On the design of hardware and software for optical switches
It's time custom keyboards use optical switches
By Gondolindrim
First version published in may 5, 2022
Introduction
The Alexandria Library is the symbol, footprint and 3D models library used on the Acheron Project, its printed circuit boards and documentation. This library is developed using a mixture of some originally-developed footprints and 3D models as well as some others obtained from other places.
Supported software
Due to the open-source nature of Acheron and Alexandria, its libraries are developed with sole KiCAD support. As of september 2021, Alexandria is developed using the developmental "nightly" versions of KiCAD; this is because, as part of the version 6.xx roadmap, the KiCAD developers decided to revisit file formats and the library system, which in turn forces Alexandria to comply to the new formats for future-proofing reasons.
This means that in order to use these symbols and footprints you must update your KiCAD to the latest nightly release. Since I (Gondolindrim) compile and update KiCAD daily directly from its official development repository, always assume the latest version is in use.
For discussion see this GitHub issue.
Repository list
Custom keyboard switches
Alexandria Library offers a wide variety of switch footprints, including support for MX, Alps, SMK and electrocapacitive switches.
How to use
Git usage
KiCAD library management
Show support
How to contribute
Acknowledgements
License
Being a library, it does not make sense to license Alexandria under AOHL since it requires licensees to also open-source derivative works. Hence, Alexandria is released under a much more permissive BSD 3-clause which only requires users to have the same notice in case of redistribution.
*Copyright (c) 2019, Álvaro Augusto Volpato. All rights reserved.
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