Foam Box Mount Keyboard Experiments?

[kulaan]

Just wondering if people have considered a mounting system like this:


Just looking at all the gasket/rubber o-ring/burger/isolation mount customs that are out there and all the dampening material that either people are DIY adding to their keyboards (in some cases manufacturers offering as a case option), and was wondering if this is a viable construction method.
This makes case construction and milling a little simpler and cheaper since its quite literally a just a box filled with foam and/or rubber/gasket type material.

Some other benefits is that the entire plate/pcb assembly is evenly suspended across the span of the keyboard. Typing feel consistency is usually caused by hard mounting points, prime example in tray mounts. But even in gasket mount or burger mount, the perimeter is not flexing as much as the center. And the plate cutouts geometry is inconsistent especially around modifiers. There are some designs that try to mitigate this with relief cuts. With the entire plate/PCB suspended by foam or similar material, there are 0 hard(er) mounting points that might lead to a more consistent feel across the entire board, regardless of plate design.

Downsides might be over deadening of the sound which might result in an "lifeless" board, but maybe messing around with case material type or thickness or isolation/dampening material shape and hardness might be something that can affect it negatively or positively and adjusted to get desired output.

I guess the main idea is if something like this can get a similar feel and sound to isolation mount keyboards but with simpler construction methods that require less CNC time.

Thoughts?

[fpazos]

I can't see the advantages over gasket mount and with everything completely resting on foam it will loose over time or be very wobly from the begining. At least that's my impression.
Despite that for an ultrasilent keeb it is worth the try. Do you plan on using several foam layers? Do a 3d printed prototype if you have a printer before going cnc.

Enviado desde mi Redmi Note 7 mediante Tapatalk

[Findecanor]

Swill tried something like that a long time ago. You could ask him.

[Leslieann]

It will not perform how you think, in fact it's the exact opposite.
Switches near the edge will have far more movement than those in the middle, edges only have to squish what is nearby, center needs to squish everything, meaning they will feel stiff. If you want an example of this, put a long board on your bed and press the ends vs the center you will see what I'm talking about. When you press the ends, it sinks and the other side comes up, if you press the middle the entire thing has to compress with it. Unless it flexes, but that brings a bunch more issues.

There is no way to actually dampen all of them equally without cutting the plate and pcb or using gimbals or suspension arms... If you want suspension you need a very different design. This whole idea of dampening the pcb and plate is just a bad idea. Gasket mount is meant to isolate sound and vibration, not provide a cushion for your hammering, that is the job of the switch.


By the way OP.
Don't support the PCB and the plate, support one or the other. They become over-constrained and instead of moving as one they can be forced to move independent.