in itself, since all the switches I know about are designed for PCB soldering). After you get past that hurdle, you need to design and program a microcontroller to scan the keyboard and emit the keycodes you need. This is probably less of a problem than the mechanical design.

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Buy, don’t build…

Look up Logitech and Razr
They compete against each other in the gaming peripherals* market.

Logitech produces my favorite gaming mouse, the G600 which has 20 programmable buttons. The software lets you cycle between 3 panels of programs for those buttons so you could conceivably have just about 60 functions under your right hand (we assume you want the button for changing program sets to remain the same through all three sets, plus the left-click is usually just a left-click in all three clusters).

They also produce (or used to produce) a G13 mini-keyboard with 22 programmable keys that looks like it’s supposed to go to the left of a normal keyboard. I haven’t used it, but I would suspect the driver/software would also include the ability to cycle through 2 or three clusters of functions.

Last but not least, modern Windows keyboards include CTRL, ALT, WIN, and RClk buttons in addition to the normal F## keys. The MS Ergo 4000 keyboard includes about 16 dedicated keys with pictures on them for their normal assignments (mail, calculator, volume up/down, mute etc) AND the driver/software with that keyboard allows users to program functions of their own into those keys. Again, there are ways to make, for instance, the specialized [1] key (not the number pad key on the right) do different functions depending on the assignment cluster and/or the program that is running at the time.

Note that, when I say “function” above, I mean anything from key combinations (Ctrl+C copies whatever text has been highlighted) to text strings (insert Thanks In Advance! where the cursor sits) to macros (save the current document, close it, and open a new blank document) to workstation functions (open FireFox to Weather.com focusing on Peoria, Illinois) to routine appliance functions (mute the media player).

With the combination of 2 or all three of those peripherals, you should be able to put more than 80 commands at your fingertips without having to build your own hardware.

–G!
*Sure, they’re made for gaming, but there’s no reason you can’t program the keys to do whatever financial or engineering or drafting or form-filling functions you like.

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Have you considered the Razer Orbweaver? It’s not a keypad, precisely, more of a gamepad that fits your hand. It comes with mechanical switch. Here’s the Chroma version -

It’s got 30 buttons + a 8 way thumbstick that can be used in conjunction with the buttons, I believe, to give you 240 hotkeys.
There’s also a separate keypad from X Keys that probably does what you want. 60 keys + mechanical switches:

Not cheap, but you can have it by Monday, if you want.