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geekhack Community => New Members => Topic started by: freakstatic on Sat, 20 June 2015, 07:06:45
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Hi, Im freakSTATIC.
Im pretty new to this scene, though I have had (basic) experience in a little coding, networking and hacking through living with a bunch of hackers a long time ago, but it was about 10 years ago so Ive lost a lot of that knowledge - Ive never gone into peripheral modification.
I came across this site after getting frustrated that there was no keyboard for sale in way that I needed it for my illustration work - so decided to design exactly what I needed. At first I was willing to commission someone as I knew very little in this area- now Im delving into the world of modification myself as Im always thirsty for knowledge, I just had no idea where to start with this. Its a learning curve! However the information on this site is helping me in learning what I need in order to make what I need. Im quite excited to be finding out so much about keyboard modification!
- currently Im just sourcing the items I need such as broken keyboards to practice on and tools like soldering/desoldering equipment for rewiring and knowledge in a bit of coding so I can reprogram my prototypes.
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Welcome to Geekhack!
If you are seeking soldering equipment, I guess you're planning on more than just swapping keycaps.
The living soldering thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=42824.0) might be of interest to you :)
If you do start a fairly significant project, you are welcome to create a build thread in the making stuff together (https://geekhack.org/index.php?board=117.0) area.
Edit: A bit late, but fixed the link.
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Cheers rowdy! Ive got myself the basic kit now, but there were a couple things I didnt have so thank you. Bookmarked for future reference too.
I had an idea that flung me out of my depth completely, but I want to learn and so doing my best to play catch up. Ive just purchased about 15 working keyboards for a fiver from a local computer workshop simply because they all had a PS/2 serial bus and therefore in their eyes are worthless, but for me its a great thing to be able to practice on stuff thats not precious or expensive, Im not bothered about messing up, I can learn from mistakes or start over with it.
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Cheers rowdy! Ive got myself the basic kit now, but there were a couple things I didnt have so thank you. Bookmarked for future reference too.
I had an idea that flung me out of my depth completely, but I want to learn and so doing my best to play catch up. Ive just purchased about 15 working keyboards for a fiver from a local computer workshop simply because they all had a PS/2 serial bus and therefore in their eyes are worthless, but for me its a great thing to be able to practice on stuff thats not precious or expensive, Im not bothered about messing up, I can learn from mistakes or start over with it.
Sorry, I fixed the link (a bit late) :))
If these are robber dome keyboards their construction will be very different form that of a mechanical keyboard.
However any soldering practice is good - even on old video recorders, radios or anything with a PCB really.
The ultimate practice you could get from buying/salvaging a dead mechanical keyboard and, if nothing else, desoldering all the switches. Patience s a virtue - just keep telling yourself that ;)
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It was a mix of robber dome and mechanical, I said yes to it all because for the price I was like hey cant really be picky at this point hah! Ive even set up a few friends with some of the working robber domes to swap out for their mechanical ones that are dying so Ive got plenty to play with for now, some have PS/2-USB adapters, some I am changing serial bus for them. This project I understand to be a long term one, I need to learn before trying to create in a way I think? So Im looking at this as a hopefully in a year or two I will have gathered all the resources, knowledge and practice to be able to create what I want.. Im an illustrator by trade and for me when I purchase a new tool or want to use a technique Ive not used before it will be: research - practice practice practice - THEN put it to use for a piece of finalised work. Im approaching this project in the same fashion. Patience..!
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It was a mix of robber dome and mechanical, I said yes to it all because for the price I was like hey cant really be picky at this point hah! Ive even set up a few friends with some of the working robber domes to swap out for their mechanical ones that are dying so Ive got plenty to play with for now, some have PS/2-USB adapters, some I am changing serial bus for them. This project I understand to be a long term one, I need to learn before trying to create in a way I think? So Im looking at this as a hopefully in a year or two I will have gathered all the resources, knowledge and practice to be able to create what I want.. Im an illustrator by trade and for me when I purchase a new tool or want to use a technique Ive not used before it will be: research - practice practice practice - THEN put it to use for a piece of finalised work. Im approaching this project in the same fashion. Patience..!
Patience will serve you well around here :)