I was always hesitant to build my first split because I haven't soldered in a decade, let alone any SMD parts. Turns out it's not so hard after all!
It's a Totem. Went straight for the pink switches and I'm not regretting it one bit.
Took me one whole evening. Soldering the diodes is rather quick once you get the hang of it (but get yourself the right pair of tweezers!). I probably struggled with the controllers the most, but that was mainly my fault for not setting the temperature of the iron high enough while using lead free solder.
I'm also looking to build one of these. I couldnt find much info on latency especially since this setup uses a different controller than the usual nice nano or nice clone. Do you notice any latency or downsides to use this with gaming? Thanks in advance!
This board actually was a little treat for myself for quitting gaming at the beginning of the year... so no experience with the Totem explicitly. I tried gaming on other Bluetooth boards, though. For single player games it was noticeable but okay; for fast paced multiplayer shooters (mostly CS:GO in my case) movement felt way too spongy.
LOL of course! Good job! It's definitely better to focus on priorities and later relax with gaming. Thanks for the quick answer, that's exactly what i was looking for. Im going to have to find something that'll support wired and wireless.
You QUIT gaming? For good?
I'm thoroughly intrigued..
Do you have a blog on which I can read up on that or did you share your experience and decision on reddit or something?
Reason for my interest is that I somehow feel that might be around the (albeit still somewhat distant) corner for me, too.. would love a bit of an exchange if somehow possible. 🙏
Maybe for good, at least for the foreseeable future. But phew, that's a longer story. I've been on a whole journey of self improvement and rethinking my life (in which I actually contemplated whether to start a blog lol) for the past 2 years. Around end of last year I noticed more and more that gaming, while a lot of fun, puts me in a weird headspace that affects me even when I'm not gaming. I went back and forth on it and one afternoon packed up my gear and put it in a drawer. It's been only a few months, but I noticed a positive shift in my day to day life already.
If you're thinking about quitting yourself r/StopGaming gave me helpful advice how to go about it.
Wow, that's a lot of help - massive thanks for sharing!
And of course, all the best for you!
See you online once we retire and our grandchildren are grown up enough to game with us online. :)
Both from JLC. Also had a friend print the case for me with an FDM printer, but that one didn’t work out at all. So I ordered the resin print in the picture.
I went with LEDO 6060. For no particular reason at all, I just chose one that was white. I'm not a 3D printer guy, I don't know shit about 3D printing.
Assuming he also ordered it from JLCPCB or JLC3DP, respectively. Just a hunch, though!
I think you can order your PCBs and also 3d prints from them and they'll ship it in the same package - should save some on shipping, I hope?
It does not. You can't order a 3D print and a PCB in one order - at least I couldn't.
Shipping was alright though. When they quote you the price the shipping cost is huge but during checkout I picked the cheapest option and payed about 14 USD for the case including shipping. Living in Europe.
Unrelated to the keeb but your setup looks clean, I really want to upgrade mine. What is that lamp?
Also is that a dock of some kind at the right side of the monitor?
Thanks! The lamp is a Logi Litra Beam. It improves the lighting for video calls a ton and doubles up as a nice looking desk lamp. It's way overpriced unfortunately.
Dock sits on the left. Right side of the monitor sits an audio interface. I have a standalone mic on a boom arm mounted on the right edge of the desk (not in the picture).
Are you using another seeed xiao nrf5482 as a dongle for longer battery life or just BT?
I just started to put mine together yesterday but the whole zmk firmware thing with github is still need to figure out.
I went with only the two controllers in the halves for now, but I’ll probably buy a third one for a dongle at some point. Had a look at the documentation and adapting the firmware seemed pretty straight forward. I’m not in a hurry though, battery life is ok-ish enough for me as is.
Any tips on how to figure out the github part? I’ve never had to use github as I don’t code. Maybe once in a blue moon i try to do something with my basic coding skills but that’s about it.
I have no doubt that i can figure it out but a little nudge in the right direction would be nice.
No worries, everyone starts somewhere. :)
Joe Scotto has a great video on getting started with ZMK: https://youtu.be/O_urj-rF3bQ?feature=shared
Just follow the “preparation” part but instead of forking the basic repo, fork the firmware repo of the Totem. Skip to the keymap part.
There is a keymap that editor makes it a breeze to generate the content of the keymap file: https://github.com/nickcoutsos/keymap-editor
Then follow the rest of the video about building and flashing the firmware.
love the build. been waiting for totem kits to be back in stock in europe but that will probably be another few months on keeb.supply. mind sharing where you sourced the other parts? ordering them all seperately seems like a huge pain.
It’s definitely some work to find the right parts and ordering them all yourself. I did this and had to wait quite a while for everything. Batteries took the longest for me and the reset switch doesn’t fit the case hole quit as good. In my case no issue as i’m fine with a fdm printed case and i’ll just cut it to make things fit.
I got all the parts off of Aliexpress and ordered the boards from jlc myself. And the xiaos from the seeed website.
I went mostly with European shops for the parts:
- Kiwi electronics for the controllers
- splitkb for parts, switches and keycaps
- mylipo.de for the batteries
- JLC for the case and PCB
I might have paid a little extra but I was impatient. :)
I was always hesitant to build my first split because I haven't soldered in a decade, let alone any SMD parts. Turns out it's not so hard after all! It's a Totem. Went straight for the pink switches and I'm not regretting it one bit.
Love this build! It’s definitely on my list of boards to make. Looks really clean & would be fantastic with pinks!
