Cowboard

Mechanical Keyboard for Educational Electronics

 

Member profile details

Membership level
2019-2020 Team
Project Thumbnail Image
Team Name
Cowboard
Project Title
Mechanical Keyboard for Educational Electronics
Design Challenge
Keyboards are an indispensable tool to anyone using a computer. Although most people are content with the built-in keyboards on their laptops or standard office keyboards, there exists a community passionate about custom mechanical keyboards. Everything from the case, switches, keycaps, and even USB cables can be customized, and prices range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

My project has two goals: create a keyboard that looks, sounds, and feels great, and expand the basic keyboard functionality into a platform for learning about embedded systems and low level software. An online community of keyboard enthusiasts (r/mk on reddit) has almost 500 thousand members, and exploring different machining techniques and plate materials will benefit the custom keyboard community as a whole. My second goal is motivated by the lack of electronics innovation in keyboards. Current keyboards are mostly innovative based on mechanical parts even though many are powered by powerful microcontrollers such as the atmega32u4. I want to turn keyboards into a platform for learning about electronics and software concepts such as bootloading, GPIOs, and communication protocols.
Date Updated
Monday, December 30, 2019
Sponsors
OEDK
Department(s)
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Faculty Advisor 1 - Name
Fernando Cruz
Faculty Advisor 1 - Department
  • OTHER
 

Team Members

Team Type
Independent Project

Contact us

Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen
Rice University

6100 Main Street MS 390 | Houston, Texas | 77005

Phone: 713.348.OEDK

Email: oedk@rice.edu

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