That looks really cool. I'm surprised how well the tiny keycaps came
out.
On Sun, 2019-12-29 at 18:27 +0800, Jeroen Domburg wrote:
> 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
>
