First Project! Gon NERD 60 w/Carbon Fibre Plate and Custom Aluminium Case

[BenlewisMAV]

Hello GHers!
I thought I'd share with you my first ever custom-build keyboard, I'm currently working as a design engineer for a fairly thriving product design company so thought I'd try and take advantage of that and do something that isn't comprised of entirely off the shelf parts and is produced by myself as much as possible. Anyway I'll be uploading photos of the process in due course but the basic concept is;
GON NERD 60 v2 for the PCB - amazing PCB with great LED options, full programmability and a Windows GUI!
Custom designed metal and plastic case - mostly likely machined aluminium with transparent polycarbonate or acrylic sides to take advantage of the side leds on the GON board
Custom plate - new plate design to be as universal as possible with removable switch tops, made from either a transparent rapid prototyping material (SLA or Objet) or perhaps something unusual like Carbon Fibre
Keyswitches - I already have a poker 2 with Cherry MX reds and had a Razer Orbweaver with MX Blues so think I might try MX browns or similar for this
PBT keycaps - something durable, ideally suitable for backlights, colour to suit material scheme..

[suicidal_orange]

A true custom board like this deserves Zealios, especially if you go for the trans plate option.  Purple are like MX clears so will be different to Reds and Blues.

Looking forward to pics

[heedpantsnow]

Oh I can't wait!

[CPTBadAss]

Looking forward to the carbon fiber goodness

[Blackhawk]

Looking forward to see what design you come up with

[BenlewisMAV]

Quick responses! Thanks for the interest and support so far, I've got most of the cad modelling and drawings done for the machined components. I'll get some images uploaded once I've got them off my Cad computer. It's looking to be quite a simple but hopefully elegant design, with the aluminium framing the keys nicely without increasing the footprint of the keyboard too much - the small form factor is what I love about the 60% boards!

Also looking into carbon fibre machine/cutting options, the laser cutting didn't go so well! (just burnt off most of the resin leaving lots of dusty mess and raw fibers) It also created an awful, and apparently toxic, smell, so I'm told 

Thanks for the heads up about the Zealios keys suicidal, they look pretty special but I've been tempted into some Gateron Browns from Massdrop already! I like the softer spring setup for gaming sessions/quick response time. I can always easily swap out the springs/switch tops at later date if that changes

[DukeMugen]

Would love to see the finished product. Im also thinking of doing my first custom keyboard, but for now i think i'll have a look around first before i do anything. goodluck on your project

[BenlewisMAV]

OK so I finally got around to getting get the images off the CAD computer..
So I started by modelling up the PCB using the Dxf listed on GON's website:




I added details for the LEDS,  diodes and connector to hopefully avoid not accounting for them and having some nasty surprises later on down the line!

I then used Swills amazing keyboard plate generator to come up with various layouts, then blended them all together and added support struts to bridge the gap between the PCB and switch clips to come up with a very stiff ultimate universal plate!(designed for 3D printing or multiple layers) I also created iso and ansi versions for use with single layer laser/waterjet cutting processes.. Keyswitch and spring swapping is a must on all!;




Showing how it bridges the gap to the PCB and stiffens everything up

Notice the gaps for Backlight/surface mount LEDs featured on the GON NERD boards (see what I mean about making sure I don't get caught out later on!)


And here's the more typical single layer plate, in Iso



That's all for now, but I'll leave you with a little peek of the wireframe model so far   

[BenlewisMAV]

and here's the finished CAD designs for the case, simple and hopefully elegant in an ipod-sort-of-way  Simple also because I'm going to be doing all the machining myself on manual machines (no CNC).

Case with Base (aircraft grade Aluminium), Transparent side (Acrylic or Polycarbonate) and Top/Bezel (aircraft grade Aluminium).
And also with PCB with Plate in last image.




Front View with Cherry MX keys in place


Rear View with Cherry MX keys in place


Exploded View showing assembly arrangement


Section from side showing bolt hole locations


Section from side showing PCB, standoff and plate positions

[BenlewisMAV]

So some new parts arrived from Massdrop..



These should be perfect for what I had in mind - long lasting PBT, doubleshot and backlit! The only ones of this type I could find anywhere, and from Vortex too so top quality.



I got a 'combo' plate back from rapid prototyping/3D printing, this is one of the ones I showed a CAD design for which integrates both the plate (for mounting switches into) and the support (which bridges the gap between the plate and the PCB) to give a very rigid assembly and solid typing feel. It also allows some rather thin areas in the design that truly universal (multi key layouts, both stab types) plates demand, which single layer traditional plate struggle with without becoming dangerously thin. More on that later...





Nice fit on the keyswitches! With slots either side for stem and Top switching




The 3D printing process allows for some rather beautiful and complex architecture... This is the underside of the return key areas with multiple layout options and integrated support Web. In case you were wondering The strange rectangular cutouts at the top of the switch opening are to provide clearance for the surface mounted Backlight LEDS, another nice feature of GON'S nerd PCBS.

[BenlewisMAV]

I also got back my initial designs for the plates that were 3D printed in transparent/translucent SLA (basically like ABS plastic). My thinking was that the transparent plate (combined with the transparent body of the Gateron switches) would really make the board shine! 


Unfortunately if you look along the top edge of the plates you will see an additional 10mm of unnecessary material on each! Uh-oh.. This was because I was still getting used to Swill's plate generator and didn't realise that when you remove the top row of keys that exist on a normal keyboard (ESC and F## keys) to produce a 60% plate you also need to remove the code for the key row spacing! Ah well.


Here is a properly-sized laser cut acrylic plate for comparison:

[thaddeus]

Just want to say that this is rad! I'm hoping to build something of my own from the Nerd60 PCB. You already have made great progress...looking forward to more pictures