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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: obra on Wed, 17 December 2014, 17:27:16

Title: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: obra on Wed, 17 December 2014, 17:27:16

While I'm waiting for the full production prototype of my split ergo board to come back from the PCBA and CNC shops, I'm messing around with designing a 60% symmetric stagger board to (maybe) sell as a kit.

I'm trying to make sure it'll work with as many 60% enclosures as possible. Is there a universal template that shows where various 60% enclosures put their screw bosses and stabilizer fins? I'm working from the GH60 and traced copies of the TEX 60% CNC aluminum enclosure, but I know that they're not the only game in town.

-jesse

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: obra on Wed, 17 December 2014, 22:50:21

As a starting point for a discussion, I believe this to be the canonical set of dimensions for a 60% board.

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/evxj6fyebcjbi8y/Screenshot%202014-12-17%2020.49.03.png?dl=1)

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: OverKill on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:01:03

I think most 60% cases are more or less the same since the initial idea was to take a poker board w/ switches and drop it in to other cases.. and also to take other boards and drop them in to a poker case. Those are my observations.. so i guess you could consider the hole positions "universal"

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: FrostyToast on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:05:32

Quote from: OverKill on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:01:03

I think most 60% cases are more or less the same since the initial idea was to take a poker board w/ switches and drop it in to other cases.. and also to take other boards and drop them in to a poker case. Those are my observations.. so i guess you could consider the hole positions "universal"

This is pretty much the idea. Really, all you really need are the standoffs for screws and the cutout for the mini usb port.

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: obra on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:45:19

And the cutout for the dipswitches or equivalent, as well as the support fins, so you don't, say, put chips on top of them.

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: FrostyToast on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:58:12

Quote from: obra on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:45:19

And the cutout for the dipswitches or equivalent, as well as the support fins, so you don't, say, put chips on top of them.

If by "support fins", you mean what I have circled here, you can actually remove those entirely
(http://i.imgur.com/KsKHtDK.jpg)
They do offer extra support, however they are not necessary. What is necessary is that the standoffs are there to raise the pcb to a certain height in order to allow clearance for caps, controllers, etc.
Also, the cutout for the DIP switches isn't entirely necessary. If the standoffs are high enough, the PCB should still fit even without a hole if for some reason you don't want to bother with that.

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: obra on Thu, 18 December 2014, 02:33:12

Quote from: FrostyToast on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:58:12

Quote from: obra on Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:45:19

And the cutout for the dipswitches or equivalent, as well as the support fins, so you don't, say, put chips on top of them.

If by "support fins", you mean what I have circled here, you can actually remove those entirely

Show Image

(http://i.imgur.com/KsKHtDK.jpg)

They do offer extra support, however they are not necessary. What is necessary is that the standoffs are there to raise the pcb to a certain height in order to allow clearance for caps, controllers, etc.
Also, the cutout for the DIP switches isn't entirely necessary. If the standoffs are high enough, the PCB should still fit even without a hole if for some reason you don't want to bother with that.

Ah, sorry. My goal is to design a PCB that folks can drop into a 60% enclosure. Not to make a one-off :) Also, it's _really_ hard to remove them from a milled aluminum enclosure. :)

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: bpiphany on Sun, 04 January 2015, 12:19:11

I sneaked this into a thread over at DT as well. Long before Christmas I got my PCB prototypes for a symmetric 60% board. Making a 60% was the first goal - the second to evaluate using a serial protocol. I don't have any PCBs at home, and unfortunately no pictures of it either, but I will take care of that tomorrow..

[attach=1]

The keyboard uses nine HC165-PISO shift registers (http://www.ti.com/product/sn74hc165) to read the keys and one TLC5947 LED driver (http://www.ti.com/product/TLC5947). I think I ended up with 21 LED positions. There wasn't a lot of space around the driver..

The gap in the home row can be shifted one position to the left to support a more conventional layout. There are two sets of space bar row configurations to suit the different gap placements. (I think I also added support for the regular Filco style space bar row with a 6.25 unit space bar.)

Many, but not all switch locations are compatible with PCB mount pins. The stabilizer PCB mount holes needs to be drilled depending on the chosen layout. They interfere too much to all be drilled.

In addition to that a micro controller is needed to drive the whole thing. The Teensy fits into the Poker case under the PCB. Some wiring is then required to hook everything up. I made a mess on the one I built, but I will clean that up once everything is set, hot melt gluing the Teensy into place.

[attach=2]

[attach=3]

[attach=4]

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: tlem on Tue, 27 January 2015, 17:26:36

Here is a pic of the gh60 revb dimensions.  The obvious difference is a height of 94.6 versus 94.0mm.  The holes are likely shifted as well.  See https://github.com/komar007/ghkb (https://github.com/komar007/ghkb) for details.

(http://puu.sh/f7rHp/e8e896d8b8.png)

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: swill on Tue, 27 January 2015, 17:47:50

Watching, mainly for the conversation about 60% dimensions and support hole layout. I plan to build 60% support into my plate building tool next, so this conversation is interesting to me. :)

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: howthegodschill on Tue, 03 February 2015, 10:57:08

Trying to learn how to use Autocad and build a 60%, so this has been quite useful.

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: xondat on Thu, 10 December 2015, 18:48:33

Quote from: obra on Wed, 17 December 2014, 22:50:21

As a starting point for a discussion, I believe this to be the canonical set of dimensions for a 60% board.

Show Image

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/evxj6fyebcjbi8y/Screenshot%202014-12-17%2020.49.03.png?dl=1)

I apologise for re-opening it but I believe this picture is missing a vital piece of information; what's the y distance from the case to the highest standoffs?

Title: Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
Post by: MiTo on Mon, 14 December 2015, 15:12:59

Quote from: xondat on Thu, 10 December 2015, 18:48:33

Quote from: obra on Wed, 17 December 2014, 22:50:21

As a starting point for a discussion, I believe this to be the canonical set of dimensions for a 60% board.

Show Image

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/evxj6fyebcjbi8y/Screenshot%202014-12-17%2020.49.03.png?dl=1)

I apologise for re-opening it but I believe this picture is missing a vital piece of information; what's the y distance from the case to the highest standoffs?

I'm wondering that too.