Author Topic: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?  (Read 6387 times)

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Offline obra

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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

Offline obra

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #1 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.

« Last Edit: Thu, 18 December 2014, 00:44:44 by obra »

Offline OverKill

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #2 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"

Offline FrostyToast

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:05:32 »
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.
Quote from: elton5354
I don't need anymore keyboards

Offline obra

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #4 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.

Offline FrostyToast

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 18 December 2014, 01:58:12 »
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

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.
Quote from: elton5354
I don't need anymore keyboards

Offline obra

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 18 December 2014, 02:33:12 »
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

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. :)

Offline bpiphany

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #7 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..

86329-0

The keyboard uses nine HC165-PISO shift registers to read the keys and one TLC5947 LED driver. 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.

86331-1

86333-2

86335-3
« Last Edit: Sun, 04 January 2015, 12:21:16 by bpiphany »

Offline tlem

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #8 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 for details.


Offline swill

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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. :)

Offline howthegodschill

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #10 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.

Offline xondat

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 10 December 2015, 18:48:33 »
As a starting point for a discussion, I believe this to be the canonical set of dimensions for a 60% board.

Show Image


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?

Offline MiTo

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Re: Working on new symmetric stagger board. 60% case "universal" drawings?
« Reply #12 on: Mon, 14 December 2015, 15:12:59 »
As a starting point for a discussion, I believe this to be the canonical set of dimensions for a 60% board.

Show Image


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.