any ideas on making the pcb board look nice? i'd want to eventually fill in the holes (that i don't use) and paint it black (or something, spay can?).
it's good to keep it on to suck up the dustPcb cutting should be done outside. Pcbs are made of Formaldehyde. You don't want the dust airborne in your house.
Pcb cutting should be done outside. Pcbs are made of Formaldehyde. You don't want the dust airborne in your house.
But good work so far.
Yeah, how about a thin piece of some kind of plastic to fit in between key caps and PCB so the PCB is covered up. So you'd cut out gaps for the keycaps and top of the switch to fit through, fit the plastic on top of the switches sans keycaps and then put on the caps.
Might be too hard to do with just a dremel tho, if there is somewhere you can get it cut that'd be easier maybe.
It might be that the element in the iron is on it's way out, this would cause it's temperature to fluctuate.
Wires need some time to heat up depending on their thickness. I've soldered some 1.5mm wires once, but those take quite some warming up even with a 50W soldering station.
Best is to leave the temperature at its default setting so you don't unnecessarily burn the flux in your solder, just wait a little longer for the wire to heat up before applying solder.
Obviously, this won't work if you are soldering short wires with sensitive components on the other side.
i doing thin wires 24 gauge i think, and i can't get them to heat up cut to like 2in length, i'll try again soon, setting up my "work area now"Those should heat up in no time, even if you have just a 30W soldering iron to work with (check the soldering station, it should be on there).
unrelated but a project i want to do laterShow Image(http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/6955/sneakpeakl.jpg) (http://img843.imageshack.us/i/sneakpeakl.jpg/)
think i'll use "claw grip"
That's a staggering amount of work you've put into that D: It looks amazing
*glances in the direction of her two dead MS 4000s, then down at her G80-8963*
If only I wasn't sure that any attempt I made at something similar wouldn't be doomed to horrible failure >.>; That and it really is pretty daunting D:
You do realize, though, that the ultimate version of this mod would be to order some odd colored LEDs and get some doubleshots that worked for backlighting XD Well, maybe not quite ultimate, since that would need laserz and the ability to fly /nod. But it would be quite neat.
Maybe in v3? =P
Do you think it would be possible to re-use the 4000's keycaps (probably would require cutting up some MX keycaps for the stem attachment and epoxying to 4000 caps)?
But what would you want to repurpose the ms 4k keycaps for?
If i had to repurpose any of them i'd try the g15 since they are for backlight and for illumination but that would take a lot of work and it won't look as nice since the g15 stems are wider than cherries so you'd have to essentially cut off the g15 stems and glue on cherry stems but then you'd have a big glue splotch on your illuminated key so that would defeat the purpose of it looking nice
lanx, you're an inspiration.
those slabs of fiberglass are turning into art :)
question i have for myself is... do i want a ps3 keyboard? look at the joystick! it actually fits moves nicely, i'm on the fence here.
Show Image(http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3985/breadboard.jpg) (http://img89.imageshack.us/i/breadboard.jpg/)
Show Image(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8861/headeryh.jpg) (http://img695.imageshack.us/i/headeryh.jpg/)
Show Image(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1223/wiresi.jpg) (http://img263.imageshack.us/i/wiresi.jpg/)
is that gap between the space bar and the main block *just the right size*, or would it be even better a slightly different size?
So the doubleshots improve the typing experience?
Amazing mod but something boggles me: what is left of the original keyboard after such a mod, besides the wrist rest? Say, you could have taken a Belkin Ergoboard (also split) and end with basically the same mod no?
It's an honest question: you didn't keep the original keycaps (like the big ALT keys) and it's kinda hard to see what is left of the original board!?
I've been wondering this too. I have an Ergo 4k (unopened) in my closet waiting for this kind of mod, when I can find some cherry blues cheap. But I also wonder - after this amount of work, would it be better to just go with a custom-made case? Machined metal for the base, thick fiberglass layup for the top maybe? I know that's more work, but it really does appear that there's not much left of the original keyboard. I'm curious, since I plan on doing this same thing someday.
If you notice the ergo 4k has a 15 degree incline which is why it feels so "natural" meaning that the two "splits" curve toward the center. Look at the ergo 4k at eye level from the wrist wrest to the function keys and you will see that there is a slope in the middle and you can see how difficult it has been trying to preserve that slope, it takes like 5 well placed screws for each half to replicate that curve.
3. inward slope
no i've never used a kinesis, because i was not interested in "changing my habbits" while it'd be interesting for me to try, preserving my muscle memory was more important and less time consuming in my mind (i've used the ergo 4k for 6 years?)
I *hate* when keyboards have non-iso layouts, like when the enter key is double sized and the backslash goes to the right of a now-tiny right shift key. That really messes me up.
So going to a kinesis is not an option for me either.
Hold on. The ISO layouts are the ones with the large enter key and the backlsash to the right of the tiny *left* shift key. I think you ment to say you DO like non-iso (ie ANSI) layouts.
I have solved the muscle memory issue accidentally: I learned Dvorak on the Kinesis, but never bothered with it on flat keyboards / laptops. This helps me switch from Dvorak to QWERTY very easily (by switching keyboards) and works the other way around too, when I think QWERTY, I am expecting a standard ANSI layout.
It's hard for me to type Dorak on a standard keyboard, and even harder to type QWERTY on the Kinesis!
So I'm dealing with 2 very distinct, very different layouts, and there is no chance of confusion!
@Lanx - you've used the ergo4k for 6+ years? How do you like the modded versions? Which one do you like better? (standard or grid layout)? Where'd you get all the donor switches?my grid/matrix is still not fully modded, i think if i want to finish it, i'm going to have to scrape a few features (it was very ambitious) but "testing" the grid it sorta just feels the same as standard stagger i guess (of course i really couldn't say for sure)
Show Image(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/8664/inwardslope.jpg)
that's the slope i'm talking about.
Why won't MS just make us a Cherry board!? I'm sure we'd be willing to pay for it.
Dammit, Lanx... now you have me wanting to break out the solder-sucker. I think it would be pretty rad to try to get the keys at the same offsets as the Natural... it would be a lot of work, though.
I'm way too lazy for this crap. Why won't MS just make us a Cherry board!? I'm sure we'd be willing to pay for it.
remember it's also not about the dremeling and plastic cutting out and remolding, you also have to find a suitable way to make it work, the current msergo 4k controller has like so varnish on the contacts that i couldn't figure out how to solder or connect wires to so i had to use an old school logitech keyboard i had lying around (the controller board had exposed pins), i'm sure a teensy board would work well as well, lots of GH'rs have used that controller. (i was just repurposing keyboards i had lying around).
low vertical or low as in depth? ctrl/win/alt stagger down i guess i just liked the way it looked and depth, because well the other keys are just raised on that stop that by the time they meet in the middle it's really high.
good lord, now i'm testing each switch individually, i think i like the fabricating portion much more...The devil is in the details.