Turn a Dell AT102W into an USB TKL keyboard

[jeff]

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.



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.





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.



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

(dwg file to be uploaded)







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).



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



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

[Muirium]

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

[scottc]

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]

that is indeed cool

[jeff]

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]

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

[scottc]

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.

[seebart]

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