What Are Mechanical Keyboard PCBs?

All mechanical keyboards require one essential component to actually function and that is their PCB, but how exactly does the PCB work?

A PCB is basically like the brain of the whole operation. It sends signals to your computer so that your keyboard can output what you are pressing. If your PCB is faulty, then your keyboard will not work, so it is important to test your keyboard’s PCB before building your keyboard. Luckily for you, we have an article on how to test your PCB.

What other features does a Mechanical Keyboard PCB support?

Some keyboard PCBs allow you to add screw-in or clip-in stabilizers. These are usually a lot better than using plate-mounted stabilizers and give you a better experience when it comes to your bigger keys like the spacebar and enter key. They can also feature hot-swap sockets which make it so you can remove and replace your switches without having to desolder the whole keyboard. You can also add RGB lighting to the PCB if you wanted to as well, or just buy one that already has that feature built-in.

How do you mount your Keyboard’s PCB?

Different keyboards have different mounting systems, but I wanted to quickly go over some of the more common ones. Top mount is when you screw the PCB to the top of the keyboard case. Tray-mounted keyboards are very similar, but instead of screwing it to the top of the case, it screws into the bottom of the case. Tray-mounted keyboards are definitely not as nice to type on though as the screws add unnecessary tension to certain parts of the PCB leading to an uneven typing experience. Gasket Mounted keyboards will have pieces of foam that either go on certain parts of your PCB or Plate depending on the keyboard, which gives it a nice bouncier typing feel.

What layouts do Mechanical Keyboard PCBs Support?

The coolest thing about mechanical keyboard PCBs is that they can essentially be made to support any layout you can think of. Some more common layouts that you might have heard of are 60%, 65%, 75%, TKL, and 100% keyboards. All of these layouts have different sizes and have different keys as well. You can even design and create your own PCB if you wanted to by using various online PCB makers like AllPCBs and PCBway which can lead to some crazy, but cool designs!

Mechanical keyboard PCBs are the most important part of any build, and you can’t really use a keyboard without it so it's definitely important to know what it does and how to check if your PCB is in perfect condition before building.