geekhack Projects > Making Stuff Together!

I want to design a custom keyboard case. How do I go about that?

(1/2) > >>

LOTA:
I'm a keyboard newbie who wants to recreate the Aperture Laboratories keyboards from Portal (2007):



The keyboard is an ANSI 104-key layout with a stepped Caps Lock key, a 6.25u Spacebar, and three indicator lights. The case is 18 inches (24.00u) left-to-right and 7.3125 inches (9.75u) front-to-back. Spacing between adjacent key groups (and case edges) is 0.50u left-to-right and 1.00u front-to-back (with additional space at the back for the logo and decorative grooves). The case has two rubber feet in the front and two flip-out feet in the back. The left and right sides are flat, the front and back sides are rounded, and there is a visible seam around all four sides where the top and bottom halves of the case meet in the middle. I want the keyboard to support full NKRO over both USB and wireless.

I've made a 3D model of the case's external shape in Blender based on the in-game model. I want to go from that to a 3D STEP-file suitable for injection-molding, but I don't know what the internals should look like or even how thick the plastic should be. In my research I've found a few different ways to build a keyboard, and I'm not sure which would be best. I feel like my preferred option out of the ones I've seen would be a hot-swappable PCB so I don't have to deal with soldering and wiring, but I haven't been able to find a pre-made ANSI 104-key PCB with the correct spacing of the keys and indicator lights and a stepped Caps Lock key and wireless and USB options, which means I would need a custom PCB as well as the custom case, presumably increasing the cost.

Does anyone here have resources on how to go about designing a case? Do I need to design the PCB before even starting on the case? Are there better options that I've overlooked? Are there other factors I need to consider that I haven't come across yet? I very much appreciate any guidance you can offer.

udller:
you  could easily buy a white cherry g80-3000 and paint it and engrave the groves. seams like a lot cheaper and easier and a better quality experience ?

think the caps lock could be desoldered and moved to stepped if really needed maybe?

Leslieann:

--- Quote from: LOTA on Tue, 13 August 2024, 12:14:43 ---I want to go from that to a 3D STEP-file suitable for injection-molding, but I don't know what the internals should look like or even how thick the plastic should be.

--- End quote ---
For low volume, especially one off's, it's actually cheaper to have it milled out of aluminum (and even paying a pro painter) than to injection mold, injection molding is the most expensive way to manufacture a keyboard in small volume you can choose, short of wanting some something ultra exotic like titanium/magnesium or something.

You're looking at tens of thousands of dollars just to make a mold, and then cross your fingers that it actually works properly or else you get to start over again. Without any manufacturing experience, you can VERY easily drop hundreds of thousands of dollars into the molds before you have a functional version you can sell. It's only when you want tens of thousands of keyboards and can spread out the R&D costs that R&D works. Don't forget you can't sell it without the I.P. rights for Aperture which could run who knows how much, could be surprisingly cheap or surprising expensive.

That said, you can easily look up Chinese manufacturers who make a board that is similar and pay them to make any minor changes and screen print the logos onto one they already make and have it delivered for far less money as they already have working molds (it's a standard layout for the most part). Again you'd still need the rights and you have a high chance of the them just taking your money and not delivering or start selling it themselves before yours even arrive on your shore after you paid for the stencils and such they needed. This happens a LOT and there's little chance of you recovering the money.


If you only want one, do like Udller suggested.

Findecanor:
Many people have taken a white keyboard, and put keycaps on it in that colour scheme. But I've yet to see a perfect replica case.

The Cherry G80-3000 does have the right key spacing and a stepped Caps Lock key, and the keyboard LEDs close together.
On the downside, it doesn't have N-key rollover. The space bar has the switch not in the centre, so not all keycap kits will fit --- but if you get a black keyboard, you could reuse the original space bar.
It is also a keyboard without a plate, so it is the PCB that needs to be supported inside.
Prices vary a great deal. They are not worth their price new. They used to be common and affordable on the second-hand market here in Europe.
(BTW. the G80-3000N is a completely different one.)

The shape of the keyboard case in the games seems to be a simple rectangular block.
I think the easiest way to build a one-off would be from multiple layers of laser-cut acrylic glued together, and use putty, sandpaper to finish the side edges before spray-painting it white.
There are laser-cutting services everywhere, and some makerspaces that have laser cutters: they often take DXF or SVG as input.
Glue together layers to form a distinct top and a distinct bottom. The top layer could be thinner, with the grooves cut out.
The intermediary layers could have holes for threaded inserts for bolting the keyboard together.

If you get it 3D-printed, then you might need to have it printed in multiple pieces that you then glue together. Then I think you should finish it with sandpaper, putty and paint, but all over.

You can get printable decal paper from model kit shops: be sure to get the right type for your printer (laser or inkjet).

LOTA:

--- Quote from: Leslieann on Wed, 14 August 2024, 04:50:13 ---For low volume, especially one off's, it's actually cheaper to have it milled out of aluminum (and even paying a pro painter) than to injection mold, injection molding is the most expensive way to manufacture a keyboard in small volume you can choose, short of wanting some something ultra exotic like titanium/magnesium or something.

--- End quote ---

I see. Do you have any recommendations for where to buy a custom aluminum case, or what kind of cost I could expect for that?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page