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Saturday, December 31, 2016

Kryptonite

Gherkin with bright green backlight

 Gherkin with Zealios. Built with germanium diodes.

1/4 brightness

65g Zealios. 2x3x4mm LEDs installed inside switch. You can see the glass germanium diodes between the switches.


LEDs glow through the bottoms of the clear Zealios.

Cheap PBT green backlit keycaps from eBay.






Friday, December 30, 2016

Germanium Diodes

Gherkin with germanium diodes

Old stock Russian diodes. Large clear glass body. You can find these on eBay from multiple sellers.

There is no benefit to using these over a 1n4148 silicon diode in a normal keyboard. They do look very different. The glass is brittle compared to the glass in a 1n4148 diode.

If building something battery powered, the lower forward voltage would keep the matrix functional at much lower voltage levels. Schottky diodes could also be used.

40% Edward keyboard was also built with these.

Some measurements of different diode types in a keyboard matrix


Thursday, December 29, 2016

Daruma

GNAP 2.0 with G20 keycaps

  • Daruma
  • GNAP 2.0 PCB
  • Plateless PCB mount switches
  • 3mm stainless steel bottom plate from Lasergist.com
  • Gateron yellow switches
  • PCB mount Cherry stabilizer  
 What goals have you set for the new year?
Blank daruma

Incomplete daruma

Fulfilled daruma

3mm bottom plate. Probably too thick.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Rainbow Pickle

Gherkin with WS2812b RGB LEDs

Would work better with white, instead of green, solder mask.

WS2812b strips stuck to bottom plate.

22 LEDs. Draws too much current at full brightness. These are 60/meter, the 30/meter LEDs would work better..

Wiring. Power and ground from header. Data pin is F6.

Close up of connection to header.

Copper Top

PCB top plate with copper exposed

  • 1.6mm PCB from EasyEDA.com
  • White solder mask
  • 14mm square cutouts for switches
  • Gateron yellow switches
  • FourtyTwo PCB
The white solder mask was sanded off to expose the copper layer. The copper has started to patina.

Copper top very easy to scratch.

Brass spacers and screws.


Compared to a top with the white solder mask.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Dyeing PCB

Dyeing a bare FR4 PCB plates

Sanded off the green solder mask down to the bare fiberglass board. Looked like this http://www.40percent.club/2016/12/gerkin-tester.html before dying. I wet sanded to avoid fiberglass dust.

Followed the iDye Poly instructions. Only dyed for 15 minutes. Also dyed the nylon screws and spacers at the same time.

I could have sanded more in the center areas of the top plate where it is a little lighter. Having a slightly roughed up surface helps the dye penetrate.

Overall, pretty satisfied with the results.


Friday, December 23, 2016

Gherkin Assembly

Gherkin assembly notes

Test fitting all the parts together before soldering anything. You may need to trim/grind some parts to make them fit.

Board assembled with diodes and optional resistors.
Choose appropriate value resistors for the LEDs you are using.
100Kohm and 100ohm resistors for MOSFET.
Diodes are polarized, align the black stripe with the stripe on the board.

Bottom of board with SOIC-8 MOSFET and socket.
This socket was a 28 pin socket I trimmed down to 24 pins. Also the cross supports were cut off since the plastic PCB pins from the switch would press against them.

Here's a nice video on soldering SOIC parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq8A95AQFYU
There is a dot instead of a line on the Gherkin PCB.

This is a low profile socket. You can see the pins of the switch will touch the Pro Micro. They will need to be trimmed after soldering.

Full height socket. There is enough clearance to not need to trim the pins. There is also enough height for Holtite sockets. You may need to take a Dremel grinder bit to make some grooves in the socket so the Holtites don't touch the inner wall of the socket.

Pro Micro with diode leads soldered on to make it socketable

You can see what it looks like when soldering the diodes pins in this post. http://www.40percent.club/p/socketing-pro-micro.html

Pro Micro installed. Don't install upside down, it will short out.

The unused pins from the Pro Micro are broken out to the pins below. You may want to attach some wires or a small switch to GND and RESET ( pins 8 and 9 ) to make it easier to get into the bootloader.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

pico

A-Star Micro tiny 4 switch keypad

Tiny backpack for the Pololu A-Star Micro board. There is also a board on the bottom to protect the bottom of the A-Star since it has components on both sides of the PCB.

