GH60 Keyboard Project

[Sai]

I am interested in this ! although i'll need somebody to assemble all the parts to make it into a keyboard.    please forgive my noobness.

[SmallFry]

I'll assemble it if you'd like.

[naisanza]

Definitely, interested.

[Sai]

I'll assemble it if you'd like.

haha. I already asked WDF to do it for me. 

[Germiphene]

Hey I'm interested in this kit!  Putting together a keyboard is very appealing to me.  My other hobby is building Guitar tube amplifiers, so It'd be nice to break out my soldering iron for this.

[dirge]

Hey I'm interested in this kit!  Putting together a keyboard is very appealing to me.  My other hobby is building Guitar tube amplifiers, so It'd be nice to break out my soldering iron for this.

less chance of electrifying yourself with 5v too!

[Germiphene]

Hey I'm interested in this kit!  Putting together a keyboard is very appealing to me.  My other hobby is building Guitar tube amplifiers, so It'd be nice to break out my soldering iron for this.

less chance of electrifying yourself with 5v too!

Yes quite true!  no need to work with one hand behind you back.  Now thats annoying! lol

[zhuangqdcn]

Interested.

[Permeability]

What kind of tools would I need if I were interested in building this? thanks!

[jdcarpe]

You will need soldering equipment to solder the switches to the PCB. Besides that, a screwdriver to fix the PCB to the case.

[kravlin]

Ok. So people wanted copies of the stuff I'm fiddling with when it comes to graphical user interfaces. I don't have a lot due to my arch installation having some issues until tonight, but I'm still planning on sitting here and working with it.

All it does right now is create a window with a basic menu in it, and it's supposed to create 5 lines of 15 buttons (approx the size of the keyboard), but I'm having issues getting that to work (dynamic creation of buttons is interestingly difficult). I'm gonna keep playing with it either way.

I have some plans on it, so if you're interested in working with it, you can catch me either here, or on the IRC channel pretty much all day (Much to their regret.) so feel free to hit me up.

GitHub: https://github.com/kravlin/Gh60Prog

-Krav

[damorgue]

You may want to work together with alaricljs: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35322.0

[kravlin]

I'll definitely look into it.

[WhiteFireDragon]

It probably won't be another week or two until I get all the prototype boards, but in the meantime I'm looking at packaging stuff right now. Do you guys want to play it safe and have shipped inside ESD bags? The bare PCB itself don't need it, but there will be controllers and other things on there that might benefit from antistatic wrappings. And for the actual shipping, do you prefer $5.50 by USPS flat rate envelopes or $11 medium priority box? It will fit in envelopes fine, but do not have much bend or padding protection. Box cost more but won't bend and has buffer space inside for rough handling.

[IvanIvanovich]

How about get some of these and just ship them first class?

[jdcarpe]

I'd prefer a Med FRB, personally. Just to be safe.

[__red__]

I'd recommend the box.  The envelope risks the pcb being snapped in transit.

[SmallFry]

Be careful even with boxes...

[WhiteFireDragon]

Imagine what that box would look like if it was just an envelope.

I've seen worst from boxes though. I ordered a Rosewill KB from newegg one time, and the box got so beat up and damaged that the keyboard just completely fell out during transit. The UPS guy was still stupid enough to deliver me an empty box and thought that was perfectly fine.

[TheQsanity]

Write something like "FRAGILE" all over it.

[korne]

I'm very interested on this proyect!

[Rinsaku]

Nice, count me in!

[komar007]

It probably won't be another week or two until I get all the prototype boards, but in the meantime I'm looking at packaging stuff right now. Do you guys want to play it safe and have shipped inside ESD bags? The bare PCB itself don't need it, but there will be controllers and other things on there that might benefit from antistatic wrappings. And for the actual shipping, do you prefer $5.50 by USPS flat rate envelopes or $11 medium priority box? It will fit in envelopes fine, but do not have much bend or padding protection. Box cost more but won't bend and has buffer space inside for rough handling.

For those who want to solder themselves, the components are already in ESD-safe bags. So you may want to put only the soldered boards into bigger ones, but I'm not sure this is necessary.

[aggiejy]

I'm game for this

[estux]

PCB + Case + Switches + Keycaps =

How much will be the estimated budget for this? I would love to have one of those DIY keyboards.

[tradet]

Interested.

[Loligagger]

PCB + Case + Switches + Keycaps =

How much will be the estimated budget for this? I would love to have one of those DIY keyboards.

Probably around $200 with the case, caps, switches, etc included.

[jdcarpe]

PCB + Case + Switches + Keycaps =

How much will be the estimated budget for this? I would love to have one of those DIY keyboards.

All depends on how you want to build it. If you want the PCB ($35?) + a plate ($25) + a new aluminum case ($120) + new switches ($40) + new DS keycaps ($60) = $280.

Budget build with PCB mounting of switches, with no plate, used stock plastic Poker/Pure case, salvaged switches and keycaps, you could probably build one for around $100-150.

