Nanonote keyboard rebuild
cenobyte at dragoncrypt.com
cenobyte at dragoncrypt.com
Thu Sep 1 13:17:55 EDT 2011
Hello everyone,
I just rebuilt my Nanonote keyboard (the one Jane gave me). I used
silicone and since I lost a key along the way, I even had to make a new
key. To make a long story short, it all worked out and I improved the
action from Jane's version. I did stick with her adapted colemak layout,
but I used an exacto-knife to trim the rubber left on the keys in
awkward places that sort of jammed the action. Then, I lost my "f-ing" F
key, so I grabbed a plastic hook used in hanging socks at retail stores
and hand machined it into a replacement key. It has better action than
some keys that came stock, so I consider it a success. You can see for
yourself. It took about 20 mins to make the key from basically scratch.
I also had to make a corresponding rubber nub so the key would actually
press, which I did with the same silicone I used to fix the other keys
in place. Now I did scratch some of the keys when I was scraping the
fabric paint off the back which is visible from the front, but that
doesn't concern me that much.
Now my gears are turning and I might even try to make a replacement
keyboard out of a credit-card and spare plastic with a silicone backing.
Please give me some amount of hacker props so I feel legitimized as
well as encouraged to continue.
By the way I used Jane's account to upload the pictures.
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Keys-out.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Cleaned-grid.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Missing-keys.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Trying-new-layout.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Action-improved-keys.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Machining-new-key-one.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:After-machining.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Key-fit.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:New-nib.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Uncured-silicon.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Keyboard-in.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Machined-key-fit.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Final-product-key-hack.jpg
By the way, Hilariously enough I still have not changed the software to
reflect this new keymap. To do later, I guess.
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