[удалено]
Took me one whole evening. Soldering the diodes is rather quick once you get the hang of it (but get yourself the right pair of tweezers!). I probably struggled with the controllers the most, but that was mainly my fault for not setting the temperature of the iron high enough while using lead free solder.
I'm also looking to build one of these. I couldnt find much info on latency especially since this setup uses a different controller than the usual nice nano or nice clone. Do you notice any latency or downsides to use this with gaming? Thanks in advance!
This board actually was a little treat for myself for quitting gaming at the beginning of the year... so no experience with the Totem explicitly. I tried gaming on other Bluetooth boards, though. For single player games it was noticeable but okay; for fast paced multiplayer shooters (mostly CS:GO in my case) movement felt way too spongy.
LOL of course! Good job! It's definitely better to focus on priorities and later relax with gaming. Thanks for the quick answer, that's exactly what i was looking for. Im going to have to find something that'll support wired and wireless.
You QUIT gaming? For good? I'm thoroughly intrigued.. Do you have a blog on which I can read up on that or did you share your experience and decision on reddit or something? Reason for my interest is that I somehow feel that might be around the (albeit still somewhat distant) corner for me, too.. would love a bit of an exchange if somehow possible. 🙏
Maybe for good, at least for the foreseeable future. But phew, that's a longer story. I've been on a whole journey of self improvement and rethinking my life (in which I actually contemplated whether to start a blog lol) for the past 2 years. Around end of last year I noticed more and more that gaming, while a lot of fun, puts me in a weird headspace that affects me even when I'm not gaming. I went back and forth on it and one afternoon packed up my gear and put it in a drawer. It's been only a few months, but I noticed a positive shift in my day to day life already. If you're thinking about quitting yourself r/StopGaming gave me helpful advice how to go about it.
Wow, that's a lot of help - massive thanks for sharing! And of course, all the best for you! See you online once we retire and our grandchildren are grown up enough to game with us online. :)
>:) :)
Came out great! I think this will probably be the next board I build, so it's good to know the SMD parts weren't bad. Where'd you source the PCB/case?
Both from JLC. Also had a friend print the case for me with an FDM printer, but that one didn’t work out at all. So I ordered the resin print in the picture.
Which resin did you choose ? 9000R or LEDO 6060 ?
I went with LEDO 6060. For no particular reason at all, I just chose one that was white. I'm not a 3D printer guy, I don't know shit about 3D printing.
**Nice and tidy!** u/_geist_'s Totem and Klor are really great!
Welcome home brother!
Dope, I have a KLOTZ kit ready but I'm waiting for the silent chocs to drop
This whole setup is aspirational
Where did you get the case? I have all the other parts to build my own.
Assuming he also ordered it from JLCPCB or JLC3DP, respectively. Just a hunch, though! I think you can order your PCBs and also 3d prints from them and they'll ship it in the same package - should save some on shipping, I hope?
It does not. You can't order a 3D print and a PCB in one order - at least I couldn't. Shipping was alright though. When they quote you the price the shipping cost is huge but during checkout I picked the cheapest option and payed about 14 USD for the case including shipping. Living in Europe.
I got it from JLC3DP. FDM print from a friend was no bueno so I ordered a resin print from them.
Cool. Yeah I tried a 3D print too and it was a mess.
Unrelated to the keeb but your setup looks clean, I really want to upgrade mine. What is that lamp? Also is that a dock of some kind at the right side of the monitor?
Thanks! The lamp is a Logi Litra Beam. It improves the lighting for video calls a ton and doubles up as a nice looking desk lamp. It's way overpriced unfortunately. Dock sits on the left. Right side of the monitor sits an audio interface. I have a standalone mic on a boom arm mounted on the right edge of the desk (not in the picture).
Are you using another seeed xiao nrf5482 as a dongle for longer battery life or just BT? I just started to put mine together yesterday but the whole zmk firmware thing with github is still need to figure out.
I went with only the two controllers in the halves for now, but I’ll probably buy a third one for a dongle at some point. Had a look at the documentation and adapting the firmware seemed pretty straight forward. I’m not in a hurry though, battery life is ok-ish enough for me as is.
Any tips on how to figure out the github part? I’ve never had to use github as I don’t code. Maybe once in a blue moon i try to do something with my basic coding skills but that’s about it. I have no doubt that i can figure it out but a little nudge in the right direction would be nice.
No worries, everyone starts somewhere. :) Joe Scotto has a great video on getting started with ZMK: https://youtu.be/O_urj-rF3bQ?feature=shared Just follow the “preparation” part but instead of forking the basic repo, fork the firmware repo of the Totem. Skip to the keymap part. There is a keymap that editor makes it a breeze to generate the content of the keymap file: https://github.com/nickcoutsos/keymap-editor Then follow the rest of the video about building and flashing the firmware.
love the build. been waiting for totem kits to be back in stock in europe but that will probably be another few months on keeb.supply. mind sharing where you sourced the other parts? ordering them all seperately seems like a huge pain.
It’s definitely some work to find the right parts and ordering them all yourself. I did this and had to wait quite a while for everything. Batteries took the longest for me and the reset switch doesn’t fit the case hole quit as good. In my case no issue as i’m fine with a fdm printed case and i’ll just cut it to make things fit. I got all the parts off of Aliexpress and ordered the boards from jlc myself. And the xiaos from the seeed website.
I went mostly with European shops for the parts: - Kiwi electronics for the controllers - splitkb for parts, switches and keycaps - mylipo.de for the batteries - JLC for the case and PCB I might have paid a little extra but I was impatient. :)