Boards Before Breakfast
Boards Before Breakfast
Current Inventory | Full Inventory |
[[Keycaps Inventory.base]]
This is my place to keep sane in the world of mechanical keyboards. I'm a harvester. This post on r/mechanicalkeyboards explains a lot, but it doesn't explain the obsession, and how quickly I fell down the rabbit hole.
I went from always using a mechanical keyboard to learning about QMK from Nuphy Air60v2, to building a corne, then a Lily58, to building a Discipline through hole keyboard. I barely knew how to solder in the beginning of 2025 and now I'm pretty confident in my soldering. It still isn't always the prettiest and I have ruined more than one PCB, but I'm getting better.
The KinesisGaming Freestyle Edge was my keyboard for many years. It didn't prevent me from having carpal tunnel surgery, but certainly helped the pain. It was heavy, never moved from my desk, and I didn't understand how to program it—the interface was terrible.
This is a dev/build blog of what I have going on, what projects are waiting for me in dollar store pencil cases with pink post-it notes, waiting for me to revisit them when that next nice!nano clone arrives from Alliexpress.
Why
Boards Before Breakfast? I've been an early riser for quite a few years. It's a quiet time — I make my coffee (French press every morning), turn on the office lights, plug in the soldering iron and start building. Most of what I do happens before I go toThe Day Job.
Daily Logs
2026-07-23
| Keyboard11 | Log |
|---|---|
| Opus Rev B | Initial build |
| Le Oeuf | Initial build |
| Ursa Major | Initial build |
| Mercutio | Initial build |
| Tamago60 v2 | Initial build |
| Tamago60 v2 | Initial build |
| Absinthe | Initial build |
| Lattice60 | Initial build |
| Lattice60 | Initial build |
| Dumbpad - 2 | Initial build |
| Ploopy Adept | Initial build |
2026-06-05
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Arisu | Finished soldering, added hotswap sockets, put into case and added keycaps |
2026-06-03
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Lesovoz | Other components placed, not soldered yet |
2026-06-02
| Keyboard11 | Log |
|---|---|
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Firmware flashed and confirmed working |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
| Arisu | Not ready |
2026-06-01
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Egg58 | Completed some time last week, Posted the giveaway on work channel. |
2026-05-14
| Keyboard3 | Log |
|---|---|
| Bug54 | Initial build |
| Corne LP | Right side keeps falling asleep, disconnecting, Took the pcb out of the aluminum case to see if it was shorting. Noticed the left side OLED is broken, removed. Reflowed TRRS, MCU and reset pins. |
| Egg58 | Over the last few days, Added HS sockets, and LEDs to right half. |
2026-05-05
| Keyboard3 | Log |
|---|---|
| Egg58 | Initial intake |
| Kyria rev 1.2 | Thought right half was working ok - reflashed, still having issues |
| Romeo | Worked on keymap a bit this morning. Need to use more - very nice quiet switches |
2026-05-03
| Keyboard6 | Log |
|---|---|
| Charybdis 4x6 | Worked on keymap and trying to get used to the trackball and least amount of finger movement when using trackball WIP |
| Helix | Initial intake - cleaned up - printed a sparkle green case and put MT3 Fairlane keycaps on |
| Keyboardio Model 100 | Initial build |
| Keyboardio Model 100 | Initial build |
| Kyria rev 1.3 | Initial intake - took apart acrylic case, cleaned up - thinking of adding 2u stabs and the pimoroni trackball |
| Nuphy Air 96 | Initial intake |
2026-05-02
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| lumberjack | Ripped off the USBC port when I tried to plug it in - Looks like the pad are gone - Ordered JST daughter board. |
2026-04-22
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Dactyl Cygnus | Forgot to update, This is a hand wire build with amoeba king single PCBs. It is built, just trouble shooting some connections. Built firmware for this board. |
2026-04-13
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Basketweave | Received |
2026-04-11
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| a_dux | Traded |
2026-03-09
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| CutiePie | Removed the Holy Panda X switches |
2026-03-03
2026-01-30
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Lattice | Finally flashed the bootloader and the firmware! Remember that the board needs usb connected as well as the programmer! |
2026-01-20
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| YDMK 60MQ | Put the Drop XDA Canvas on the board, needed the 1U shift to accomidate the arrow key layout - Just need to solder in a switch for the space bar. |
2026-01-13
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| hillside48 | Struggling with the keymap, online tools are not really mapping the keys correctly. |
2026-01-12
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| bm60hsrgb_poker_rev2 | Reflashed with VIAL-QMK - took pictures forsale and updated Inventory |
2026-01-10
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Sweep | Didn't socket the controllers, was working, and not its not. |
2026-01-09
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| kaz | Still trying to figure out why it isnt working any more moved between rp2040 and the nice!nano clones - nothing - wont boot when the TRRS cable is connected. Resolder the connection? |
2026-01-06
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Dosidicus gigas | Finished putting the rest of the white keycaps back on. |
2026-01-05
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| hypergarlic | Removed the choc tilters - and put all black keys on |
2026-01-01
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Omnibus | Moved some keys around and remapped in vial for learning colemak |
2025-12-23
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| om | Decided that the OM should move to RP2040 and VIAL since there is no battery or power switch. |
2025-12-17
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Planck | Added Drop OLKB Acute Keycaps - https://drop.com/buy/drop-olkb-preonic-acute-keycaps - they were on sale for $5 |
2025-12-12
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| hypergolic | Tried to get ZMK Studio Support, Strangely Q and B keys were swapped, gave up. Back to just using Cradio as shield |
2025-12-07
| Keyboard2 | Log |
|---|---|
| Corne-Left-Macropad | Finished up wiring and VIAL firmware |
| DZ60v2 | Removed the Drop XDA keycaps - thinking about what to put on next |
2025-12-03
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Kumara K522-1 | packaged up for sale |
2025-11-28
| Keyboard1 | Log |
|---|---|
| Discipline65 | Initial build |
2025-07-01
| Keyboard3 | Log |
|---|---|
| Full Size | Initial build |
| v4.1 6x3 ex2 | Initial build |
| Lily58 | Initial build |