| Design | PCB | Plate |
| Phantom | Done | Done |
| Universal TKL Plate | N/A | Done |
| QFR | Done | Done |
| Filco TKL | Done | Done |
I'm very interested in all of this
I'm very interested in all of this
Can you post a pic of all the internals of ypur QFR, due to the various production batches I am a little confused.
If you do this, make sure the QC is better than ali did on his acrylic case.
Just my $.02
Was there a smaller PCB that had the mini USB connector or was it on the main board?I'm very interested in all of this
Can you post a pic of all the internals of ypur QFR, due to the various production batches I am a little confused.
Anything specific you want pics of? I think it's the same as the rest, just single sided.
Was there a smaller PCB that had the mini USB connector or was it on the main board?
Was there a smaller PCB that had the mini USB connector or was it on the main board?
I have a filco connector on the back of the main board.
i think both of the QFR and filco have the same design on the pcb.
Was there a smaller PCB that had the mini USB connector or was it on the main board?
I have a filco connector on the back of the main board.
Which connects directly to a USB cable?
i think both of the QFR and filco have the same design on the pcb.
Was there a smaller PCB that had the mini USB connector or was it on the main board?
I have a filco connector on the back of the main board.
Which connects directly to a USB cable?Show Image(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/WhiteFireDragon/keyboard/Filcosingle-sided.jpg)
(picture stole from whitefiredragon :blank: )
So got the basic design done. It should work as a standalone case for the Phantom as well as accommodate the Phantom plates and uTKL plate.one thing that need to be aware is that filco plate have bend on the top and the bottom. But the universal plate didn't
For the case w/o the plate, only the top two layers change.
On the case with integrated plstes, it goes without saying that you can have any layout supported by the PCB cut.
For bolting, I would recommend using dome nuts at the bottom and flange nuts/rivet (Yet to decide) on the top sides, and grubs screws in between.
All layers should be 3mm acrylic.Show Image(http://i.imgur.com/ObabMbp.png)
DWG attached.
Feedback for the design is more than welcome and I would appreciate if someone checked the dimensions as well.
Ahhhhh so many sick things coming from MOZ! Hopefully this takes while so I can save some cash for it!
So got the basic design done. It should work as a standalone case for the Phantom as well as accommodate the Phantom plates and uTKL plate.one thing that need to be aware is that filco plate have bend on the top and the bottom. But the universal plate didn't
For the case w/o the plate, only the top two layers change.
On the case with integrated plstes, it goes without saying that you can have any layout supported by the PCB cut.
For bolting, I would recommend using dome nuts at the bottom and flange nuts/rivet (Yet to decide) on the top sides, and grubs screws in between.
All layers should be 3mm acrylic.Show Image(http://i.imgur.com/ObabMbp.png)
DWG attached.
Feedback for the design is more than welcome and I would appreciate if someone checked the dimensions as well.
MOZ THE BOZ :)
MOZ THE BOZ :)
You read that somewhere? When I started online with the username MOZ, "The BOZ" would be my tagline, and all the trolls said it would never catch on. :P
MOZ THE BOZ :)
You read that somewhere? When I started online with the username MOZ, "The BOZ" would be my tagline, and all the trolls said it would never catch on. :P
LOL, nope. That just felt really natural to say. Its actually very catchy, MOZ "The BOZ" Acrylic Case! Those trolls be eating their words so hard :)
something like this (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9966)?Exactly that.
Make it micro, not mini.To each his own, the problem, I understand what you mean, since the design is opensource, I will do that and not make it to a fixed specification.
Mini SUCKS!
If I were you I'd do something similar to my TEK-80, just have an area where you can screw in a breakout board that you can buy from the internet.
Make it micro, not mini.
Mini SUCKS!
Make it micro, not mini.
Mini SUCKS!
LOL, I want to go in the opposite direction. I want regular old USB - B Female like this (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/139). Nice and fat and sturdy...
I was already thinking as a project and as a way to teach myself some intro to PCB design, I might try to make a breakout board that fits that USB B connector and get some made at OSHpark. Glad to hear that you were thinking this as well MOZ and that your case design will include such.
