Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Hector
A 38-key split Hall-effect keyboard: Hector by Rick Kross.
Published July 15, 2026
Rick Kross aka dramatic_scream shared his Hector project: a 38-key split magnetic keyboard with Hall-effect sensors, in an Totem-inspired case and layout.
The PCB uses an STM32F303RE with enough ADC inputs to connect every Hall sensor directly, without external multiplexers. This allows continuous DMA-based sampling of all sensors without CPU involvement, also enabling software oversampling – dramatic_scream.
The board runs on pure QMK with a custom matrix scanning routine.
Features
- 38 keys (5x3+3-ish, true split)
- Hall-effect switches, inherently hotswappable
- integrated STM32F303RE MCU
- Honeywell SS49E sensors
- 3D-printed case
- QMK firmware
According to Rick, the STM32 ADC is native 12-bit, but the sensor's usable output range is much narrower: half of the raw range is unavailable due to polarity, and the rest is further limited by magnet strength and sensor precision. In practice, only about 25% of the ADC range is actually usable. To compensate, the firmware oversamples data up to 14 bits, then normalizes the usable portion back to a full 12-bit range. This gives 4096 effective levels across the full ~4 mm key travel, corresponding to about 0.001 mm resolution.
Resources
Published on Wed 15th Jul 2026. Featured in KBD #215 (source).
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