I would appreciate if u could explain better the mounting points for the o-ring on the corners of the case, I don't understand how u will make the o-ring rest on those corners without the pcb cuts
Interesting, looking forward to seeing how it's assembled. from what it looks like, the gummy worm only rests on the 4 corners, and the entire PCB is smaller than the plate assembly - seems like a new approach. Some questions out of curiosity:
- If the PCB is smaller to accommodate for the corner mounting, will the bottom row of switches have all 4 corners sitting flush on the PCB, or will the switches be somewhat 'hanging' off the edge of the PCB? I see a cutout in the case that seems like it's for the PCB to fit deeper into the case, which looks like it's a good bit overlapping the switch cutouts.
- What's the distance distance from the PCB to the case bottom, and case bottom thickness, since ~13mm is insanely low and the last approach to reach <15mm it required a hole in the bottom case. Looks like case depth is only cut out away from the edges (so maybe a benefit of the PCB size..).
Clarification on the build process would be very much appreciated... my curiosity is piqued
Thank you so much for you questions and insight. For the original implementation of this board (i.e the one shown here) I think this was a fundamental misunderstanding of a gummy worm implementation on my part. I set this board up in this way so that the four corner pieces would act as a lower limit for the pcb to rest on while the rest of the edges of the PCB/Plate assembly friction fit to the case. In theory this should allow for only four hard points on each corner of the case while allowing the alpha cluster to move freely with the relief cuts in PCB. However, this probably isn't optimal for the longevity of the PCB itself and as a result I will be re-engineering the PCB and internal mounting implementation to strictly make contact with the o-ring. I was so excited with implementing the other aspects of the product that I got over zealous and realize now that I made a mistake.
As for the clearance from the bottom of the PCB to the case there is a good 7.6mm of clearance and the median thickness of the case is roughly 6.2mm thick, curious to how problematic these values may be in the final product, a bit more clarification on these values would provide very valuable insight to me. Thanks in advance
These are some values that would be good to consider:
- A: Distance from top bezel of case to the top of the plate (this is so the case covers your switches and bottom of keycaps). To cover most caps safely, I'd aim for at minimum 7.5mm for this, but you can pass with 7mm if you don't mind a shallower look
- B: Distance from the top of the plate to the top of the PCB is 5mm. This value is fixed because of MX switch spec
- C: Standard thickness of PCB is usually 1.6mm. Can be thinner but standard PCBs are 1.6mm.
- D: Distance from the bottom of the PCB to the internal bottom of the case. You want a minimum distance to prevent switch pins from touching the bottom of the case and shorting... I think 2.4mm should be the absolute bare minimum if there's zero flex at all, 3mm+ is a good amount to aim for.
- E: Thickness of the bottom of the case at its thinnest point. Just worth noting since usually the front of the board, where the spacebar is, is where the thinnest part of the case is.
Totaling these values, ~7+ mm (bezel to plate top) + 5mm (plate top to pcb top) + 1.6mm (pcb top to pcb bottom) + 2.4mm (minimum pcb to case bottom) + ~.5mm+ (thinnest part of case) usually totals up to around at least 16.5mm - that is why most boards have a front height that is around 17+. Sorry, this is not to nitpick or backseat game as I am genuinely curious - but I can see how a 13.6mm front height is possible if you are making a semi-low profile case.