I'm very excited for this. My phantom build will need to utilize it.
Now I just have to find a relatively inexpensive place to source polycarbonate body plates (since the face and back plates will be made by myself.
Redid the design from scratch to better match dimensions, and have a perfect fit with the WFD plates. Also used 8 degress as the tilting angle so different number of feets.
I am however confused over how to have support for mini-usb/micro-usb and usb-b port daughter boards as all have different height, specially USB-B. Maybe have two variants. I will have to just leave some area where you can drill/add holes in CAD yourself depending on what breakout board you use.
Also got measurements for QFR/So should be able to add support for that soon.
Anyone have any other requests
Redid the design from scratch to better match dimensions, and have a perfect fit with the WFD plates. Also used 8 degress as the tilting angle so different number of feets.
I am however confused over how to have support for mini-usb/micro-usb and usb-b port daughter boards as all have different height, specially USB-B. Maybe have two variants. I will have to just leave some area where you can drill/add holes in CAD yourself depending on what breakout board you use.
Also got measurements for QFR/So should be able to add support for that soon.
Anyone have any other requests
What has a usb-b daughter board?
What has a usb-b daughter board?
I just need a phantom case that allows for all keys to be used on the right side.
Redid the design from scratch to better match dimensions, and have a perfect fit with the WFD plates. Also used 8 degress as the tilting angle so different number of feets.
I am however confused over how to have support for mini-usb/micro-usb and usb-b port daughter boards as all have different height, specially USB-B. Maybe have two variants. I will have to just leave some area where you can drill/add holes in CAD yourself depending on what breakout board you use.
Also got measurements for QFR/So should be able to add support for that soon.
Anyone have any other requests
What has a usb-b daughter board?
Nothing, it was an idea that was floated, so that Filco/Phantom could have have detachable connector. I suggested mini-USB, Photekq suggested micro-USB, and whiskeytango wants USB-B
MOZ you probably will be cutting out phantom cases before i ever get the acrylic case from takaki i already paid for :(
good work
I did, but the pictures are pretty bad. I hadn't removed the protective cover too, so it wasn't in its full glory. Hopefully acantha can take better pictures when it gets to him.
With my phone cam? Really? Let me find a relatively better camera first.
Forgot to mention, I got acrylic samples for you guys, so now we can see what colors we have available and make some nice combinations.
This and all the prototyping cost me $60 today itself, so you guys better have plenty of orders ready to compensate me!
Forgot to mention, I got acrylic samples for you guys, so now we can see what colors we have available and make some nice combinations.
This and all the prototyping cost me $60 today itself, so you guys better have plenty of orders ready to compensate me!
Make sure to include the prototyping cost in the total cost. Also, will you do the 60% case and GHpad at the same time?
Forgot to mention, I got acrylic samples for you guys, so now we can see what colors we have available and make some nice combinations.
This and all the prototyping cost me $60 today itself, so you guys better have plenty of orders ready to compensate me!
Make sure to include the prototyping cost in the total cost. Also, will you do the 60% case and GHpad at the same time?
I also had a thought about this. I know you are working on the budget style case right now, but if you do a TKL case and a 60%, you could use the inside areas of the middle body pieces for the TKL to do peices for the 60% / ghpad cases as well and save some material that way. That is if you don't go only with the modular material saving design for TKL.
How thick is an assembled case, maybe it's the angle but that thing looks tall.That is actually quite tall because it is 10x3mm layers, however, the Phantom with integrated acrylic plate would be 5 layers only, Phantom with plate = 6/7 layers, Filco/QFR would be 8/9, because of that stupid controller mounted on the top of the PCB. I hate this costar design, where they have the connector at the back and controller in front, thus increasing width unnecessarily at the back of the PCB and the front. ><
And the area around the countersunk holes will it cleanup?As I said, this wasn't my regular guy so he wouldn't listen and removed the protective paper before etching, I leave it on so that the the residual powder doesn't stick to the surface when it is hot due to the laser, like it has in the pictures above.
