deskthority

Hi

I am new to this forum and am by no means a keyboard expert however I do own a Datahand Pro II. Recently one of the little black parts off one of the switches broke on my beloved crazy monster keyboard. Its the part of the switch that is black plastic, has the magnet glued to the face and the white finger tab on top. Or the black plastic part from the letter P though the switches are all the same regardless of the letter.

Anyhow I'm sure you've guessed by now that my question is does anyone know where I can get a new part or does anyone have a spares board and be willing to part with one of these.

Thanks in advance.

Nice keyboard! The DataHand is one of the highest priced used boards I've seen. They're notoriously hard to find. Sadly, that's because their manufacturer is more or less out of business - which is odd when they could clearly sell product for a grand a pop if only they could still make them! The DataHand became a cult hit after those guys lost the plot, apparently.

Anyway, there's a few people here who have them. Good luck!

Thanks for the best wishes. Hopefully someone might have a spares keyboard.

bigthumb wrote: Thanks for the best wishes. Hopefully someone might have a spares keyboard.

A photo of the problem would probably help, even if it's potato quality.

I do have a small assortment of parts (barely visible in the packaging in this old picture). Asked for these when I bought my Pro II from Datahand (I saw their future...). Send me a picture of the part you're looking for and I'll check if it's in there.

Ok some photo's. The first picture is of the left side of the keyboard with all the switches in place to show where the switches are located and how they are orientated on the keyboard. The 2nd picture shows the broken part on the left. A similar part that isn't broken in the middle and another similar part that isn't broken showing it assembled with the finger tab in place on the right.

The broken part is now a little mangled because as a last resort I sent it to be plastic welded but the part was simply too small for any kind of success.

Thanks for taking a look.

mmmmh my pictures didn't show.... how do you add pictures?

Don't see any uploaded or external pictures in your post.
Edit your post and click the Upload attachment tab, or click the Img button if you have an external url for your pictures.
No hurry, I'm out and can check tomorrow.

ok the pictures are showing in the thread now. The image size was too large had to shrink them...

Ok I'll check and let you know tomorrow. I see some black parts in the bubble wrap, let's hope that's it.

That would be great thanks a lot. fingers crossed

You might also try asking at Geekhack.

Check out https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41422

Bingo.

I checked out geekhack.org and thanks for the suggestion. That's quite the project they've got going on there. Although the Datahand replica they are working on is based on the mechanical design of an authentic datahand the parts are their own design and differ slightly in size and shape. So just by looking at the pictures I can see that the replicas corresponding part wouldn't fit the authentic one.

Reading the thread did give me the idea that perhaps if I'm unsuccessful at finding a replacement part that I may be able to do a 3D model and have the part 3D printed. I have had some experience with 3D printing in the past, however I found the quality of the print to be pretty rough and much weaker than an injection moulded part. That said I do believe that 3D printing has leaped forward in resolution and the quality and variety of materials that can be printed since then. Might be worth a shot.

Thanks

@Webwit I literally just wrote that last post then came back to the thread and your picture appeared in all its glory yay... I'll send you a private message...