Silicon Graphics Button Box (Alps Converted, Backlit, Reprogrammed)

[flowerlandfilms]

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[flowerlandfilms]

My SG Bigfoot was getting lonely, I needed hotkeys for my Adobe programs, and I wanted to get some experience programming Teensy for keyboards. The end result is my SG Button Box, which I'm quite pleased with.
First I removed the main board and fashioned a steel plate to replace the connector plate with.

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I then went about replacing the horrible Cherry Black switches with my favourite switch, Matias Quiet Clicks with the rubber dampeners removed. I just glued them into the Cherry holes for lack of a better method.

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Then I went about solving the issue most boards have, NOT GRANITE ENOUGH.

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I was fairly pleased with the end result, this paint is pretty cool stuff, it basically shoots little flecks of black and white rubber to the surface, then you protect it with clear coat.

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I went about installing the backlighting in a similar fashion to how I did my main Bigfoot. This ended up being a mistake, as with the big board I wanted even dispersal with no hotspots, but on this board, I really should have placed one LED directly under each key. I might go back and redo this later.

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Now I have to say I had a hell of a time with the wiring. I didn't bother with a matrix because I figured it's only 32 buttons, I'll just get the larger Teensy, wire each button to its own pin, then I won't have to bother with complex firmware and fiddly nonsense. But now having done it that way, I can definitely see the advantages of using less pins. Soldering to the tiny pads was a bit of a nightmare, and I had to keep going back and fixing crappy connections, or solder that was bridging to another pin etc. Anyone who followed my last project knows I hate soldering, but this was really a pain in the dick. That's why there aren't any photos of my wiring job because I was frustrated and the resulting mess is shameful, but I finally got all the keys working.

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After it was up and running, I decided I needed some colour to differentiate different hotkeys for different programs, so I went in with some Cellophane to make them stand out, Blue for Photoshop, Purple for Premiere, Green for After Effects, yellow for standard Windows stuff.

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I thought I should take a picture with it's new buddy, so I cleaned my desk just for this, I feel like a real sellout with my hackdesk all neat and tidy.

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All in all I love using this thing, as a film maker and Animator every time I have to go to the mouse for something I could otherwise do on the keyboard just adds to wrist strain, and I am loving the use I've gotten out of it so far. I'm glad I could bring this ancient Serial board back to life with the almighty Frankensteins Lightning of USB Power!

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[flowerlandfilms]

Here is the hotkey layout I decided on if anyone is interested.

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[Ir0n]

I like your paint job and LEDs did you destroy any strips trying to solder them? Lol
Thank you for sharing your work!

I need to get around to painting my f50, but now I want LEDs too..

[Menuhin]

To make this better looking, you can send the caps to Japan for custom dyesub or simply remove the stickers.

[flowerlandfilms]

I like your paint job and LEDs did you destroy any strips trying to solder them? Lol
Thank you for sharing your work!

I need to get around to painting my f50, but now I want LEDs too..

I kept my LED strips a live,mostly I think because I did them first so my soldering tip was clean at that stage.

To make this better looking, you can send the caps to Japan for custom dyesub or simply remove the stickers.

I was not aware you could do that. I might end up getting clear vinyl stickers or some different keycaps mix and matched from other sets.

[//gainsborough]

Yooooooooooo. This is pretty dope! Is that an LED screen on the SGI?

[flowerlandfilms]

Just LCD for now, i'd like to find a better one.

[andrewjoy]

Just LCD for now, i'd like to find a better one.

Go OLED. You can get some small OLEDs on ebay and they are usually easy to drive.

[flowerlandfilms]

Cheers Andrewjoy, i'll look into that. Ideally I would like it to display a rotating list of photos and videos.