Keyboard Cases: Preventing Dust or Accumulating It?

[msiegel]

Besides looking nice, and keeping circuitry from being exposed... do cases help prevent keyboards' innards from getting dusty... or do they actually make it harder to keep the keyboard clean?

Case in point: One of several well known dirt magnet designs by Apple (who shall remain nameless)



ps - yes i'm eating soup over my keyboard again, but no i've never found peas and carrots inside of one

[rdh]

There were a couple of fake fingernails inside my space saving Model M.   I don't think they charged me for them... they're not on the receipt.

Do you have any ideas for keyboard design improvements that could keep crumbs, cat hair and coffee on the outside?

[msiegel]

i get the impression dirt comes in through the top...

if there were no sides, maybe dirt could just be blown away

[Rajagra]

Brilliant idea #7762:
»»» Removable crumb trays for keyboards (like those in toasters.)

My invention. Mine, mine, mine. :lol:

But I think you are right. It would be possible to build a keyboard such that anything that fell between the keycaps would keep falling straight through to the desk.

[ironcoder]

LOL I think we have a winner...

[itlnstln]

For keyboards in use, I have a feather duster to remove dust from my 'boards.  All of mine look pretty much brand new.

[ironcoder]

I used to use a shop vac for all my equipment, I wish i still had it

[msiegel]

well if the case is not particularly helpful, then i really will plan to eliminate it from my prototype

[Hak Foo]

Why not a top case, but a mesh/open bottom.  Covering raw PCB/solder joints/metal plate may be desirable from a handling standpoint, but the mesh would let it easily be mucked out.

[msiegel]

ignoring the horrible foam, and covering up the pcb, what if this board's top plate were made of shiny stainless steel... with no case surrounding it

http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww280/switch-kitten/ibm%20pc%20xt/DSCN6141.jpg

[msiegel]

slowly but surely...

my model f is entirely disassembled while i study the decisions faced by ibm's design engineers, and how they solved them. they really did fabulous work, foam and all.

[msiegel]

Have you tested the spare PCB pads yet to see which ones are active and the scan codes?  Also, I'm interested in the conductivity of the hammers - what ohms do you get?

i'll probably replace the pcb... the controller seems to be incompatible with all my current computers

my multimeter doesn't register anything for the hammers -- they're dielectric, just like regular plastic. i'm pretty sure they affect the em field generated at the pads, rather than making direct electrical contact (also, since the pads are all covered by solder mask, this makes sense

[msiegel]

And this one by Max is a good one to try.  

If you don't have any Model M keys PM me and I'll send you a couple for testing.

the good news is that my non-functioning model m mini will be making its way back to me, so i'll have m parts to use

[lowpoly]

ignoring the horrible foam, and covering up the pcb, what if this board's top plate were made of shiny stainless steel... with no case surrounding it

http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww280/switch-kitten/ibm%20pc%20xt/DSCN6141.jpg

This would work very well.

[JBert]

That's interesting.  I knew it was a capacitive switch but assumed the hammer part still needed to be conductive.  Got that from here.

The plates need to be conductive - in this case, the pads on the PCB. Everything in between the plates just alters the capacitance of the whole setup, hence the hammers just need to have a different dielectric value than the air above the pads when the switch is "open".

[msiegel]

This would work very well.

hopefully the same is true of the bottom plate

[lowpoly]

Maybe use the pcb as bottom plate?

[msiegel]

Maybe use the pcb as bottom plate?

that's an interesting idea

i'd be happy to keep a metal baseplate on the bottom, as long as there's no additional case needed below it.

thinking about feet... that cassie prototype had cool "feet" which embedded the keyboard cable connector inside them. maybe the feet can include the controller board as well, somehow

[shortround]

Just create a dust-colored keyboard.

[itlnstln]

Just create a dust-colored keyboard.

This may not be as silly as this sounds.  My white/grey/beige equipment always looks better than my black equipment.

[shortround]

This may not be as silly as this sounds.  My white/grey/beige equipment always looks better than my black equipment.

My brown hiking shoes made me think of it.  They never look dirty.

[FourOhFour]

My brown hiking shoes made me think of it.  They never look dirty.

Hiking shoes can't look dirty, merely well used.

[roaduck]

Originally Posted by shortround:
 
"My brown hiking shoes made me think of it. They never look dirty.

Hiking shoes can't look dirty, merely well used."

I've not really worn shoes or socks for ten years.I can't even wear trainers or hand-made shoes all the time -  I suppose I'm a bit of a hippy.

I wear sandals without socks in the sun, snow rain; even wore them in Haugsund, Norway, Port St. Mary Isle of Man and Foula in the Shetland Isles when I lived there and they're all cold places.

I just rinse my flip-flops under the tap and give 'em a quick scrub and they're good as new.

[msiegel]

And if the controller doesn't work how are you going to test it?

the controller is being replaced with a GEEKey controller, capacitive edition