GH60 Keyboard Project

[OrangeJewce]

There's always mouser if you're in a pinch, tipo33.

Cheers,

[SmallFry]

Buy a cheap wyse PCB and I'll come solder with ya Ski. I want to try out this *****!

[fl0w3n]

Buy a cheap wyse PCB and I'll come solder with ya Ski. I want to try out this *****!

I've got one in the corner

I haven't decided yet if I want to use the possibly vintage blacks from it for the GH60, Blacks from my Filco, or Clears..

[SmallFry]

Nice part is you can change it later since we are using a phantom style plate.

[fl0w3n]

And I've got a phantom style plate on order for my Filco too

gonna be dialed in.

[komar007]

Progress update: the keyboard is sending the letter 'o' on every keypress:D
Here's a bit of test I wrote with the board and a piece of wire: ooooo

[tipo33]

Buy a cheap wyse PCB and I'll come solder with ya Ski. I want to try out this *****!

If you're serious I'm hitting eBay for a wyse board...

[SmallFry]

Yeah if you don't mind blacks in your board. I'd love to come see this thing!

[komar007]

Photos of the first working GH60 prototype:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iofr7j4p10b960c/Q61dxXH8X0

I created a separate thread just for beta testing the rev. A prototype: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=37570
When you get the boards, you can rave about what's wrong with it there;)
The boards are not error-free, unfortunately. Read more in the prototyping thread.

[SmallFry]

Awesome!!!!!

2000 posts by the way:)

[komar007]

Awesome!!!!!

2000 posts by the way:)

Congrats!:D

[i3oilermaker]

Congrats! I'm closing in on it too - when did you pass me!

[SmallFry]

When I saw you were almost to 2000, I started trolling a little...You totally detract from the OP and talk about your post count or something...

[modulor]

Nice pics, komar!

[Acanthophis]

Photos look good!
Please make the PCB for the GB also in matt finish. It looks soo good

[scoot]

Damn! I would be extremely damn interested in this. If and when this comes to fruition I will be on this like white on rice! This is quite impressive! xD

[WhiteFireDragon]

lol I like how iMav used his admin powers to edit the first post to add in his name.

[jdcarpe]

I noticed that yesterday, as well.

[alaricljs]

This project came up in conversation and he was quite interested as you can see

[jspark]

Kormar, do you have any idea how much it is going to be? I'm really glad that you guys are heading forward to GB.

[osxoep]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Excited.

[__red__]

Are the boards dispatched to beta testers yet?

[WhiteFireDragon]

Not for at least another 2 weeks. This is Komar's PM to me a week or two ago:

The reset microswitches are supposed to come between the 26th of November and the 2nd of December.
Then I can send the boards and they should take up to 2 weeks to ship.

Regards,
komar007

[mm87]

Will there be a way for us to get stabilizers + wires (especially for 7x spacebar) along with the PCBs or will we have to somehow source those ourselves?

[WhiteFireDragon]

Check with litster or alarcljs, not sure if they're willing to still make these. Getting a company to do it is very expensive. I might have to buy a wire bender to make these myself as well for a few upcoming KMACs anyways.

[mkawa]

we will probably need a few more people to buy wire benders for actual kitting. for the prototype, i think there are enough running around. frankly, it's not a large investment in money or time to bend a couple. the wire is available pretty much everywhere and inexpensive, and we can distribute a simple part number for the bender.

[__red__]

My wire Bender is a set of snub nosed pliers.

[alaricljs]

Accuracy and repeatability goes up with the right tools    The Cherry stab wires have tighter tolerances than Costar.  I find that the wire bender makes it a whole lot more likely that the 90 degree bends at either end wind up close to being in the same plane.

[fl0w3n]

What about the WASD stabilizers?

[iMav]

I have extra stabilizer kits from the Poker DIY group buy...any idea if they will work?


And...OF COURSE I am interested in this project!

[jdcarpe]

Stabilizers from WASD (Costar) will work fine with the mounting plate once that is designed and produced. Stabilizers from the Poker DIY kit (Cherry) will also work fine, PCB mounted, with or without a mounting plate (would mount under the plate, as in KMAC, etc.). Of course, both those options are only workable for layout options with a 6.25-unit spacebar. If you want to use a 7-unit spacebar layout, you will have to bend your own spacebar stabilizer wire, or maybe we can convince alaricljs to do another round of wires for the group buy.

And thank you for your interest iMav. It's reassuring to have the official "seal of approval," as it were.

[iMav]

And thank you for your interest iMav. It's reassuring to have the official "seal of approval," as it were.

I don't always have the time to keep up on everything...but, believe me, you definitely have my support.

Great work!

[mkawa]

alaric has a reliable source of cherry stabs as well

[alaricljs]

Any 2x or larger key needs a Cherry PCB mount stab... since there is no plate design yet, that's the only option.  onlinecomponents.com sells what you need in regard to 2x stabs, no one we've found sells space bar size stabs.

1/16" wire and a proper wire bender and you can make your own. 

Digikey/Mouser/Onlinecomponents.com

Mouser's are all 2x plate mount.

OnlineComponents carries the 2x PCB mount.


