Replacement keyboard for laptop with straight columns

[niklase]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here. I found this forum a few days ago, but I have been thinking about ergonomic keyboards for some time.

What bothers me the most with a regular qwerty keyboard is the staggered layout; it seems to me that having the keys in straight vertical columns should be much preferable. Every time I have to type 'a' followed by 'b', or 'i' followed by 'm', I think about this (I do touch typing).

Anyway, I was thinking about that there are companies, such as this one http://www.dell-laptop-keyboard.com/, that manufacture and sell replacement keyboards for laptops, and I'm thinking that they should be able to make a version with straight columns also.

Does any know if such a keyboard is available? If yes, where? And if no, would it be feasible to make one oneself? Or does that require too sophisticated machinery?

[SonOfSonOfSpock]

I've never heard of a product like that out there. I'm not sure how expensive/difficult it would be to create one.

This doesn't fit your parameters for a laptop keyboard replacement, but the TypeMatrix 2030 (http://www.typematrix.com/) is a small non-staggered keyboard that would be relatively easy to carry with your laptop.

[CPTBadAss]

Acidfire and Daerid are working on a portable Ergodox-esque keyboard with vertical columns/horizontal rows. Both of those seem to fit your needs.

Edit: gltovar's game pad might also be of interest to you.

[niklase]

Acidfire and Daerid are working on a portable Ergodox-esque keyboard with vertical columns/horizontal rows. Both of those seem to fit your needs.

Note that I'm looking for a laptop replacement keyboard; see the link in the original post.

[CPTBadAss]

Never seen replacement laptop keyboards. Thought I would post other portable options that would fit your needs...guess you didn't want that.

[niklase]

Never seen replacement laptop keyboards. Thought I would post other portable options that would fit your needs...guess you didn't want that.

Thank you for that. What about manufacturing a board? It sounds hard, but maybe not impossible? I could harvest an old laptop keyboard for parts (keycaps), but some things needs to be created (plastic PCB -kind'a thing, ...).

[CPTBadAss]

I think the issue is finding a switch that would fit into your laptop case's housing. I know of plenty of projects that have a custom case, PCB, and other parts. But if you want to directly replace your laptop keyboard, there's a bunch of clearance issues. Could it be done? Yes. Can I give you any more helpful links or advice? Unfortunately no. I don't know enough.

[niklase]

In order to figure out how a laptop keyboard is constructed I disassembled the keyboard on my old Dell Inspiron 9300. While reassembling it I took pictures: http://flickr.com/gp/101992007@N03/kTQx9N/ (sorry for the poor quality, it was taken using my mobile phone).

It looks fairly complicated. There are multiple layers:
- The metal base. This is actually two layers of metal, the bottom one is punched out and has a geometry that must be quite precise.
- The plastic PCB. This seems to be three layers with wiring on the top and bottom layer, and the middle layer to insulate between them.
- A rubber layer, with the rubber cups that acts as springs.
- Retainer clips.
- The key caps.

I'm not sure which part is the easiest/hardest to manufacture. Does anyone have any thoughts as to if this can be done?

[davkol]

Scissor switch mounting would be a *huge* issue, if you decide to do it by yourself. I doubt OEMs are willing to bother with custom layouts, unless you order at least few thousand keyboards.

[hoggy]

To get this done easily, you're looking at a separate keyboard that you place over the laptop's keyboard - you could disconnect the built-in keyboard and just plonk the other one on top - or build something to keep them apart...

If you like the scissor switches, typematrix.com might be worth a quick visit.

[niklase]

I doubt OEMs are willing to bother with custom layouts, unless you order at least few thousand keyboards.

I agree.

Scissor switch mounting would be a *huge* issue, if you decide to do it by yourself.

It does seem tricky. My current thinking about how to possibly proceed is as follows:

I'll buy two replacement keyboards. They are quite cheap, I've seen them online for $10. Then I'll take them apart and put the rubber caps in one pile (they are easily separated from the rubber membrane), scissor switches in one pile and the key caps in one pile. The reason that I'm harvesting two keyboards is that I want to do a completely symmetric layout where all keys have the same size, so I need more key caps/switches than from a single keyboard.

Now comes the hard part and that is to manufacture the metal base plate and the plastic PCB. Both of these have to be precisely made so that the scissor switches can be clicked on afterward, and that the contacts in the PCB line up exactly.

How to do this I'm not yet quite sure. For the metal I guess I'll need access to a laser cutter, but then I also need some tooling for bending the metal. For the plastic I'm not sure how they do that, there must be some way to print a conductor onto a sheet of plastic according to a CAD drawing. Any help or suggestions are appreciated :-)