The PCB is 3 parts connected together. They need to be snapped apart and then filed flat. One of the boards is for the 2 key Pro Micro. It cost the same for the composite layout as it would for a single small PCB, so combining them reduced the cost.

It's tiny.

Side view. You can see the top PCB for the switches, then a socket, the A-Star Micro, and then the bottom PCB.
The pins from the switches need to be trimmed flush with the bottom of the PCB after soldering.
Also some electrical tape underneath to insulate the USB connector form the bottom of the switches.

Size Comparison. Micro TMK, 2 Key Pro Micro, Nano TMK, Pico

All my ortholinear boards. i75, Planck, Flanck, Flanck 2.0, Gherkin, Flanck 3.0, 2 Key Pro Micro, Nano TMK, Pico

PCB / PCB broken apart / PCB after filing down the nubs.

Blurry picture of A-Star Micro with PCBs.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

2 Keys

Two key PCB

Tiny board that sits on top of a Pro Micro and supports 2 PCB mount MX switches. Could create a tiny sandwich case for it using http://builder.swillkb.com/

The switches are connected to pins 2 and 3. The LEDs are connected to pins 9 and 10.
G20 keycaps on Gateron Yellow switches

Stuck to the front of my computer with a 3M Command removable adhesive strip.

Side view. The plastic spacers from two headers were combined to get enough height.

Holtite sockets stick out very far below the PCB.

Very little clearance between the Holtite and the USB connector.

Bottom of Pro Micro. Header pins were cut flush with bottom of PCB.

Holtite sockets for switches and LEDs.

Switches removed

Another built with a DIP socket making the Pro Micro removable. This one is without Holtite sockets.

PCB bottom

PCB top. Two resistors for the LEDs.

LED on while key pressed.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Gherkin Tester

Gherkin with Holtite sockets
Number Brand Type Case LED Color
1 Gateron Black Milky 3mm flanged Red/Green self flashing 1Hz
2 Gateron Yellow Milky 3mm flanged RGB slow self flashing
3 Gateron Red Milky 2x3x4mm RGB fast self flashing
4 Gateron Clear Milky 2x3x4mm RGB slow self flashing
5 Gateron Brown Milky 1.8mm Red
6 Gateron Blue Milky 1.8mm Green
7 Gateron Clear Milky Dyed Orange 3mm flanged Blue
8 Gateron Clear Milky Dyed Blue 3mm flanged Diffused Blue
9 Gateron Red Milky Dyed Blue 2x3x4mm UV
10 Gateron Black Milky Dyed Dark Green 1.8mm UV
11 Gateron Red Clear top 2x3x4mm Red
12 Gateron Clear Clear top 2x3x4mm White
13 Gateron Yellow Clear top 2x3x4mm Warm White
14 Gateron Brown Clear top 3mm flanged White
15 Gateron Brown RGB 5mm flanged White
16 Gateron Green Clear top 3mm flanged Red/Green Bipolar
17 Gateron Tactile Clear Clear top 3mm flat Warm White
18 Zealio 65g Clear top/bottom 3mm flat Orange
19 Zealio 78g Clear top/bottom 2x3x4mm Green
20 Cherry Clear 2x3x4mm Blue
21 Outemu Blue 2x3x4mm Blue
22 Kailh Blue 2x3x4mm Green
23 Outemu Blue RGB 2x3x4mm Blue
24 Gateron Brown RGB 2x3x4mm Green
25 Gateron Brown RGB 2x3x4mm Blue
26 Gateron Brown RGB 2x3x4mm Green
27 Gateron Brown RGB 2x3x4mm Blue
28 Gateron Brown RGB 2x3x4mm Green
29 Cherry Black RGB 2x3x4mm Blue
30 Cherry Tactile Grey 2x3x4mm Red

  • Gherkin 1.1 PCB with PCB top and bottom plates.
  • Green solder mask was sanded off of PCB plates.
  • Switches 24-28 are duplicates.
  • Milky white tops were dyed with regular RIT dye. 
  • Gateron tops can fit 3mm LEDs with flange.
  • LEDs mostly from eBay

Top view at low brightness setting

Side view from top

Holtite sockets for switches and LEDs