Ooph. Great design, well executed, but not what I'm looking for.
Maybe I can hit you up on the side and see if you can help me work out a design for what I need.
I will not be purchasing one of these when they go up for sale, unfortunately, but great job, and good luck with the future GBs
I do, however before doing a GB, I want to test the 3 scenarios:
1. Integrated acrylic plate
2. Phantom plate
3. Qfr plate + pcb
All of these are in someway or another in motion, so in around 2 weeks or so, we should hopefully have a GB for these.
Ooph. Great design, well executed, but not what I'm looking for.
Maybe I can hit you up on the side and see if you can help me work out a design for what I need.
I will not be purchasing one of these when they go up for sale, unfortunately, but great job, and good luck with the future GBs
I don't believe these are meant to be for sale. This project is an ongoing refinement for people to use these files to take to their local acrylic place (or hackerspace), and build it yourself in the colors you choose. Very cool as you can have multiple colors made at once and switch out when you change out your caps ;)
Ooph. Great design, well executed, but not what I'm looking for.
Maybe I can hit you up on the side and see if you can help me work out a design for what I need.
I will not be purchasing one of these when they go up for sale, unfortunately, but great job, and good luck with the future GBs
I do, however before doing a GB, I want to test the 3 scenarios:
1. Integrated acrylic plate
2. Phantom plate
3. Qfr plate + pcb
All of these are in someway or another in motion, so in around 2 weeks or so, we should hopefully have a GB for these.Ooph. Great design, well executed, but not what I'm looking for.
Maybe I can hit you up on the side and see if you can help me work out a design for what I need.
I will not be purchasing one of these when they go up for sale, unfortunately, but great job, and good luck with the future GBs
I don't believe these are meant to be for sale. This project is an ongoing refinement for people to use these files to take to their local acrylic place (or hackerspace), and build it yourself in the colors you choose. Very cool as you can have multiple colors made at once and switch out when you change out your caps ;)
Pretty sure he's planning on doing a GB some time in the future.
Ooph. Great design, well executed, but not what I'm looking for.
Maybe I can hit you up on the side and see if you can help me work out a design for what I need.
I will not be purchasing one of these when they go up for sale, unfortunately, but great job, and good luck with the future GBs
Can you tell me a bit more about what you were looking for, maybe I can help.
As for this thread, the idea is to create a universal case or one that is modular enough so you have to make minimum adjustments to fit any of the popular TKL boards.
Since everybody doesn't have access to a cheap laser and I would like to compensate costs for the various prototyping and experiments, let alone my time, I will do a GB once I am confident about the design. However I am willing to use my access to cheap laser cutting service and acrylic to help anyone get anything they want. Just PM and we will work out the details.
I got to test this thanks to SpamRay and his special request.
Here is a new "budget" design which cuts on the amount of acrylic used drastically:Moz, please, do you have the dwg of this one?Show Image(http://i.imgur.com/pgM0GAn.png)
Basically cutting up the spacer layer into smaller parts which can interlock and then since they are all bolted, I don't know if it would really affect the sturdyness of the keyboard or not, but would cost less for sure.
Ofcourse I do, and I will upload it soon, however I am waiting on someone receiving the case and their feedback on it.It was exactly what I had in mind ...
I think we are almost done with prototypes. Thanks for the offer :thumb:
I will do a flash GB in a day or two.
I think we are almost done with prototypes. Thanks for the offer :thumb:As you wish Sir.
I will do a flash GB in a day or two.
Below $60 shipped.
I still haven't found a good source for getting alu or steel cases done. Still exploring that option.I'm kinda afraid of the acrylic plate breaking too easy - I think that I read somewhere in the forum JDCarpe mentioning his experience ...
The MOQ are crazy for alu/steel here unlike acrylic case from what I have gathered so far.
Have you thought about making a case for a RealForce TKL?
Given that the 3mm plate only holds the switches steady, this design would not lend itself to a hand wired board. Is that correct? I wanted to be able to adapt this to make whatever style board I want, including some odd contraptions. I know there is another thread related to using the lowpoly method and laser cut plates, but I didn't see any discussion of the plat thickness there.You have to hot glue the switches.
