Turn a Dell AT102W into an USB TKL keyboard

jeff

22 Nov 2014, 14:22

Hi

A few months ago I bought some Mathias ALPS keys from 7bit and I looked for somehing to do with them. I decided for a TKL keyboard.

I had in stock a Dell AT102W and a few USB rubberdome keyboards.

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I found a Dell USB KBD which wiring is very similar with the AT102W. A logitech could also do the job but it was a bit more different.

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The alpha keys are wired exactly the same way but there are some differences for function keys.


I replaced the black switchs with the tactile ones and cut the pcb and the plate. I also opened the pcb to include the USB chip.

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For the case, the easiest way was wood. I had a board of oak of the good size.

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I did it quite fast and I'm not very happy with the result. I will propably do it again whan i will get a better saw.

Thanks to similarities of chips, wiring is not too difficult (not finish yet for some function keys).

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I will add an undercover, probably of fabrics, and 4 small foam feet.

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I should have paint the plate. But fortunatly it more visible on picture than in real life.

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Muirium
µ

22 Nov 2014, 14:31

Nice job! TKL chops are something I can see in my future. How does it sound and feel with that sweet wood case?

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scottc

22 Nov 2014, 15:32

This is a really cool one. I've been meaning to do something similar with one of my several AT102W for months now, but never really gotten around to it.

andrewjoy

22 Nov 2014, 15:38

that is indeed cool

jeff

22 Nov 2014, 15:43

I will not have time to use it a lot for a while, maybe a better feedback later.

Case and switchs are OK but keycaps are very very light. Something stronger should be better for both feel and sound. In fact the only things I would keep from AT102 are plate and PCB. But ALPS keycaps are not easy to find (moreover a bépo set), so...

andrewjoy

22 Nov 2014, 15:45

indeed someone needs to make thick PBT dyesub caps for alps , i know many people would buy several sets i know i would

as cool as doubleshot is PBT is far superior to ABS imo

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scottc

22 Nov 2014, 18:03

The stock Dell caps are really horrible. I recently got ahold of some nice AEK2-style PBT dyesub caps, which are amazing. As a result, I'll probably do this mod to an AEK or something similar so that I can fit the caps on it.

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seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

23 Nov 2014, 18:36

wow that´s awesome! I have a couple of AT102´s somewhere in the basement. I need to get into projects like this!

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