Hi-Profile PBT Dye-sub (the time has come)

Muirium · 19 Oct 2015, 14:44

matt3o wrote: ↑This will take some time, but I'm working on it! Hopefully I will see some sample before year end

And my caps!

No hurry, in truth. I just want to know they're safe.

matt3o · 19 Oct 2015, 14:49

they are safe (at the moiment)

derzemel · 19 Oct 2015, 15:21

would these be usefull to you matt3o?
I do not have them, but I might buy them and send the keycaps to you

(also this way I have a serious reason to buy them to try some hall effect switches

)

XMIT · 19 Oct 2015, 19:52

Those are flat sphericals, not profiled sphericals.

Muirium · 19 Oct 2015, 22:10

Correct. I also have this Honeywell Hall Effect board (of Round 5 fame) whose caps are just as uniform as your picture. The key shape does look a little different to me, like mine are perhaps more spherical and perhaps older:

I do like the Eurostile-like font on your picture, though. An improvement to the Signature Plastics' "Gorton" like font on my caps, Round 5 and its originator!

Buuuuuuut… these guys aren't up to beamspring caps, I can tell you. Which is saying a lot!

@Matteo: Thanks for the reassurance! Once they're back in your hands, shoot me a PM. No hurry in getting them back here, they can wait to join some some prototypes from this GB if you like…

ramnes · 19 Oct 2015, 22:24

Matt3o, you don't know how much I would like this to happen. If there's anything I can do to help, shoot me a PM.

XMIT · 19 Oct 2015, 22:32

matt3o did you get a chance to have a look at both the Selectric/Beam Spring style high profile sphericals, and the ones that are common on some Hall effect keyboards? They're not quite the same.

I wonder of TechShop has a 3D scanner. If so I'll get you some scans for sure.

Muirium · 19 Oct 2015, 23:54

They're definitely not the same. Beamspring caps beat the others into sorry submission!

I sent him a good sampling of Beamspring caps, and they've already been to China for a 3D scan. If we can get something as awesome as Beamspring profile out of this… oh yes!

Anyway, if you do get access to a 3D scanner, definitely scan as wide a variety of caps as you can. That data would be fascinating. Especially for 3D renderings. Remember the different rows, where applicable.

matt3o · 20 Oct 2015, 12:07

ramnes wrote: ↑Matt3o, you don't know how much I would like this to happen. If there's anything I can do to help, shoot me a PM.

thanks! Will do!

XMIT wrote: ↑matt3o did you get a chance to have a look at both the Selectric/Beam Spring style high profile sphericals, and the ones that are common on some Hall effect keyboards? They're not quite the same.

I wonder of TechShop has a 3D scanner. If so I'll get you some scans for sure.

if you already have the 3d scans... that would spare us quite some $$$ !

XMIT · 21 Oct 2015, 13:57

I'm headed to Tech Shop tonight. I'll check their 3D scanner status when I head over. I thought I remembered the San Francsico Tech Shop having one in 2011, but it's 2015 now and this is Austin - Round Rock.

r0yal · 21 Oct 2015, 21:49

What i wouldn't do for some sphericals for my Model M...

XMIT · 21 Oct 2015, 21:51

Be careful what you wish for.

XMIT · 22 Oct 2015, 03:15

I'm at the Austin - Round Rock Tech Shop now.

Sorry, there is no 3D scanner here. They have a Kinect available but the resolution it provides is not nearly high enough. The staff here suggested that it may be faster to simply draw a new model from scratch. That may not too bad as I also have a pair of calipers handy.

(Techshop endorses Autodesk products.)

matt3o · 23 Oct 2015, 19:42

thanks for checking anyway. I have very high quality 3d scanners at disposal, so it's not a big issue, just it's $500 a pop. I believe it's worth it though, the topre spacebar came out incredibly well

XMIT · 23 Oct 2015, 20:03

Yeah. Some TechShops have a NextEngine 3D scanner:

http://www.nextengine.com/products/scan ... s/accurate

Austin - Round Rock does not. However, San Jose and San Francisco do. I've sent an e-mail asking for one. There is like a 5% chance that I'll be able to use the San Francisco one sometime soon.

Now, who in the San Francisco or San Jose area might have some interesting spherical caps in their inventory and be willing to visit TechShop to help us out?

Muirium · 23 Oct 2015, 22:09

Yeah right. As if there's a world keyboard heritage site anywhere near there…

Matteo: Did they give you a green light on sharing the beamspring scan data? Or I guess I should ask this first instead: did they finish!?

I'm already imagining the sweet renders to come…

scottc · 23 Oct 2015, 23:00

XMIT wrote: ↑Yeah. Some TechShops have a NextEngine 3D scanner:

http://www.nextengine.com/products/scan ... s/accurate

Austin - Round Rock does not. However, San Jose and San Francisco do. I've sent an e-mail asking for one. There is like a 5% chance that I'll be able to use the San Francisco one sometime soon.

Now, who in the San Francisco or San Jose area might have some interesting spherical caps in their inventory and be willing to visit TechShop to help us out?

Funnily enough... I'll be around San Jose again later this year!

matt3o · 24 Oct 2015, 23:52

we are not finished yet, but yeah I guess the 3d models will be available

Muirium · 25 Oct 2015, 22:31

Those would be nice! What format are you working with?

niomosy · 19 Nov 2015, 01:40

Any update on those scans, by chance?

XMIT · 19 Nov 2015, 05:46

niomosy wrote: ↑Any update on those scans, by chance?

I've got nothing. At this rate it would be easier to re-draw them than scan them given the available resources. It may take me a while to get to it (1-2 months).

andrewjoy · 19 Nov 2015, 11:00

May be getting a little ahead of ourselves but i just wanted to say that black on grey works very well with Dyesub. We could go for medium Grey mods white alpha like the Honeywell above.

Black on red is not amazing but that could work too for the enter key, my only reference is a unicomp Esc so someone who is better at printing may do a good job

Similarly we could go for a "stealth" space cadet with black lettering.

Muirium · 19 Nov 2015, 11:24

Glorious un-yellowable pale creamy white dyesubs first, please. No point in disguising these as dark old ABS double shots, only with less vibrant legends. Play to dyesub's strength, not its weakness.

niomosy · 20 Nov 2015, 01:14

Dyesubs for now. Doubleshots, though. That would be glorious.

andrewjoy · 20 Nov 2015, 11:48

Muirium wrote: ↑Glorious un-yellowable pale creamy white dyesubs first, please. No point in disguising these as dark old ABS double shots, only with less vibrant legends. Play to dyesub's strength, not its weakness.

So you want spherical caps wth the colour of Model M/F ? I could go for that !

Muirium · 20 Nov 2015, 11:54

Pretty much. I've played extensively with all the colours in Round 5, and I just can't beat white alphas. Dyesub's home turf is a great place to be!

andrewjoy · 20 Nov 2015, 12:01

Round 5 white alpha with black mods is awesome imo.

Muirium · 20 Nov 2015, 12:08

It's pretty good. I prefer red mods, or blue. But key to them all is the white alphas.

Other alpha colours are striking. But white is sublime and goes with everything.

andrewjoy · 20 Nov 2015, 12:23

I like good old round 4 colours too.

in R5a i have white alphas grey and black mods and a few odd keys that i need like a red enter and so on

matt3o · 20 Nov 2015, 13:07

problem with beige is that goes well with beige case only