deʃhipuLast Monday I worked a little bit more on this keyboard. I decided to start on the wiring. I did the rows, and then I decided the keys are not sitting in their holes well enough. So I decided to do what I did with my previous two keyboards -- glue the switches in place.
Unfortunately, this time I used instant glue, and applied it when the keyboard was up-side-down, so that the glue got into the switches. Sure enough, they are all glued hard, and there is no force that could budge them now. I suppose I could try removing them, opening each and cleaning, but they would never again work as well as before, and I honestly don't have any stamina left to do it.
So I'm aborting this project, with a small possibility of reviving it if I get my hands on some spare switches again.
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shame. I like the idea of a stenographer keyboard.
Perhaps it would be easier to design a PCB and solder the switches in, rather than rely on dremel'd faceplate for mounting. That alone could thin the design a bit, it isn't a huge PCB, and you wouldn't need to glue anything.
Digikey has Cherry MX switches for as little as $0.70 each in quantities of 25.
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Well, I considered using a PCB in my previous keyboards, but then I looked at the price of such a large board, and decided I can as well just wire them by hand... This one is admittedly considerably smaller than a standard keyboard, so it might work. It wouldn't save me any height though.
Thanks for the hint about digikey, I might use that if I decide to come back to this project. For now I need to take a break from it, though.
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ok, that's fine. Can I ask what you use to turn the keystrokes into whatever the computer is expecting? (I imagine that would be USB-HID, yes?)
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Yes, I planned to use a Pro Micro board with ATMega32u4 on it, and the tmk_keyboard firmware for it, just like I did in the first version of #Alpen Clack.
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Type In Peace...
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