Kinesis/MsErgo4k Transplant V3

[Lanx]

So the kinesis is great, but of course it can be improved, long story short i'm gonna put 2 kinesis keywells into a msergo 4k and make it tenkeyless, heck i might even make it 87key and hack off my venerated 2x3 and arrow cluster (to be decided, when i feel like it). Again this is a photo journal so others can look and take what they can, i might be cutting off stuff i've already done in my previous v1 and v2 but i'll try to document as best i can like i have with my v2, initially it won't be such a quick start, i'm still waiting on a few items and i "should" finish my v2 first, but this mod will not be crazy, i no longer have any real need for macro's so a g15, while sounding good, just isn't so great, i have no idea what i'll do for a controller if i'll reuse the current kinesis or not, or go with a teensy learn as i go option, it'll evolve like always, stay tuned.

[Lanx]

just need to disinfect this



the inside of the kinesis, this is different than the other classic i have, guess they have various sub models.


how i plan to configure it, i guess i'mma gonna go into the f1 keysection for the keywells, that seems to be the best placement


just got my clear donor board gonna use the clears and the pcb board for modding


i have the crappy camera (finace' still has the good one) so you really can''t see the nasty all that well, trust me, it's gross

this must be years and years of crud in between, it's just disgusting


maybe upclose we can see how nasty it is




yes i had to use gloves, it just made me feel nasty touching it! dear lord



trusty old timer denture cleaning foam at work



desoldered and sanitzied pcb board and bag of clear cherries (yea it's gonna be a pain to rip em out and put in clears soon)

i actually have a lot of cherries for this project, i have 2 kinesis that are ready to be modded (i guess thats like 80ish browns x2) and an entire board of clears and a pcb, so now i finally have everything.

here's a final pic of the keywells (dentured cleaned keycaps also) along with how i want it positioned.

[Lanx]

i've decided to reuse the controller board in the kinesis for a couple of reasons.
1. i don't want to learn how to use a teensy, i'm lazy and a horrible programmer
2. the kinesis controller has solder joints, i can just solder leads on to these at will.
3. the kinesis controller is pretty nice... so why change it.

cons.

i'm using 3 kinesis classics so while they're all programmable they ain't go no "windows" key which i actually use (to position windows) so... is there a way to get this with programming? does ctrl+esc= fake windows key to the controller?
still gonna use the controller, i'll find room for it in the msergo4k, i had pics but um... kinda lost them due to my forced 2 vacation, heh, they were cruddy camera phone pics anyway.

[Lanx]

currently i'm using the hollowed out bottom portion of my v2 mod to "fake mount" whatever that's called, the keywells, using zip ties and stuff, i have expanding foam, maybe i'll try a bit of that... but i remember it was kinda messy to clean up (but easy to peel off of cardboard for some reason).

[Lanx]

trying some pre hacking for now using the kinesis case, might as well, and if it works out well... might go this route.

[Input Nirvana]

The Kinesis top case has a ton of possibilities. Do a lot of visualizations, if you can overcome the limitations of the bottom case, the options are many. I've just re-opened that can of worms due to the increased ability to mold a bottom case ideas from this thread:http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:23722

[sordna]

i'm using 3 kinesis classics so while they're all programmable they ain't go no "windows" key which i actually use (to position windows) so... is there a way to get this with programming? does ctrl+esc= fake windows key to the controller?

The Kinesis Advantage as well as the Classic (I just tried it) has 2 Windows keys tucked in the Keypad layer. Just enter the Keypad layer and you will find that PrintScr is the left Windows key and Scroll Lock is the right. You can remap them to the main layer by starting the programming while on the keypad layer, then hitting Scroll Lock for example, then hitting Keypad to go to the main layer, and finally hitting the destination key you want to assign the Windows key to.