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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: SirClickAlot on Fri, 29 October 2010, 05:04:16
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EDIT :
IT is ready!
IT saw first light 1 November 2010.
IT is fully functional.
IT can make you decide which cherry switch( IT has 5 : blue, brown, black, red, clear arrayed in columns ) see here (http://www.mrinterface.com/content/sinklist-stk-switch-try-keyboard)
IT has been baptized The Frankenstein 1.
IT can be accessed through a sinklist. IT is lighter than 2 kilos so IT will not cost that much to ship.
If you want to have a go at it, send me your address and I'll put you on the sinklist for the STK ( Switch Try Keyboard )
Video of the sinklist item :
Other requirements :
At least 10 posts on this board.
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Thinking about hacking up a true Switch Try Keyboard. This is for people who don't have enough finger experience with the Switch Try Board. It is a full lightweight keyboard where the rows represent a major keyswitch from cherry.
So it will only have cherries and will actually be a working model :
Black
Blue
Red
Brown
Clear
1QAZ0P;/ : red
2WS9OL. : brown
3EDC8IK, : black
4RFV7UJM : clear
5TGB6YHN : blue
Rest of the keys are standard blue, clear or black. Still don't know which one would fit best.
Any ideas? Would people be interested in this? It would cost more in shipping though, but it would definitely give users a decent try before they buy an expensive keyboard.
Regards.
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I think its a good idea, though maybe a horizontally split board would be better for testing instead of having the different switch types by rows. The shipping costs might make this a bit more problematic though.
I would suggest a g80-1800 as a base, since that is under 2kg and a lot smaller with the 19inch width.
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I would definitely be interested.
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It sounds like a cool idea, but due to the amount of shipping and the fact that I've tried all of those switches except the reds, I might not. Interesting and a cool idea nonetheless.
If I were new to mechanicals I would sign up for this list in a heartbeat though, so I definitely think it's going to be popular.
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i almost think it would be better if you could figure out a word/sentence to type for each switch.
Each switch would require its own vowel.
So you could do like
Black -A
Brown - E
Blue -I
Red - O
Clear -U
Then black word could be Cacka
Brown's word could be Bender
Blue's word could be Fixmix
Reds could be Tooltop
Clear's could be Swush
You could sit down and take more time to figure out real words that dont reuse any of the same letters.
Or you could split one of them off into the numpad to free up more letters.
Could be interesting to throw a rubber dome in there for the 1-0 keys for comparison to dome if thats possible.
The quick brown fox line reuses too many letters to break it up and use that.
The quick
Brown Fox
Jumps
Over The
Lazy Dog
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Now that might be an interesting notion actually - how might such a board best simulate an actual typing experience , horizontally or vertically for each group? I tend to think a vertical division would be good because you could move your hand over by a couple keys and feel how each switch type is on each row as well.
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Maybe 4 versions ....
1. Horizontally striped cherries.
2. Vertically striped cherries
3. White Noised cherries ( no ordering at all.... )
4. Worded cherries( like Nadger pointed out )
Regards.
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Today I started (http://www.mrinterface.com/content/sinklist-stk-switch-try-keyboard) work on a vertically striped frankenstein board.
For those horizontally inclined, the numblock will be horizontally spread ;-)
Regards.
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It (http://www.mrinterface.com/content/sinklist-stk-switch-try-keyboard) is ready.( With emphasis on IT )
However :
Many keys just don't register....( something like 10 or so ) Very weird, did I mess something up during the de-soldering? Or the soldering? The solder looks pretty clean to me..
This first frankenstein keyboard is still in a position to let people try out the respective cherry switches though.
Regards.
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You didn't destroy the switch, I hope? That solder gun you are using could very well melt the internal bits, and those lifted traces you spotted are another tell-tale sign of overheating.
EDIT: Maybe a continuity tester / resistance meter might help sort it out?
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Thanx for all the tips.
My guess is I messed up on the internal electronics bits.... Some bits have diodes in them and some don't. I thought it would be uniformly spread over the board.
But anyways : The Frankenstein 1 is a true Frankenstein -> it works, but it doesn't work 100 percent ;-)
Regards.
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The only thing I would have to wonder about with trying to compare switches this way is that I have three separate keyboards that have cherry browns and all three feel different because how they are mounted.
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The only thing I would have to wonder about with trying to compare switches this way is that I have three separate keyboards that have cherry browns and all three feel different because how they are mounted.
Yeps,
And you didn't mention the keycaps. They differ as well from board to board and also have a different feeling for each.
Regards.
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You didn't destroy the switch, I hope? That solder gun you are using could very well melt the internal bits, and those lifted traces you spotted are another tell-tale sign of overheating.
EDIT: Maybe a continuity tester / resistance meter might help sort it out?
That picture of the lifted trace was a little accident with the sucker-upper-device. Some tin popped out on the board just where it was cooling and melted together with the board, I pulled it and , ouch, I pulled the trace from the board..... I fixed it though.
Also : the switches are fine, with my resistance meter I could verify that.
Regards.
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STOP PRESS STOP PRESS
I found it -> the cherry reds have diodes in them and my mother-frankenstein-board didn't have those. So I just need to short circuit a bunch of switches and it should work fine afterwards.....
Regards.
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"Short circuit" the switches?
Don't you mean that you have to replace the diodes with the plain old jumper wires? At least that's what I figured when I read you moved the diodes together with the switches.
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"Short circuit" the switches?
Don't you mean that you have to replace the diodes with the plain old jumper wires? At least that's what I figured when I read you moved the diodes together with the switches.
Yeps, that would be the 'clean' way to do it.
Since I am very lazy, a little piece of wire to shortcircuit the diode should also do the trick.
Regards.
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Yes,
Finally found the bug : the board is FULLY functional now......
Regards.
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Any Europeans interested in this? The list only needs one more subscriber to start.
This an awesome opportunity to get the feel of the cherry mx mechanical switches in a whole keyboard.
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I should probably repost this in a new topic like OMG Free Mechanical Keyboard Testing.
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Yea. Moar spamming is probably the best option.
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I do
France user here
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I'm interested too. I'm from Germany. But I dont know how many I have to pay to send it as insured package to any other country except germany.
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I dunno the exact rates, but the shipping from Hungary to Germany is about 10€.
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PM your address and full name to SirClickAlot, and tell him you want to subscribe for this sinklist.