Hello! (i'm so sorry)

[spaceandy]

Good afternoon you supreme keeb overlords

I'm Spaceandy (for all intents and purposes a under-prepared newbie looking to get into the custom kb scene) and I decided to make
an account after lurking a fair amount to have a superior searching experience devoid of captcha.

I'd like to bring forward that I'm a tenured CNC machinist and would be more than happy to provide a bit of insight into manufacturing principles where applicable.

As a completely optional request, if anyone has information on what those 5 holes on 1up 60% keyboards are that would be incredibly helpful.
(personally i'm hoping they are GPIO pins for a encoder or macropad, but once again I'm new, ignorant and blissful)

Scrappy and Steadily,
Spaceandy

[Maledicted]

Hi spaceandy. Welcome to Geekhack.

It seems to me that a lot of people seem to lurk for inordinate amounts of time before finally succumbing to the urge to join, myself included.

That's cool. I always thought it would be nice to be a machinist, if only to just know how the heck to fabricate my own various stupid ideas, not nearly limited just to keyboards. You'll fit in great on here with a skill set like that.

I'm not familiar with that PCB, which holes do you mean?

[spaceandy]

Hello, and thanks for the warm welcome

As far as machining goes, it's a pretty volatile market as of late with old tech phasing out and new tech being difficult to attain, but the methods remain and knowledge helps clear the gaps.
I'd highly recommend learning some machining or woodwork techniques as it would make the coveted gasket mount cases etc a lot easier to make yourself 

I'm not familiar with that PCB, which holes do you mean?

I attached a picture of the 1upkeyboards 60% RGB Underglow PCB that i intend on using, but i've noticed the 6 holes (turns out i can't count) near the space bar switch pins are located on different parts of similar 60% boards so i figured they were probably for testing or could be for the end user to extend their keyboard (which would be wonderfully insightful)

I know it's hard to see, but unfortunately that's about the best quality photo i could find about it.

Cheers!

[Maledicted]

Hello, and thanks for the warm welcome

As far as machining goes, it's a pretty volatile market as of late with old tech phasing out and new tech being difficult to attain, but the methods remain and knowledge helps clear the gaps.
I'd highly recommend learning some machining or woodwork techniques as it would make the coveted gasket mount cases etc a lot easier to make yourself 

I'm not familiar with that PCB, which holes do you mean?

I attached a picture of the 1upkeyboards 60% RGB Underglow PCB that i intend on using, but i've noticed the 6 holes (turns out i can't count) near the space bar switch pins are located on different parts of similar 60% boards so i figured they were probably for testing or could be for the end user to extend their keyboard (which would be wonderfully insightful)

I know it's hard to see, but unfortunately that's about the best quality photo i could find about it.

Cheers!

Yes, that makes sense. There's still a place for things like traditional mills and lathes though, right? I know they still use them in gunsmithing. I had to look up this gasket mount thing. I'm a clicky guy, I like my keyboards loud. lol

Interesting. I'm no PCB expert, but I have never seen something like that before. It doesn't even look like it is meant for a header.

This is the one I looked up when you mentioned it. I see that this one, instead, has a little momentary switch and resistor in the same area, on the reverse side of the board. Reset/bootloader button maybe? They look to be at least slightly different designs either way.



I would ask in the Keyboards section of the forum, or maybe the Making Stuff Together one. It gets a lot more traffic than this area, and would be more focused to the question. Maybe somebody that actually owns one of those boards can at least get some closer pictures of them.

[spaceandy]

Older machines that are more specialized definitely get a lot more mileage and get the "don't fix what ain't broken" treatment, but there's always a need for harder better faster stronger.

Will do! Thanks again for the good welcoming. I always experience some heightened anxiety when posting in forums for the first time out of fear of "did you read the FAQ"

Good luck with your beige beaut's!

[Maledicted]

That makes sense. It is awesome just watching what a modern CNC machine can do.

I haven't seen a mod on here be super anal about anything myself. They're usually pretty understanding of people not memorizing the entire forum bible here.

Thank you. They're mostly all tanks. They've lasted the last 30+ years, I imagine they'll last at least another 30. With the Model Fs ... who knows how many millennia they'll continue to function. I think that reproduction F77 might actually have enough mass to measurably increase the earth's gravitational pull. I have plenty of modern boards too, but mostly pretty average OEM ones I have modified.

[spaceandy]

Absolutely. I'm just waiting for the cybernet level CNC machines that will take over in a few decades. I'm positive quantum computing and Q learning will kick in to almost everything we automate and simulate within 20 years and the money will be in programming languages that are much more complicated than G+M code.

Also nothing but respect. I do some mild CRT collecting and am constantly looking for Trinitrons and broadcasting monitors, so I get the fascination to varying degrees

[Maledicted]

Absolutely. I'm just waiting for the cybernet level CNC machines that will take over in a few decades. I'm positive quantum computing and Q learning will kick in to almost everything we automate and simulate within 20 years and the money will be in programming languages that are much more complicated than G+M code.

You would know much better than I would about such things. I can certainly see a big application to CNC in quantum computing though.

Also nothing but respect. I do some mild CRT collecting and am constantly looking for Trinitrons and broadcasting monitors, so I get the fascination to varying degrees

I think I had at least one or two Trinitrons once, back before I knew there was such a thing as high-end CRT monitors, and they were in that period of being old enough to being worth nothing because they weren't flat panels, but not old enough to be collectable. Do you collect them to use them for something?

I use all of my retro keyboards. They have switches superior to anything manufactured today. Kailh box jades come close, but not quite.

[rinkaan]

I think the 6 mounting holes u were talking about was for GH60 styled boards which the mounting holes are fixed... But for other pcb, the mounting holes are not in the same location... So if you want to start off with GH60(or poker) styled cases u might be able to find the  positions online...

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/LQXco3J

Sent from my Redmi K20 Pro using Tapatalk

[rinkaan]

Sorry the link doesn't seem to work... This is a photo I found online for  GH60 board

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