Then you need to figure out what to do about the space bar.

use the 2x parts and have someone make a new wire like was done for the phantoms

We haven't discussed this previously... So yeah, need stabs

[simkev]

Im very very interested
I mean, isnt this as sexy as it gets?

[7bit]

http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/hypermicro-and-hypermini-keyboard-t4185.html

Thats been posted on GH before but I believe to be completely different than what were trying to accomplish.

The main difference will be plate-mount only and more layout options including matrix layout, symmetric stagger, 1/2-stagger (7bit) and 1/4 stager (HHKB Japanese), plus the possiblility to place LEDs into the switches (don't know yet if they can be traced or must be hand-wired).

Also, there will be larger and a smaller keyboards available, plus the group buy will not start before early 2013.

Oh, I forgot the Hyper thingies are plans for a full 104 keyboard with some sort of Alps. My bad!
So yeah, those two projects are so not alike!
Stupid me...

Nope, I did think of that, but currently no plans are made for that.

Thats not what im referring to I refering to that the GH60 is a community built project and that is and idea 7bit came up with to get rid of his extras...

Can't see where the Hyper is not a community keyboard-family. I added a lot of input from others already including microswitches and pointing stick.

Long talk short:

If you want a 5x15 keyboard in conventional layout any time soon, just get the GH60. Anybody else must wait.

:-)

[vorn]

Long time voyer, first time poster - very keen!! Will be following this thread for details

Edit: Two please!!

[codymaust]

Long time voyer, first time poster - very keen!! Will be following this thread for details

Same. This thing is very promising!

[jdcarpe]

Welcome to Geekhack! x2

[SmallFry]

Well, beat me to it! Welcome to Wal...GeekHack!

[vorn]

Okay.. just read all 32 pages of this thread Up to speed and very excited!

I'm new to keyboard construction, and there may be a better place to ask this question... but since using a plate seems to be optional, what are the advantages/disadvantages of using one? I know it seems to affect the mounting of the switches and therefore what stand-offs you use.

Also, from what I gather, the Poker cases I've seen around are typically in two pieces to allow for a plate. If no plate is being used I'm assuming I can get a single-piece aluminium case made and mount the PCB with screws from the bottom?

Great forum, great project! Very enthused! 

[Tranquilite]

The plate is primarily for the stability of the switches. Cherry MX switches come in two varieties, plate mount, and PCB mount, where the only difference is that PCB mount switches have additional plastic pins on the underside of the switch which can be cut off to make them identical to platemount switches.

As for how the plate affects which kind of case you can get, I don't really know.

[vorn]

Thanks for that! Once the GB for the board happens, I'll just see what other GH60 related GB's go down and make plans from there Just with all the customisation options I'm sure I'm not the only one battling to tame their excitement and ideas!

[samwisekoi]

I apologize in advance, as I am sure the definitive answer to this question is somewhere in the 32 pages above.

If I am interpreting the current version of the OP drawings correctly, the bottom row can be configured as 1.25 x3, 6.25, 1.25 x4 as on a normal ANSI layout.

I know there was controversy about this issue, but it appears to remain true on the OP.

Can I use the normal ANSI row with seven 1.25 mods and a normal spacebar?

Thanks in advance!

 - Ron | samwisekoi

[tjcaustin]

I still want one of these, but there's just a part of my brain that's like "But you have a 60% in pieces already" because my pure has spend more time with switches disassembled and out of case than I've typed on it.  In fact, it's waiting for clears right now.

But dem 1.5 mods and a full right shift just look right.

[jdcarpe]

I apologize in advance, as I am sure the definitive answer to this question is somewhere in the 32 pages above.

If I am interpreting the current version of the OP drawings correctly, the bottom row can be configured as 1.25 x3, 6.25, 1.25 x4 as on a normal ANSI layout.

I know there was controversy about this issue, but it appears to remain true on the OP.

Can I use the normal ANSI row with seven 1.25 mods and a normal spacebar?

Thanks in advance!

 - Ron | samwisekoi

Yes, bottom row can be configured as standard ANSI. That would be 1.25-1.25-1.25-6.25-1.25-1.25-1.25-1.25.

Also as 1.50 mods: 1.5-1-1.5-7-1.5-1-1.5.

And as "lysol": 1.5-1.5-7-1.5-1-1-1.5.

[metafour]

Also as 1.50 mods: 1.5-1-1.5-7-1.5-1-1.5.

Looking forward to this.

[SmallFry]

And as "lysol": 1.5-1.5-7-1.5-1-1-1.5.

That's an intriguing layout...

[samwisekoi]

Yes, bottom row can be configured as standard ANSI. That would be 1.25-1.25-1.25-6.25-1.25-1.25-1.25-1.25.

Also as 1.50 mods: 1.5-1-1.5-7-1.5-1-1.5.

And as "lysol": 1.5-1.5-7-1.5-1-1-1.5.

Thanks!

[IvanIvanovich]

I like how the keys are on winkeyless 1800, but didn't want to loose having a Win key for desktop use and they all fit. It also let me use some of my vintage winkeyless Cherry set + 1x win and menu I have from 11900 and etc. I'm really glad it was included, and hope more people will find it good to use.