Thanks for the detailed pics. Let me know if there were ANY issues at all, I would love to get them sorted out. So that is two out the park as compatibility goes, now waiting for ray to test out the budget style with a Phantom plate.
Looks great acantha. Love that you chose a transparent top so that you can see the phantom pcb.
I'm looking to start a flash GB (End in 7 days, fulfillment in 15) in a couple of days, however, there are some road blocks, I don't want to start it and then not be able to fulfill it by the time mentioned.Hey thanks for such a quick reply! Whether it's the flash GB or the big GB, I look forward to buying some acrylic from you :D
In anycase, I will start a longer much longer (fulfillment be end of Feb) GB sometime in Nov.
No I have not forgotten it, just ran into some exams and stuff. Once they are over, I will be posting the final designs.
There will be a case only option to use with existing plates?
Bump, a request for assistance.
If I understood your request correctly you want help checking for stuff like this?
In the upper left most layout:
Column: Standard 2.25L.Shift
Row: 2.75 R.Shift / Standard 2x BackSpace)
>> The cutout for split 1--1 backspace (in green) and 2x backspace (in red) is overlapped.
If I understood your request correctly you want help checking for stuff like this?
In the upper left most layout:
Column: Standard 2.25L.Shift
Row: 2.75 R.Shift / Standard 2x BackSpace)
>> The cutout for split 1--1 backspace (in green) and 2x backspace (in red) is overlapped.
Exactly! Thanks. Anymore that you may have spotted?
Thanks a whole!
Thanks very much! This was immensely helpful!
I'll correct those and now easily swap out the bottom row and then post all the layouts.
Final revisions will be posted early next month, since right now all my energy is being spent on completing my current GBs.
What money? This is open source :P
I've setup the SVG generator, now you can generate the plate based on your choice: http://mozkb.comoj.com/TKLCase/
Right now the stab cutouts should work with Costar and both Cherry types for all plates less than or equal to 1.5mm, for thicker acrylic plates it will support Costar via gluing.
I'll add option for Cherry PCB mounted stabs for thick mounting plates later.
P.S: Generated SVG will show an error right now (But you can view the generated SVG), this is due to the added text by the free web hosting. If someone has a small server and they could lend me some resource on it, it would be excellent.
Sorry for the plane-jane layout, I'm not much of a web designer. :-/
It's conditional. It adds elements which are hard coded (Got them via SVG export) based on user choices. Alps plate will come though :)
Regarding the extra text, yeah, that is due to the free host, I am looking for a small hosting space if available from someone here.
Amazing work. One quick question, does your final design work with the phantom plate?Pretty sure that his final work here is the phantom plate.
Thanks to infiniti: http://www.moz.twisted-artworx.com/TKLCase/Nice job MOZ!
Amazing work. One quick question, does your final design work with the phantom plate?Pretty sure that his final work here is the phantom plate.
Yes, I just need to post the final design, it will work with the phantom plates.
Thanks for the detailed pics. Let me know if there were ANY issues at all, I would love to get them sorted out. So that is two out the park as compatibility goes, now waiting for ray to test out the budget style with a Phantom plate.
Hopefully soon!!! :D
Thanks for the detailed pics. Let me know if there were ANY issues at all, I would love to get them sorted out. So that is two out the park as compatibility goes, now waiting for ray to test out the budget style with a Phantom plate.
Hopefully soon!!! :D
Did this ever happen? Can I use the budget files for building one, or is it just a prototype?
Here is a new "budget" design which cuts on the amount of acrylic used drastically:Show Image(http://i.imgur.com/pgM0GAn.png)
Basically cutting up the spacer layer into smaller parts which can interlock and then since they are all bolted, I don't know if it would really affect the sturdyness of the keyboard or not, but would cost less for sure.
Will check what I have and post it, you guys can take it from there.Awesome your the best
Small update, I worked on the case files this weekend, however was occupied with some other work too so couldn't complete it. I am however on it and will soon have the files uploaded on GitHub.Eeeeeeeee
It's up! https://github.com/mohitg11/TKL-Case:D
Please let me know if there are any mistakes, so that I can correct them at the earliest.
