[COMPLETED] Laser Cut Prototyping mini-GB

[Muirium]

Right, I misunderstood the geometry of your design. Bowls are cunning, too, but even more incompatible with tall caps. DSA is definitely for you.

Tipro caps are fine for their intended purpose: ringing up sales and punching stock numbers. But for typing, I always go for more traditional caps. Thankfully Tipro boards are compatible with all my favourites, in the MX world.

[fart_toast]

Right lads, Matty wants to see your work. So here's where I'm at with the shiny one:

Sphericals, accept no substitute.

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Matteo's 2nd generation design, with its hidden bolts, really brings caps right to the fore. The look when you're using the keyboard is a wall of caps. Pure minimalism. About a kilogram of it, underneath!

Still shiny:

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Of course, still no stabs yet either. And row 1 wasn't quite complete when I shot those. Here it is now:

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And the side view, of the compartment for Bluetooth ambitions to come:

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Space Saver, achieved!

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Shinier on the underside than anyone sensible likes theirs on the top.

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It's truly my kind of keyboard! It's currently my main one, in fact, thanks to a bit of Soarer Inside. I'm really thoroughly chuffed with how it's turned out, and owe a deep thanks to Matt3o once again. Magnifico!

In my opinion, one of the sexiest KB's i've seen. Hoping a poker 2 with round 5 caps will come up similar!

[Muirium]

Thanks. Those tall SA profile caps are the magic ingredient. They make a 60% look real tight. Their height kind of compresses the view of the keyboard, like skyscrapers in Manhattan. I reckon they'll do the same thing with a Poker, and so long as you get the right set, Round 5 should be compatible.

HONEY/SIXTY and a standard (6.25 unit) space bar should do the trick.

[ماء]

Muri,How feel on SA than DCS regular,or DSA if you have also,intereset SA or DSA but afraid not suitable for me

[Muirium]

Well, they all feel a bit different. But I don't find it difficult typing on any of them. The main thing I notice with SA is the spherical shape. Your fingers touch a round cup shape on the top of the caps, that's curved like the inside of a sphere. DCS is cylindrical, like my IBMs, and only curves left to right instead.

A bigger difference is row profiles. DCS and SA caps are taller towards the back of the keyboard, and their tops slope forward. ESC is a taller key than RETURN, which is flatter on top. They change height to make this shape:

Those are SA. DCS does the same thing, but without the spherical shape on top of the caps.

DSA is different because it is flat right across the keyboard. There's still a spherical surface on top of each of the keys, but they point straight up. Typing on DSA might be a bit more like typing on a laptop's flat keyboard. I don't know. I'm still waiting on my first DSA set (DSA Dolch) showing up here.

As the picture shows: SA is quite tall. It will raise your keyboard up in height a bit. I don't mind it, but maybe some people notice. It certainly looks better to me!

All these different caps should work fine on whatever MX switch keyboard you like. And all of them are nice in their own way. The real thing to look out for is getting the layout right. That counts for all caps.

[Broadmonkey]

So yeah, I "finished" my board.

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Well, actually it has been assembled for 2½ weeks now, and has served as my main keyboard since, but I still have to do something about the stabilizers (it might be I just hate Costar stabilizers), figure out what I should do to the bottom part of the case and add some LEDs (but that can wait).

[matt3o]

ah finally! don't worry about the stabs. Just file them a little where they hit with the stem!

and post your finished work!

[Broadmonkey]

It's mostly just the spacebar stab holes I have to file, the rest I have to figure out how to remove the annoying rattling sound you get from costar stabs. Maybe a dab of glue on the underside of the stabs will reduce it some.

[mtl]

Looks great, Broadmonkey!

I had to file a couple of stabilizer clips as well (space and right shift), because the sliders were rubbing and squeaking. The holes should probably be 0.5-1mm higher (at least for the design I had cut) for better alignment.

[Muirium]

Next round I'm going either Cherry mount (I have some PCB mount stabs already and Kbdfr might even be selling plate mount Cherry stabs soon) or entirely stab-free. I like small keys better anyway, but a purely sub 2.0 unit layout is harder to achieve while staying compatible with cap availability.

The main key I'm likely to want stabilised is of course the space bar. I've ordered 3.0, 4.0, 4.5 and 6.25 unit space bars in Round 5 (because I'm a total loony for the Honeywell colour scheme and SA profile) so I'll have a few tasty options available, once the caps show up. But for purity's sake I'm also exploring smaller keys.

And a new case design I'm working on…

[matt3o]

Looks great, Broadmonkey!

I had to file a couple of stabilizer clips as well (space and right shift), because the sliders were rubbing and squeaking. The holes should probably be 0.5-1mm higher (at least for the design I had cut) for better alignment.

I agree the holes need to be 0.5mm higher, in fact I already updated my designs. even though admittedly I strictly followed the costar specifications.

[mtl]

Did you guys ground your cases?

