geekhack
geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: BLJ Consulting on Tue, 25 December 2012, 13:16:36
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Hi guys, these components are called modular housings, I guess back in the day they were used when membrane switches were replacing mechanical switches and OEMs wanted to use the same keycaps. Various sizes and spacers enabled a way range of custom layouts.
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These are the housings, they are molded from ABS.
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These are the housings with the plunger in them. Plungers are molded from POM. Keycaps press fit onto the plungers, the bottom of the plungers has a round planer contact surface. The plungers float freely in the housings.
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The housings have interlocking features so they can be arranged in a variety of shapes. They’re almost like the Lego of keyboard components and as such the enthusiast community can probably imagine the most interesting applications. They can be surface mounted or you can mill/route/dado a simple channel to accommodate more complex mounting arrangements. Small wood screws or machine screws (#4) bite into the thru holes reasonably well.
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I thought this might be of interest if you have a few (thousand) new keycaps you need to organize, store or display or even if someone wanted to do some sort of rubber dome retrofit.
You’ll be able to buy the 3 position housings on the SP website in the new year.
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I can already see some crazy wall-hanging keycap art using these and the crap bags.
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AHA! I knew we would solve crosswords with keycaps one day!
On a serious note, what are they going to cost us? They would be perfect for creating sandblasting trays (for when your ABS keycaps get shiny)
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If we can get the POM inserts alone (and in bulk), then a piece of Acrylic or wood and a drill-press would result in a really nice display board.
I'll be watching for these! Thanks for posting.
- Ron | samwisekoi
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Agreed Ron. I think that would be the superb.
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pricing is tbd, i guess it would be more expensive than storing your caps in a ziplock bag but less costly than buying a dedicated tray or enclosure.
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Definitely cool. Would love one scrabble size, probably have enough caps to play it!
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If we can get the POM inserts alone (and in bulk), then a piece of Acrylic or wood and a drill-press would result in a really nice display board.
I'll be watching for these! Thanks for posting.
- Ron | samwisekoi
Hi Ron, i'll have to look into that in Jan, but it seems possible. A couple of things to keep in mind
1- the inserts are not circular on the outside, they have fingers that both clip into the housings and prevent clocking. I'm sure they could be forced into a circular hole but then you would probably not have any anti-clocking feature
2-the housings have thru holes for mounting so you can snap them together then mount (lets say) 12 caps with only 2 moderately precise holes giving very good x,y location of the keycaps vs needing to drill 12 quite precise individual holes. as you may have gathered i'm not a craftsman...
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Definitely interested!
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rare earth magnets in the base, plus something like this might be fun:
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/
Lots of ideas :)
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Would definitely be awesome as keycap holders!
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These are up on the keycapsdirect site now. Thanks for the interest in them and to those who have already ordered some.
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Kudos on the website redesign. Looks awesome.
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I really like the url, it's pretty pimp
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i had zero input on the site redesign, hence it's successful launch. I'll pass your compliments along to M though, thank you.
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These are up on the keycapsdirect site now. Thanks for the interest in them and to those who have already ordered some.
I ordered a 6-Pack just to try them out, but I'm thinking I could use these for a whole set. We'll see.
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Anybody have a review or any feedback on these?
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I tried them and they work as advertised, but given that they are 1x3 they can't really be used for a full set of key caps. They work great for novelly 1x1 key caps, but it'd be too expensive to buy enough to setup for a full set. You'd be using one block just for a modifier for example.