Yet another unfinished custom topre project. Help!
Posted: 20 Feb 2022, 22:44
So, I bought a broken Realforce RGB off eBay which I first fixed and then salvaged parts from to try and make the compact Topre board of my dreams. Well, a prototype version of it at least.
I wanted the layout to be as close to a Kinesis advantage as possible but keep the board compact.
I had to do a lot of hacking to get this to work as I'm no engineer and made a lot of mistakes along the way but it works, well sort of.
One of the mistakes for example is the fact that both sides work independently, just like a yamamotsu's topre split which I used as a starting point, but have a different number of keys which affects the signal strength making writing the firmware a bit more complex.
Another one is the fact that I left a weird solder mask on top (due to my crappy schematics skills) and had to put tape on all over the board so that it does not short once the springs are on... This whole board is a hack.
Anyway, I somehow ended up with a working board and firmware and all I needed was a case/plate to hold it all together. I decided to try and do it myself first and get something 3d printed. The dimensions are fine (although I did mess up and had to cut part of it for the controller) but the issue is that the plastic is way too flexible.
This is where I need suggestions, I'm keen to redo the circuit board with SMDs (although I'm on a budget so that might not be an option) but I'm just not sure how to do the casing. I looked on Fiverr and Upwork and found a couple of options but I'm unsure if I should go with bent sheet metal, machining, or 3d printing.
Where do you get your custom cases/plates done?
I wanted the layout to be as close to a Kinesis advantage as possible but keep the board compact.
I had to do a lot of hacking to get this to work as I'm no engineer and made a lot of mistakes along the way but it works, well sort of.
One of the mistakes for example is the fact that both sides work independently, just like a yamamotsu's topre split which I used as a starting point, but have a different number of keys which affects the signal strength making writing the firmware a bit more complex.
Another one is the fact that I left a weird solder mask on top (due to my crappy schematics skills) and had to put tape on all over the board so that it does not short once the springs are on... This whole board is a hack.
Anyway, I somehow ended up with a working board and firmware and all I needed was a case/plate to hold it all together. I decided to try and do it myself first and get something 3d printed. The dimensions are fine (although I did mess up and had to cut part of it for the controller) but the issue is that the plastic is way too flexible.
This is where I need suggestions, I'm keen to redo the circuit board with SMDs (although I'm on a budget so that might not be an option) but I'm just not sure how to do the casing. I looked on Fiverr and Upwork and found a couple of options but I'm unsure if I should go with bent sheet metal, machining, or 3d printing.
Where do you get your custom cases/plates done?