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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: doub on Fri, 24 January 2014, 07:08:23
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I'm almost ready to send a custom keyboard design to a laser cutting company. I've been using the following resources for dimensions of Cherry MX switch cutouts, and for stabilizers:
http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/key/mx.htm (http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/key/mx.htm)
Basically the slot for each stabilizer has a little width (bottom) that is 0.12 in, a large width (top) that is 0.262 in, and a length that is 0.53 in.
However I haven't been able to find Cherry stabilizers so far, so I bought some from WASD Keyboards. They're not branded Cherry, and they don't look like the stabilizers in the Cherry MX datasheet, so I'm assuming these are not Cherry stabilizers. I just received them, and they are 3.15 mm / 0.125 in wide and 13.75 mm / 0.5415 in long. Slightly too big, but since it's plastic they may fit and maybe are slightly oversized by design.
So my question is, are WASD stabilizers designed for standard Cherry MX backplanes? Or do I need to use other dimensions for the stabilizers cutouts? I'm ready to send the DXF to my laser cutting house, but I can still do last minutes changes.
Also would other stabilizers (I'm just looking for cheap and easy to source ones) fit into the Cherry footprint?
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The stabilizers from WASD are costar stabilizers.
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1) Are WASD stabilizers designed for standard Cherry MX backplanes?
2) Or do I need to use other dimensions for the stabilizers cutouts?
3)Also would other stabilizers (I'm just looking for cheap and easy to source ones) fit into the Cherry footprint?
1) No, WASD uses Costar stabilizers, not Cherry ones.
2) You will need different dimensions for the Costar stabs.
3) AFAIK, for Cherry MX, there's only a few types of common stabilizers: Costar and Cherry. On older Cherry boards I've seen, there was Costar-esque stabilizers with the inserts and wires fitting into the inserts. But I haven't seen many other styles.
There might be Costar dimensions in the GH CAD Resources hub.
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1) No, WASD uses Costar stabilizers, not Cherry ones.
2) You will need different dimensions for the Costar stabs.
3) AFAIK, for Cherry MX, there's only a few types of common stabilizers: Costar and Cherry. On older Cherry boards I've seen, there was Costar-esque stabilizers with the inserts and wires fitting into the inserts. But I haven't seen many other styles.
Thanks for the answers.
There might be Costar dimensions in the GH CAD Resources hub.
I'll have a look, but they are simple enough, just a rectangle cutout for each.