deskthority

I mentioned earlier a write-up I've done. Here it is, on the off-chance it helps another newbie, taken from https://github.com/simon-frankau/keyboard-build .

Building a Phantom keyboard
===========================

Back in the mid-90's, I got myself a Cherry keyboard with MX blues. It
was great. I ...

It's only 0.7mm thick alu, so it doesn't actually add a huge amount of heft. It's nice and flat, unlike the wooden frame - I had to bodge it with a shim to get the base on.

The firmware's great, "bog standard" was meant in the nicest possible way - perhaps "vanilla" instead? I just feel a little ...

Bog-standard Teensy (with bog-standard firmware). It's a detachable cable - I bought a USB type B socket, plus a short cable, cut the cable up, soldered it onto the socket and put it in a recess on the wood. I took the cable off for the photo as I didn't want to ruin the aesthetic. :D

The base is ...

Some of you may remember me asking questions about Phantom plates etc. a number of months ago. I have finally finished my first DIY keyboard, having taken much longer than can really be justified. Most of the time was spent on the case, because I decided on a wooden case, and I am useless at ...

Would love me some NeXT Cube

Bah! Believe me, they're overrated. I've got a NeXTstation and it's very disappointing. It's all part of that Steve Jobs reality distortion super-hype. I'd rather play with my Amiga 500.

I love my turbo colour slab. It's like a super-time-warped version of OS X. For ...

Any pics?

All in good time.

I'm planning on sticking some stuff in the Workshop area when it's all done. It's going to be a fairly boring Phantom-based design, but it'd be nice to document it nonetheless. And I'm too lazy to do any photos until then!

Another thumbs up for Yorkshire Profiles!

The world's smallest group buy has completed, and I think we're both happy with our plates.

Thanks for the info and ideas, everyone, plenty of stuff to go on now. Cheers!

Yeah, a little bit after posting I stumbled across the 1u mod Cherry win keys. Getting a whole keyboard just for a couple of keycaps seems excessive, but perhaps normal behaviour for this place.

I'm reusing my old Cherry caps on a new keyboard. Not only was the old keyboard winkeyless, it had "row A" profile modifiers. I'm going to use these caps on a Phantom board, so I'm looking for 1u win keys...

I guess I could get away with finding another numpad '.' key, or another bottom row arrow ...

Got mine today. Hurrah, thank you to jdcarpe and Muirium.

The guy in the original photo looks suspiciously like a hipster to me. Are you sure it's not an advert for a giant novelty retro iPad case?

Also, not the faintest on the keyboard, I'm afraid.

Then there is handwriting that says "INS." and is underlined

I think that's just the same "INSP" stamp we see a few pictures later, only half-stamped.

There's a variant with Fujitsu leaf spring switches, but I don't care for those either. The industrial design is neat on HP's keyboards of that era, though.

Yeah, I like the styling, but the implementation is awful. You can actually see the keys are all wonky in the picture. Rattly piece of ...

Thanks for the info. I certainly don't want to lube anything other than the ramp area, since I'm quite happy with the feel of the blues. If I can avoid lubing the ramps, that's a good thing, since I don't really want the faff. The only reason I'm cleaning the insides out at all is that it seemed a ...

Ugh. Those HP keyboards were utterly abysmal. We had them on some diskless workstations in the '90s and... ugh. Getting all kinds of horrid flashbacks now...

Having extracted a bunch of MX blues from my old keyboard, I decided to clean them out. It's surprising how much fuzz gets inside the switches over the accumulated years. So, based on a quick web search, I tried q-tips and alcohol. Unfortunately the q-tips weren't exactly lint-free, so the switches ...

Thanks, that's rather interesting.

On the other hand, it's not quite what I was after - the plates I'm planning are somewhat non-standard, which doesn't look like it fits with their GB. If I were more patient, http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/group-build-prototyping-phase-t7474.html (pointed out ...

Yes, not terribly cheap. Sadly, I'm somewhat impatient - I've got a couple of ideas I'd like to try, but I think I better complete something simple first before I try my hand at something terribly custom.

If I really rush on this one, I could even join the other GB for the next keyboard!

Hi.

I'm getting myself a variant Phantom plate laser cut, 1.5mm plain aluminium. The price scaling is seriously non-linear- the first plate would be around 60 GBP + P&P, but subsequent plates much less. So, if anyone wants one, please say. I'm happy to send to the UK, and could have my arm twisted ...

I've now got my quotes back. It's fifty pounds minimum + VAT + shipping, so one plate is a little steep. However, the price for multiple plates is much lower per item (surprise!). So, it looks like I'll be getting a couple of plates, and if anyone else wants a Phantom plate RSN, see my post in the ...

http://wilddesign.info/tuhaojin-color-trend-china/8395/

So, the model name roughly translates as 'tacky gold bling'?

Thanks, I've sent off for a quote and I'll see what they can do...

Oh, brilliant! I did get a quote, but it was a minimum spend of 150 GBP (admittedly, that would have got me 10+ plates), which kinda put me off going it alone. I'll take a look for a company willing to do a smaller job. Thanks!

Hello everyone!

I'm a n00b. An impatient n00b, but perhaps it's better written as 'enthusiastic n00b'.

I'm interested in getting some more mileage out of my mid-90s Cherry by reusing the caps and switches for a DIY keyboard. The Phantom looks perfect for this, since the design-work's done, leaving ...