geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: aviphysics on Sun, 28 December 2014, 15:58:51
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There are really two parts to this. 1) Sourcing for production and 2) sourcing for prototype.
1) I am working on a handheld novelty device, and thought it would be fun to use PCB mount Cherry MX switches for it; however, I am pretty ignorant on how to go about sourcing them for reasonable prices. Each device is currently planned to use 25 keys and I am planning to produce at least 100 units of the final product. Most of the keys would use standard alpha and numeric characters, but some of them would have custom text. If I can keep the overall price down, I would like to use backlit keys.
2) For prototyping I am looking for something like 50 MX Blue switches and caps. Not sure whether to order from digikey, scavenge from a cheap board, or something else.
Thank you for your advice.
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www.mechanicalkeyboards.com
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The cheapest option is to harvest them from some older/damaged keyboard or buy second-hand harvested switches in the classifieds. Quite a lot of work without any certainty of consistency for 2.5k switches though; then a distributor like mechanicalkeyboards.com might be your best bet.