PCB plate on a formed metal bottom
This is a Planck built from a OLKB Rev 2 PCB and a custom 1.6mm thick
PCB plate on a formed metal tub style bottom. SA keycaps from a PMK grab
bag. The bottom was from a group buy on
/r/mechmarket.
The plate has 19mm spacing to be compatible with the Planck PCB. Most other keyboards use 19.05mm spacing (0.75inch). The switch cutouts have notches for switch top removal with compatible Cherry and Gateron switches.
The PCB is connected to a micro USB breakout board with 30 AWG wire. It is possible to place the keyboard rotated 180 degrees to have the LEDs on the top of the switches instead of the bottom. You would just reverse the order of the row and column pins in the firmware.
The spacers are 9mm M2. They fit perfectly. You can see the measurements I used to create the PCB plate.
Closeup of the connection to the USB header pins on the PCB. The Planck PCB is very easy to connect a different USB connector to.
The USB breakout board. There are many different styles. I got this one from eBay. It is held in place with 3M VHB heavy duty double sided tape.
View of the USB connector cutout.
Bottom of the tub style chassis. I wish OLKB still made their formed metal chassis. It was much sturdier (thicker sheet metal) than this and was compatible with the OLKB plates. It was also 10mm deep instead of 9mm. There was space to install some modifications under the PCB.
I used an OLKB formed metal bottom on the
40% Edward.
SA keycaps.
