Boards Before Breakfast
Boards Before Breakfast
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What is this place?
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.
I have a particular affinity for through-hole keyboards. A curated list and gallery lives here: through_hole_keyboards
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
2026-09-04
2026-09-01
- Le Chiffre — Initial build
2026-08-30
2026-08-28
- Arisu - 7 — A lot of work over the last few weeks. Sanded and painted the black resin case with a iron spraypaint, Highlighted the JP logo in red on the back. Finished up soldering the switches today. Col9 is not respoding? When cleaning up the flux from the back of the board, I knocked off some diodes... will have to harvest some and retest. I was really hoping to have this done today.
2026-08-27
- Solanum - 1 — Used the new hot air station to put on hotswap sockets. Worked nicely and very little clean up afterwards. This should save time.
2026-08-26
- Solanum - 1 — Initial intake
- Solanum - 3 — Initial intake
- Solanum - 2 — Initial intake
2026-08-15
2026-08-14
- Absinthe — Board Completed, I thought i had been logging the builds.. 3D Printed case based on the original stacked acrylic case with Kang White switches in most Alphas, Durock Creamy Pink on arrow keys and Kailh Box White for a clicky space bar and finally Akko Creamy Purple Pro for the mods. The case shows off the Underglow with semi transparent case bottom. Note to self: The controller area of the case, needs a few edits, the hole needs to be slightly longer, it was pressing the reset button, and the tab to support the board needs to be removed.
2026-08-11
- OrthoPie — Received PCB
2026-08-07
- OrthoPie — Received the resin cases
2026-08-06
- Sweep — Printed a new low case, with magnets, the case halves stick together nice. Had to cut case for the power switch.
- Tamago60 v2 - 2 — This has been sitting on the display rack for a bit, using today, recapped with mix of dasher mt3 and nomad mt3
2026-07-28
- HackMan3D Orbit Controller — Joysticks are wired and placed into the holder, had to print the larger one because of the size of the controller. Waiting on the side switch holder to finish printing
- HackMan3D Orbit Controller — Initial build
- Rosalina - 1 — Initial intake
- Rosalina - 2 — Initial intake
2026-07-25
- Le Oeuf — Switch converter plate is completed, no manifold errors, will print soon
- Opus Rev B — Completed build - more notes later
- Opus Rev B —
2026-07-23
- Le Oeuf — Initial build
- Mercutio — Initial build
- Ploopy Adept — Initial build
- Tamago60 v2 - 2 — Initial build
- Tamago60 v2 - 1 — Initial build
2026-07-21
- Lattice60 - 2 — Initial intake
- Lattice60 - 3 — Initial intake
- Opus Rev B — Initial intake
2026-07-14
- Absinthe — Initial entry
2026-06-05
- Arisu - 1 — Finished soldering, added hotswap sockets, put into case and added keycaps
2026-06-03
2026-06-02
- Arisu - 1 — Firmware flashed and confirmed working
- Arisu - 10 — Not ready
- Arisu - 11 — Not ready
- Arisu - 12 — Not ready
- Arisu - 2 — Firmware flashed and confirmed working
- Arisu - 3 — Not ready
- Arisu - 4 — Not ready
- Arisu - 5 — Not ready
- Arisu - 6 — Not ready
- Arisu - 7 — On Hold
- Arisu - 8 — Not ready
- Arisu - 9 — Not ready
- Lesovoz — First set of diodes soldered
2026-06-01
- Egg58 - White — Completed some time last week, Posted the giveaway on work channel.
- Egg58 - White —
2026-05-14
- 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 - Black — Over the last few days, Added HS sockets, and LEDs to right half.
- Egg58 - Matte — Over the last few days, Added HS sockets, and LEDs to right half.
2026-05-05
- Corne LP — Keeps booting up in DFU - have to use qmk toolbox - exit DFU to use
- Egg58 - Black — Initial intake
- Egg58 - Matte — Initial intake
- Egg58 - White — 3d printed a low profile green and white case
- Egg58 - White — 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
2026-05-04
- Kyria rev 1.2 — Printed out a nice case white with a green stripe - Worked on keymap using qmk configurator and flashed to board.
