deskthority

Regarding layouts, I like the TKL design you have and was curious if you had plans for a numpad, macro pad or 100% design. I also like the idea of an expanded nav cluster 8-) Expansions are trivial. TKL is a smallest viable form factor - something I myself would use. Not sure what "expanded nav clu...

Did IBM curve theirs? Of course not. Why would they? in assembly PCB is held roughly curved by two rivets along the centerline, after assembly - by foam pressing via the barrels. I had a couple warranty issues and ellipse helped me. Some of my keys had defects and he mailed me replacements. Good to...

Come on, is any of this truly practical? You think your Chinese contractor wouldn’t pull tricks like that on you, too? ;) No - because I won't design an USB port directly facing the enclosure wall. Or a solenoid connector that fries the daughterboard if you plug it wrong (this, in particular, is VE...

Looks like I found the way to make flat BLE keyboard with metal case: LABELS to the rescue. LED labels on top side, model ID label on the bottom (may actually be larger - but the hole will be the same). In theory this should work - near field is metal-free. Yes, there will be shadows caused by the m...

Will it be an “artisinal” board made by workers paid a living wage and living in a democracy, not the Party’s chosen oligarch’s city-sized dormitory? Artisinal like manufacturing used to be until about 2000? Where the jobs were here, not over in Dystopia? That’d be different. Much more so than disa...

A lot of bother for necessarily shitty backlit caps. But everything about LED backlighting on a mech (rather than a laptop where it belongs) is a lot of bother for nothing much. ;) It's a molded part, so the form doesn't really matter - same amount of work for any form. I do think though that addin...

Light pipes? I’m familiar with the general concept, but haven't seen it used on mechanical keyboards. Got a link / pics? https://www.techpowerup.com/review/kailh-box-keyboard-featuring-new-kailh-box-hush-switches/5.html - top left pic, middle piece I’m thinking about what such transparent plastics ...

Seems like a good fix. Wouldn't that leave less space for the LED though? How do you plan on mounting that anyways? There's screenshot of the stack somewhere in back posts. The bulge will be buried in the foam (and possibly MLV, but I'm not so sure about MLV anymore after reading soundproofing foru...

..easy change tho:
I needed to round the sharp corners anyway to encheapen the CNC-machining both the mold and the top plate.

Hmm, looking at the file you sent, the edge seems really thin (definitely less than half). I measured the edge of a barrel I have lying around at 1mm, so considering that the wall hardly seems like a few pixels in your screenshot, I wouldn't have much faith in the durability of this if you wiggle t...

Something I've noticed about your design here: By thinning the edge of the barrel so much, you seem to be leaving about 0.1-0.2mm thick of plastic in between the outsides and the notch of the keycap. With a bit of wiggle, it might be able to tear through that thin sheet of plastic. yeah, because no...

Well, I suppose in Model F's and your case they go from plate to plate, which is harder to mark, but also much more self-explanatory. PCBs are visually much busier. yeah, the back of the keyboard is pristine, nothing but bolts. Circles and arrows make sense when some bolts are there to fasten the l...

Looks good to me. I've stripped down more Topre boards (to install silencing rings) than Model Fs so I’m very familiar with an obsessive looking amount of screws. Sure you don't want some in the middle ? It's super satisfying when you do them all back up again. :D ah, yes, topre. But I kinda outdid...

I _might_ have been overdoing the fasteners a bit. fasteners.png 39 pairs of M2.5 bolts so far. Probably don't need that much - but really don't want those bolt heads to be ripped out if keyboad is dropped onto the floor. In other news - inventoried the keys on hand and looks like barrels have evolv...

my last experience is JLCPCB for the TKL-sized PCBs, and it was $28 for 5 PCBs, plus about $12 shipping to US. Of course it was leaded HASL, so you need to solder whatever you want to solder in couple weeks after unpacking (they'll come in an airtight plastic wrap). But still, it's pretty cheap nowa...

