TV article about steam-punk modder "Datamancer" (German language)

[sixty]

Following TV article is in German language, however contains plenty of steampunk keyboard footage, he clearly is using black ALPS for his projects. Guessing recycled AT101s:



Keyboards at 0:50+

(No Vimeo embedding here :<)

[AndrewZorn]

the somethingawful piece on steampunk forum was pretty funny for that reason

EDIT was gonna hotlink some image from it, but then realized i could really see this forum being on weekend web

[ak_nala]

Interesting - saw on his website about 6 months ago that he was using Das Keyboards as a base for his production units. Maybe he finally discovered their dark side and went with something better.

Currently on datamancer.net, he says he's using Cherry PS/2  "mechanical-switch" models as a base for his line of Custom Keyboards.

[chimera15]

Omg he used the same method as me with alps switches!    That's cute though he does cosplay and everything.

That one shot at 1:16 coulda been off my compact, it looks exactly the same.   I wonder when he did that, if I was his inspiration. roflol

Looks like he hasn't done any compacts yet though. lol

[JBert]

I strictly wear Dutch steampunk period costumes and hats. Here's me getting ready to mount my DataChair.

Say Cheese!

[Datamancer]

Hello everyone, I found this post randomly through my Steampunk Google alerts and thought I should finally say hello, as I have actually learned A LOT about keyboards by gleaning this forum in the past.

I use a mixture of keyboards for my mods, including both Cherry and Alps switches, but usually yellow Alps. I've tried the Matias TactilePro, the Scorpius M10, a few different DSI boards (including that shorty compact you see in the video), and the Das Keyboard. The Das Keyboard is ok, I guess, not my favorite board to work with. The switches feel nice if you're into tactile switches, but they're kind of ugly, cosmetically. For modding purposes, I do like the separate, ribbon-cabled circuit board on the newer DK.

For the record, I don't "cosplay". Never have, never will (outside of Halloween). I view steampunk as an artistic aesthetic and have had no part in developing it into the Comic-con dressup cliche subculture is has become. Occasionally I'll throw on some formalwear to look nice, but that's about as far as I take it.

Anywho, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! There's some more info about the video in the post on my blog at http://www.datamancer.net/blog/ including a rough transcript of the English portions.

-~D~-

[Datamancer]

Welcome to geekhack. Nice name, I assume it is a Gibson reference? One of my favorite authors.

Thanks! Yeah I came up with it many, many years ago when I was a young nerd so its inspiration is kind of halfway between D&D dorkery and cyberpunk.

-~D~-

[msiegel]

:lol:

welcome, D

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Blue Cherries are ugly, I am getting a brown cherry

[Datamancer]

Haha thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!

-~D~-

[chimera15]

Don't Feed The Trolls You Must!

Show Image

I have to admit, I guess I did troll him a little. I knew if I called him a cosplayer, it'd increase the likelihood he'd join and post. roflol


Anyway, Welcome Datamancer, your stuff looks awesome. ;) We had the same idea with alps switches it looks like. ;)

[Datamancer]

I have to admit, I guess I did troll him a little. I knew if I called him a cosplayer, it'd increase the likelihood he'd join and post. roflol


Anyway, Welcome Datamancer, your stuff looks awesome. We had the same idea with alps switches it looks like.

It's ok, I've gotten used to being associated with the cosplayer types. Steampunk has gone in some odd directions lately, some of which I'm not particularly thrilled about, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

Thanks, I'm glad you like my work. Did you do something similar with a compact keyboard? I've only had the chance to mod one compact so far and it's for a combo keyboard/trackball board.

[chimera15]

It's ok, I've gotten used to being associated with the cosplayer types. Steampunk has gone in some odd directions lately, some of which I'm not particularly thrilled about, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

Thanks, I'm glad you like my work. Did you do something similar with a compact keyboard? I've only had the chance to mod one compact so far and it's for a combo keyboard/trackball board.

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=6313&highlight=steampunk

I never completely put the finishing touches on it.  I still need to do all the letters and finish the case, but it's working, and I use it every day basically.  Good board.

How do you mount the keys to the switches? I had a lot of trouble coming up with a method, most of the thread is about me trying to figure out a way to do that.  Do you cut apart the caps and mount the new key to the top of them so they're removable from the switch, or use another method like mounting them directly to the switch?  It was a lot of work for me to do it with this method, I can't imagine someone else came up with the same painstaking way I did it.  Do you have a better method maybe?

Looking at the video again, I see you do use stems, but they look really uniform, did you find a replacement for stems or something?  Do you use the bottom of the key casing? It didn't look like it when you were putting in the new papers?  If you do use something new for a stem, how do you make sure you have the correct pitch for each row?