This is great! I've been wanting to give this design a try. I have two questions/comments about the latest files.
1. The QFR controller spacer has a funny offset above the arrow cluster. I understand that area is to accommodate the controller, but the alignment looks weird. Is that right?
2. The "inner" layers seem to be using hexagons for the hole cutouts, the outer layers are using circles. Is that intentional?
Thanks for maintaining and improving on this design all these years!
This is great! I've been wanting to give this design a try. I have two questions/comments about the latest files.
1. The QFR controller spacer has a funny offset above the arrow cluster. I understand that area is to accommodate the controller, but the alignment looks weird. Is that right?
2. The "inner" layers seem to be using hexagons for the hole cutouts, the outer layers are using circles. Is that intentional?
Thanks for maintaining and improving on this design all these years!
1. I see numerous feet in the first section; is this a "pick the kind that suits" you kind of deal, or do I need all of them? I'm a bit lost here. I see the holes for the standoffs. (is there a sample image someone can show?)Sorry for making it so confusing, I should have made it clearer, basically... The large piece is required regardless of which PCB you are using. The feet spacer is only required for Phantom to accommodate the Teensy. Now, the two long pieces are required if you want to have a flat board, these can be used to balance out the positive incline by bolting these to the side close to the user. The circular ones are used to give a larger positive incline, just assemble them in a conical shape, number of layers used depends on the incline you want. I hope this clears up doubts, I'll post an illustration to clarify.
2. How is the notch for the USB plug supposed to work? The teensy has the plug on its own board. Are you accommodating people who want to add a short male to female cable here?Yes, if you see, the notch is narrow on the edge of the case outline and then expands to accommodate a SparkFun miniUSB breakout board which you can bolt down into the large feet layer (There are four small mounting holes).
3. Just to confirm, if I'm using the plate from mechanical keyboards fro the phantom, then I skip swill's tool, use the plate spacer and the spacer needs to match the plates thickness?If you use the plate from MK.com then yes, you don't need to generate a plate layer, you will however need at east one bezel layer
4. The instructions say to use a bezel, layer F. Layer F in the SVG is "QFR Controller Spacer" - G is the set of bezels. Is this an error?Yes, typo, should be Layer G for Bezels.
With regards to feet, is there a general guideline on how thick to make the feet? (aka, how much rise above the front of the keyboard is generally "correct"?People generally use 6-8 degrees, which means about 13 - 17mm.
Another option I see for feet is using the GON style feet (I have two sets coming from massdrop and can easily 3D print some more of them.)They are 12mm in height and use M4 screws. The feet layer has cutouts for a hex standoff, so the M4 screw will fit in fine. Just skip the circular feet used to form a cone and use the Alu feet instead.
Edit: forgot to also ask - how would the Phantom plate from MK fit this case? Would it just get pinched between layers?Yes, it will just be in place using friction from the layers above and below. The cutout in the space layer for the plate is according to the Universal plate made by WFD, if MK are using the same designs it should fit in quite snuggly. Also, the plate has a number of moutning holes which can also be used
Additionally, and this might be a simple question....how on earth do I correctly edit SVG files? Inkscape can't seem to make heads or tails of this - all I can do is select the entire SVG - I can't select individual vectors. Is there a better editor...or am I just missing something?You'll have to use Paths -> Break Apart and then if you want to change any of the vector lines, use the Node tool.
Is there any way to put in plate mounted stabs into a 3mm piece of acrylic?
Is there any way to put in plate mounted stabs into a 3mm piece of acrylic?
Yes, you can glue them in, but more than likely the stab wire will rub against the inside. 2mm works though (Using it with a Phantom)
But wouldn't the front part of the stab and the wire itself be in the way of the acrylic? Will I have to try and sand or cut it down there?
But wouldn't the front part of the stab and the wire itself be in the way of the acrylic? Will I have to try and sand or cut it down there?
With 2mm, I didn't face a problem, I can't perfectly recall if I had to clip something.