Very nice write-up. Really enjoyed it. Will definitely be using this as reference when doing mine (hopefully soonish). I'm hoping though at some point I can fit mine with a solenoid as I think that would be bad ass.
P.S I love the powder coat job on it. Keep coming back to look at it.
I've got a solenoid from a 3178 - debated getting a driver for it from xwhatsit and using it instead of the buzzer. Now that I have had some time to really use the board, with the buzzer and without - I actually find the buzzer super distracting. The clicks from the keys I'm used to and love - but that additional beep just throws off my rhythm.
Thanks for the comments. I’m sure they’ll be helpful when I try to get mine up and running. I’ve signed up for the SF Techshop class on sandblasting and powdercoating in 2 weeks, so I’m hoping I can do that myself, in some nice blue color. Then I’m going to try to laser etch this logo back down to the metal color:
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/TMfu6JZ.png)
(So it’ll be silver on blue instead of blue on white, but you get the idea.)
That would actually be very cool! Maybe after etching, mask off that area in the square shape and clear coat it to protect the metal.