2026-05-03
- Corne LP — Flashed with new firmware (a .hex), put MBK Keycaps on - works great
- Helix — Initial intake - cleaned up - printed a sparkle green case and put MT3 Fairlane keycaps on
- Keyboardio Model 100 - 1 — Initial build
- Keyboardio Model 100 - 2 — Initial build
- Kyria rev 1.2 — Initial build
- Kyria rev 1.3 — Initial intake - took apart acrylic case, cleaned up - thinking of adding 2u stabs and the pimoroni trackball
- Nuphy Air96 — Initial intake
- Romeo — Initial build
2026-04-22
- 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
- Basketweave — Received
2026-04-11
- a_dux — Traded
2026-03-03
2026-03-02
- Mysterium — Package Arrived
2026-01-20
- YDMK60MQ — 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
- hillside48 — Struggling with the keymap, online tools are not really mapping the keys correctly.
2026-01-12
- BM60 — Reflashed with VIAL-QMK - took pictures forsale and updated Inventory
2026-01-10
- a_dux — Ok working with the RP2040 now - the vial keymap for the right is reversed, but it works. No more firmware changes - Saved the working firmware to keyboard_stuff
- Sweep — Didn't socket the controllers, was working, and not its not.
- YDMK60MQ — Mistakingly flashed DZ60 firmware - and now I cant recover the board. Although vial.rocks sees it..
2026-01-09
- a_dux — need to fix the sides and the thumb keys are switched.
- a_dux — with the RP2040 - plug the usb in the right hand side.
- a_dux — Moved to rp2040, dont need BT support.
- 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
- Dosidicus_gigas — Finished putting the rest of the white keycaps back on.
2026-01-05
- hypergarlic — Removed the choc tilters - and put all black keys on
- kaz — Trying a_dux qmk_vial firmware - having issues with split communication - cant find the data pin on the controller
- kaz — Moved to RP2040 - Don't need wireless/BT support
2026-01-01
- Omnibus — Moved some keys around and remapped in vial for learning colemak
2025-12-23
- om — Decided that the OM should move to RP2040 and VIAL since there is no battery or power switch.
2025-12-20
2025-12-18
- hillside48 — Got the right side working again - and edited keymaps - was missing the outer thumb keys??
- YDMK60MQ — Populated the Akko V3 Penguin Tactile Silent Switches
2025-12-17
- Dosidicus_gigas — Keycaps with legends! White / Black /White - switched with the Hillside48
- Planck v7 — Added Drop OLKB Acute Keycaps - https://drop.com/buy/drop-olkb-preonic-acute-keycaps - they were on sale for $5
- Planck v7 — Removed the MT3 Fairlane keycaps to prep for new low profile keycaps.
2025-12-16
- hypergarlic — Printed some outer col choc tilters and put batteries in - moved the keymap to generic 3x5
- YDMK60MQ — I do have 2.25 and 2.75 space bars! Just had to add a few more mill max sockets, adding stabilizers.
2025-12-14
- YDMK60MQ — Mill max work completed - Added enough for split space bars - do we have keycaps ?
2025-12-12
- Dosidicus_gigas — Removed the Chicago Steno keycaps - put on ChocFox keycaps with legends
- hypergolic — Tried to get ZMK Studio Support, Strangely Q and B keys were swapped, gave up. Back to just using Cradio as shield
- kaz — Removed blank keycaps and the nice!nano in anticipation of moving back to the rp2040 - board doesn't support battery or wireless - and vial is better for keymaps
2025-12-07
- Corne-Left-Macropad — Finished up wiring and VIAL firmware
- Corne-Left-Macropad — Initial entry
- Omnibus — Initial entry - but already completed
- Pok3r-DZ60v2 — Removed the Drop XDA keycaps - thinking about what to put on next
- YDMK60MQ — Finished up Mill Max sockets
2025-12-04
- kaz — Corne ZMK wasn't working - Had Kiro build a new shield based on pin mappings
2025-12-03
- hypergarlic — added choc tilters
- RedDragon Kumara K5221 — packaged up for sale
2025-11-28
- Discipline65 — Initial build
- Planck v7 — Initial build
- Pok3r-DZ60v2 — Initial build
2025-11-27
- a_dux — Initial build
- Dosidicus_gigas — Initial build
- hillside48 — Initial build
- hypergarlic — Initial build
- hypergolic — Initial build
- kaz — Initial build
- om — Initial build
2025-11-12
- BM60 — Initial Entry
2025-07-01
- Azio Full Size — Initial build
- Corne v41 6x3 ex2 — Initial build
- Opensource Lily58 — Initial build
- RedDragon Kumara K5221 — Initial build
2025-06-30
- Nuphy Air60v2 — Initial build
- Nuphy Air75v2 — Initial intake