Ooh, I like these numbers! How about QMK with VIA or Vial on top? I’ve heard that extra layer in the stack taxes the hardware quite badly, but that may well be purely memory rather than actual work. Computers don't work that way. Well, _modern_ computers do, but not MCUs. MCU consumes same power, w...

measured actual power consumption as a service to community. 5.1V, 30 mA - not even close to requested 200mA Nice number. Is that an Xwhatsit controller or your own hardware? ;) mini-xwhatsit with QMK firmware. I assume there’s a difference. Of course. Mine is 24mA full-bore (no power-management ef...

Mmkay, I borrowed an USB wattmeter from mah neighbor and measured actual power consumption as a service to community. 5.1V, 30 mA - not even close to requested 200mA (however, if solenoid board is connected, all bets are off. I don't have solenoid board on hand to check). Then I powered it by mah pr...

Tested the two power pins and ground pins, both are connected with about 1.5 ohm of resistance. A bit higher than anticipated, are we still within a workable range? Pretty much. If you want to be double sure - open the keyboard and measure at the PCB (although at PCB end you'll likely see traces be...

I've modelled the outline of the keyboard and internal layer structure. cake.png Plates will be 1.5mm 304 steel (or may be 904 - "swiss watch steel" sounds better (it also holds polish better, but not sure if that's even relevant), held together by 10 mm spacers. Inside, top to bottom - 0.5mm silico...

Aruberon wrote: ↑

21 Jun 2023, 18:48

It has 2 5v pins, which im guessing is gonna be a problem on 1 USB slot.

Not really. They are most likely connected inside the keyboard - there are two ground pins, too. Look at the other end of the cable, or simply check resistance between those pins - should be less than 1 ohm.

The USB ports on unpowered hub only provide 100 ma. QMK with default USB current configuration will not function correctly with a unpowered USB port. Not really true - hub's downstream ports will provide whatever they have (because current limiters are expensive), it's just that total current from ...

Here's rough idea of how keys will be placed inside the keyboard. perspective-view.png The bolt holes are countersunk M2.5, screwed into threaded spacer from both sides. There are 29 of them, to prevent drop damage (just the plates will weigh about a kilogram) and add some rigidity (not that 1.5mm s...

Oh wow. Not sure how I missed this, but it's indeed been awhile. Welcome back

Tell me more about yours. Not much to tell, really. https://github.com/dmaone/CommonSense, runs on previously-unobtainium, but now back in stock (albeit $20 now, not $15) CY8CKIT-059, passes USB2-CV, has no static protection. Can read capacitive, inductive and ohmic switches, can also be used as AD...

In this context though - I do agree with DMA. We do need something better than QMK. While I like the widespread support it's gotten and the features it implements, I am not really happy with how it does some stuff and how it implements others. I do have an idea for my own firmware, but that would b...

I just instinctively defend the honour of these supposedly shitty firmwares which I and many others use quite happily for years, vs. the hypothetical competition, which we can’t. But the thing is - if there's a keyboard, there's _some_ firmware running on it. So it's not about "use happily" vs "can...

..Also, now that we don't have anything huge on top of the stem, we can cut channels in the barrel for the top key stabilizers (corners) all the way through, and that will allow us to insert the stems from the bottom (so we can make grippers as large as we want). This will need additional guides for...

bottom-out-damper.png Bottoming-out damper. Comes in contact with the stem 0.7mm above the barrel contact point. stem-on-damper.png If made of 30 Shore A silicone, this 0.7mm should be good for couple kg of force (which is kinda A LOT for a keypress). If more force is applied, the key will contact ...

What about the 1000s × more of us who don't design PCBs, don't write firmwares, and never will? Should we just let our keyboards lie useless, because of some coder jihad we neither understand nor respect? Pandrew's 'QMK' isn't 'upstream' QMK? I could care less. My IBM boards work brilliantly, and I...