[IvanIvanovich]

I am in about $30 + pcb cost (I traded some switches for the pcb so it is like free to me) for my prototype. $20 plastic stock Pure case, $10 for a G80-11900HRMUS (was NIB too) I'm stealing the switches and caps from. Shop smart, and with some luck it dosen't have to cost very much at all.

[jdcarpe]

I am in about $30 + pcb cost (I traded some switches for the pcb so it is like free to me) for my prototype. $20 plastic stock Pure case, $10 for a G80-11900HRMUS (was NIB too) I'm stealing the switches and caps from. Shop smart, and with some luck it dosen't have to cost very much at all.

Same story here for my prototype board. Using a stock Poker case from one I replaced with an aluminum imsto case. PCB mount switches and caps from a broken Compaq MX-11800 I salvaged from the trash bin at a job.

[The_Beast]

Idk if this is bad or not but my laser guy got back to me on my custom case:

Top: $45
Plate: $11
Bottom: $35

So that's $90 just in materials before even looking at the mill or being anodized. That's at the order level of 20, to do a single prototype would be around $150 just in materials.

[jdcarpe]

I'm very interested in the case if it's $150 or less, Beast.

[The_Beast]

I'm very interested in the case if it's $150 or less, Beast.

I have no idea how much mill time is going to cost. I've contacted treble and I'm going to go to a couple milling shops around me when I go home for Christmas. A good friend of the family works at one of them, so hopefully I can get a price break their. I don't think anodizing will to too much, but it's not going to be nothing.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention that I don't think the laser guy can go past 1/2" but I'll need 5/8" for the base


Just remember that I'm really trying to go Korean custom quality for this

[Batmann]

Sounds good Beast,
Also good to know you are on it!

[estux]

Budget build with PCB mounting of switches, with no plate, used stock plastic Poker/Pure case, salvaged switches and keycaps, you could probably build one for around $100-150.

Reasonable cost.

Will the PCB support leds?

[TheProfosist]

Budget build with PCB mounting of switches, with no plate, used stock plastic Poker/Pure case, salvaged switches and keycaps, you could probably build one for around $100-150.

Reasonable cost.

Will the PCB support leds?

no leds.

[komar007]

Budget build with PCB mounting of switches, with no plate, used stock plastic Poker/Pure case, salvaged switches and keycaps, you could probably build one for around $100-150.

Reasonable cost.

Will the PCB support leds?

no leds.

Only caps lock led;)

[IvanIvanovich]

Will anything extra need to be done to use certain color led there on the caps lock? Like orange for example use less voltage usually, unless you buy specifically high bright.

[__red__]

Will anything extra need to be done to use certain color led there on the caps lock? Like orange for example use less voltage usually, unless you buy specifically high bright.

Change the value of the resistor.

[WhiteFireDragon]

Komar, while we wait for the prototypes to arrive, did you get a fully working prototype, including firmware loaded into it?

[komar007]

Yes, I have a working prototype of standard "poker" ANSI. There's nkro firmware running on it, and it's tested in linux and windows.
The layout is hardcoded in the source so far, but I have a second HID interface working, so you can change the layout in run-time.
I need to implement a sensible format of the layout, which will make fancy things possible and then writing it to flash in run-time.

[jdcarpe]

Prototype board doesn't support 2 keys where the Backspace key goes, that's coming in the final revision, but I now know what layout my production GH60 will have:

Show Image

Source:  http://www.kbdmania.net/xe/index.php?mid=photo&page=4&document_srl=5441326

[Sai]

^ same for me !! 

[samwisekoi]

Prototype board doesn't support 2 keys where the Backspace key goes, that's coming in the final revision, but I now know what layout my production GH60 will have:

Show Image

Source:  http://www.kbdmania.net/xe/index.php?mid=photo&page=4&document_srl=5441326

Cool.  So backspace will support two 1x keys and Shift_R will support 1.75-1.  Will Shift_R also support 1-1.75?

Thanks!

 - Ron | samwisekoi

[The_Beast]

Looks gross

[SmallFry]

Having a 1.75 left shift would allow for no stabilizer as well as having the ability to use a Dolch (and any other 1800 set)without any other add-on kits. I like the idea, just not the aesthetics personally. So yes Beast, I agree that it looks gross. )

[tjcaustin]

I kinda dig it as it's something different than the norm and as such makes me more willing to get yet another 60% board.

[jdcarpe]

Cool.  So backspace will support two 1x keys and Shift_R will support 1.75-1.  Will Shift_R also support 1-1.75?

Thanks!

 - Ron | samwisekoi

Yes, support for 1.75-1.0 and 1.0-1.75 at the R_SHIFT position is included.

[TheQsanity]

I kinda dig it as it's something different than the norm and as such makes me more willing to get yet another 60% board.

Will prototypes support split space bar, left and right shift?

[jdcarpe]

Will prototypes support split space bar, left and right shift?

Won't support split space bar unless you put them in some strange positions. Please, everyone, see the OP for all the layout options. They are all in the third image, outlined in different colors.