I'm getting light shocks from it once in a while and don't know if the case is shocking me or if I'm shocking it, or if grounding it (if one of the screws through a PCB isn't doing that already) would even make a difference. I suppose it's not too surprising, though -- everything metal around here shocks me these days.

[Muirium]

I always thought "mtl" was short for metal…

My case is earthed via the USB cable back to the computer. The outside sheath of the USB jack is a fifth conductor in all USB cables, running along the outer inside layer of the cable for shielding. Try continuity testing your case with your USB jack.

That's not to say an earthed case can't give you shocks. I'd look at your carpet for that!

[matt3o]

hm, that's weird. (also it seems UK says to earth, US to ground). anyway you have a lot of circuitry in your board, maybe that rises the amperage and chances of light shocks.

ground should go to your PC via USB... but it might be just that it is very well grounded and the keyboard is grounding YOU if you have sneakers or a carpet (as Muirium says).

[Muirium]

also it seems UK says to earth, US to ground

Whoops, didn't even notice I was using a different term! Sorry about the potential confusion. The British phrase does not work when on other planets, and neither phrase works when on planes! Ho hum.

[mtl]

Yeah, I think it is grounding me. There is so much static electricity around here, each time I touch an appliance I get a shock. Once I grabbed the refridgerator, got a shock, and my PC (on a separate circuit even) spontaneously rebooted, and when it started up again a hard drive had failed. So now I have a pretty good surge protector on it. I guess this is just one downside to having a metal enclosure. Thanks for the feeback, guys.

[matt3o]

is the PC well grounded?

[mtl]

I'm not sure. It's an older building and the AC power has only two wires, which I think means there is no neutral. How are AC circuits typically grounded?

The static electricity only seems to be an issue during the colder months.

[matt3o]

wow... PC AC without ground?

isn't it something like this?

[Muirium]

No, no, that's crazy English talk, Matt. Only here does every single plug socket have 3 pins, guaranteed (well, except for the little ones for electric shavers in bathrooms). I thought Italians have 2 pin plugs, too? The adapter I used when travelling there was 2 pin, I recall.

[matt3o]

we have 2 and 3 pin plugs. All PC plugs have ground. All high wattage appliance have 3 pins (dish washer, hairdryer, etc...). The bed light has 2.

I've been recently in US for one month and they have 2 and 3 as well. I bought the MBA over there and the AC has 3 pins.

[Muirium]

I'm not a huge fan of our monstrously bulky plugs (an 8-way power splitter is as wide as a chest of drawers here) but their consistency is nice. No need to ever think about what kind of plug you're using.

Although the inability to yank them out by the wire in an emergency is daft. Not only are the 3 pins all deep and chunky, but the cable always comes off the head at 90º here, so you have no leverage.

[matt3o]

I must say that UK plugs are particularly... fucked up

gosh... really?!



vs Italian



plug it any side

[Muirium]

Look what it does to Apple's power bricks:

Our plugs are far off to one end of the size spectrum. And everything has them, from battery chargers and LED desk lamps to washing machines, power tools and desktop computers.

[damorgue]

What freaks me out the most is that American plugs don't appear cover their connectors at all. Notice the white insulated part of the pins prevents any live metal from being exposed? Only the tips of the pins are left uncovered, It prevents incidents like the one below, or stupid people attempting to remove the plug by inserting a knife or something conducting behind the plug as a lever, or simply children playing with it for that matter.



Sorry for somewhat offtopic rant.

[kint]

Well in all aspects the german Schuko system seem to have done it just right:


Can be used 180° twisted, can be pulled with the cord, comes in flat sideways facing, or straight variant, sits in the socket so nothing can fall behind the plug closing contact, protective-earth connection rushing ahead of neutral/line connection. Also: Europlug compatibility: check.

[damorgue]

That one is the same in all Euro countries, except for France who has an almost identical one except it is 0.5mm smaller which means that any appliance we bring will have to be forced a little. Grrr

[Vierax]

Well, since I play bass, I am concerned about electric shock and noise reducer Faraday cages (shielding with copper tape for the simple mics enclosure)

The most important thing is not to trust your earth, especially in an old house/building (old norms are dangerous in mixed electric installations). In some cases, this third plot is connected to nothing or bad earthed and can gives you an electric shock if one device is shorted or delivering current into earth (IMHO that's what happens in mtl's description)
Don't play the role of the earth plot, install at least one residual-current device with high sensitivity (≤30mA) to prevent injuries and death If you can't add this, or for nomad purpose as concert or lan party, I remember there are some RCD in AC powerplug enclosure that you can easily mount on a powerstrip.

[mtl]

Thanks, Vierax. You're probably right about the third prong being connected to nothing. I've installed a few wall switch dimmers and a ceiling light and in each case, there were only two wires to connect. No ground and no neutral. I will look into RCDs. All receptacles are GFCI but I don't know if that addresses the issue or if they're even effective without the ground and/or neutral. I'm having some other electrical work done soon (220V run) and will ask the electrician.

[ماء]

mtl your board are really nice

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