More updates! In general, I'll try not to flood the list too much, but
I'm too happy with this result not to share it. Long story short, my
3d-printer came in. It's not one of those hot plastic squirter types,
but a thing that projects UV through a LCD to harden out resin that's on
top of it. The big plus of those is that you can get a really good
resolution, which kinda is needed for tiny projects like this.
Well, I've been modelling in OpenSCAD for a while to create a case for
the prototype I had, mostly to see if I can get the keys working and
printed out correctly. The case still is intended for the prototype PCB
so it has space for the ugly debugging buttons on the side, but
otherwise I put most of the things in I also want in the final case,
including e.g. embossed keycaps.
So it took me a few tries to get everything working; the current case is
the 5th attempt or so... two attempts to figure out there is some 'light
leakage' in the printer that make the parts come out a hair thicker than
I specify, and two attempts to figure out it's really a good idea to
make sure the first layer adheres to the building plate... ah well, new
toy, you're going to get that.
Anyway, the final result ('final' mostly because my weekend is almost over):
http://j0h.nl/qgIC/full
I'm really happy with this. The keycaps embossing (well, it's actually
debossing, the letters are lower than the surface of the key) didn't
come out like this from the start, but I used a trick: paint over the
keycaps with a Sharpie or so, and the ink will flow into the letter.
Wipe the top clean, and the ink in the letter remains.
Usability is hard to convey in an email, but that's unfortunately not a
bit I'm happy with: some keys have a nice 'snap' when they make the
metal domes under them fold, but other keys have no tacile feedback at
all. Also, I made the keys concave, like I think the M100 does as well;
that may not be suited well for buttons as small as this one. Food for
thought...
Cheers,
Jeroen
