Sofle Choc Build Guide

This page details the process in building the Sofle Choc Open Source Keyboard

Step 0 - Tools & Parts

Get organized with all your tools you need and parts from your kit. Their are lots of tiny parts and you don't want to lose any during your build!

Be sure to check the Items You Need to Start Building... article for a list of required and recommended tools to make sure you have everything before you get started.

Step 1 - Keyboard Orientation

Place both halfs of your keyboard in front of you, we will start with soldering the bottom components. Keep in mind the direction of the boards as you solder.

Left and Right Halves, This Kit uses reversable boards.

Step 2 - Bottom Componenets

Diodes

We will start with the Diodes first. The diodes are tiny surface mounted parts. You will find them in a black ribbon in your components bag. These are tiny, smaller than a grain of rice. Close up they look like this:

Surface Mount Diodes

Note diode direction before soldering. The lines on the side of the diode must match the direction of the line on the board. See image below for example:

Note Diode direction lines must match circuit board direction line.

Soldering is considerably easier if you use tweezers to hold your diodes as you solder them. We recommend you go through your circuit boards and put a small amount of solder on one of the diode pads. Heat the solder, and push the diode into the melted solder. Once cooled, put a small amound of solder on the other side of the diode.

Their are a total of 60 diodes for this keyboard:

• 58 for the key switches

• 2 for the rotery encoders

Switch Sockets

Next lets install our Choc hotswap sockets. Here is what the Choc sockets look like:

Kailh Choc Low Profile Hot Swappable Sockets

These sockets fit in the outline, these are towards the bottom of each key. Those you will want to solder in a very similar way as you did the diodes. Again put solder on one pad, solder the component down, then solder the other side. Make sure both sides of the sockets are soldered well so you have good contacts. If you placed everything correctly thus far it should look like this for each key:

Choc Switch Sockets & Diodes Soldered in place.

Note you will have a total of 58 sockets

RGB Per Key Lighting

Now lets install our RGB lights. These go directly above the switches. Note the notch on one lead, that lead needs to match the white notch silkscreen on the board and make sure the light shines THROUGH the board. So if you look at our image below, the RGB is in the correct orrientation:

RGB Light needs to shine through the board and the notch must match the notch on the silkscreen.

Like the other components, put some solder on one pad and carefully solder the RGB in place. To not keep the heat there long as these are very sinsitive to heat. Once in place, solder down the other 3 leads, make sure you have good solder joints and then repeat for each switch.

If you've done everything corectly then the bottoms of your boards should look like this in this orientation:

All bottom components installed.

Step 3 - Top Components

Flip your boards, we will install the top components next.

Reset Switch

You will have one reset switch per board. They look like this:

Reset Switches

Reset switches allow you to reset your keyboard in order to install new, or different firmware.

Install these where you see "Reset" on the top corner of the board. Again this is a top component so opposite side of the diodes and sockets. No wrong way to insert it, just place it into the through holes, the leads should help hold it into place while you solder them.

TRRS Jack

You will have one TRRS jack per board. These look like a headphone jack.

TRRS Jacks

TRRS Jacks are needed to connect both halves of your keyboard together.

Install these in the upper corners of your boards, you will fine a spot where they slot into, its just below where you installed the reset switches.

If you have some tape such as painters, masking, or similar tape, you can use it to hold your components in place as you flip your boards over to solder the pins into place. Your two halves should now look like this:

Reset Switches & TRRS Jacks Installed

OLED Connections

Next we want to bridge the OLED connections. Even if you opted not to get OLEDs, we still recommend you solder these as its a step you will not have to do in the future should you ever modify your keyboard and want to use the OLED strip.

Make sure you ONLY solder the OLED connections on the top of the board. Do NOT solder the bottom connections as that can cause your keyboard to short and crash if you are also installing OLED displays.

OLED Connections

Carefully put a bead of solder to short the pads together while the board is facing up:

Solder all 4 bridges on the TOP side of each keyboard half in order to connect the OLED

Microcontroller

Here at TurkeyBoards we carry a veriety of headers of various hights so you can easily cusomize your board to your preference. If you opted for headers so you can easily replace your microcontoller in the future, or soldering your microcontroller in place, the process is very similar.

On the boards you will see two rows for pin headers. You will want to use the side with the box around the through holes. Conviently, this is always the right row of pins. See image below:

Microcontroller headers, use the row with the box outline.

Here again I recommend you get out your tape. As this will hold your header in place and straight while you solder it in. Note again, the placement, as you will want to solder it into the sockets with the box around them.

Next insert your pins and install your microcontroller face down. Make sure when installing you want to keep the top two pins empty. See below image examples:

First pins to remain disconnected.

Solder each pins down, note that first pin is not used.

OLED (Optional)

If you opted for OLED displays, we are about to install them. If you didn't solder the OLED jumpers, now is the time to go back and fix that. Remember, the jumpers should only be solders on the TOP side of the board. This puts them directly under the microcontroller.

Solder to header and install your OLEDs.

OLED installed

Rotary Encoders

Now slot your rotery encoders into their spot. This is the square area just under where your microcontroller, reset switch, and TRR s jacks are. Make sure you solder all 5 pins and the two grounding tabs to the board.

Step 4 - Finishing Your Keyboard

Plates

Now we want to install our top and bottom plates. This protects your components and main board. For this we simply install them with the included screws and brass standoffs. These are 6 headed torx so you will need a small torx screwdriver. Just hand tighten these.

Switches

Install your switches by pushing them into their sockets. Keep in mind its a tight fit so it will take a little pressure to push them in, but make sure they are fully seated and be careful not to bend any pins.

Kailh Switch fully inserted

Keycaps & Encoder Knobs

Keycaps simply insert into each switch same with your rotery knobs.

Connecting Your Keyboard

Congratulations! You built your keyboard! Now lets get it connected so you can configure and start using it. Head over to our First Time Setup Guide in our Getting Started section to start using your new ergo split keyboard.