I made a mechanical keyboard with 3D-printed switches (2020)(incoherency.co.uk)
incoherency.co.uk
I made a mechanical keyboard with 3D-printed switches (2020)
https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/jesboard.html
5 comments
Pretty cool stuff for a hobbyist, but aren't keyboard switches essentially the last product one would want to 3d print en masse? Injection molding hundreds of thousands of them is an extremely efficient method of manufacturing and it gave us a huge choice of great switches that cost ~$1 a pop, don't require soldering for replacement and last a very long time.
Indeed. Moreover the smoothness, consistency and tolerance of the switches is a fundamental part of the hobby nowadays.
But pretty cool stuff in the line “because we can”.
But pretty cool stuff in the line “because we can”.
The tolerance must be a nightmare
This guy sent me the STLs for these and I tried printing them. I only have an Ender 3 and am a very light hobbyist but I calibrated for hours and got some really nice prints of them but still couldn't get it to be remotely working/smooth.
> but aren't keyboard switches essentially the last product one would want to 3d print en masse?
Yes. Or at least use resin. To me it's the difference between craft and engineering; nobody would consider hand-crafting (or printing) switches when they can source high quality parts for cents.
3d printed cases aren't that special. There are a lot of hobbyist making those.
Yes. Or at least use resin. To me it's the difference between craft and engineering; nobody would consider hand-crafting (or printing) switches when they can source high quality parts for cents.
3d printed cases aren't that special. There are a lot of hobbyist making those.
Mentioned on that page in passing, but now more developed, https://www.youtube.com/@Riskable3DPrinting has been working on magnetic, analogue keyboard switches: https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/mag-lev-switches-are-the-fut...
That "Void" switch design is so elegant. Being able fine-tune the activation force and even change from linear to tactile with just a different magnet arrangement is so cool.
I love that he calls it "genuinely the worst keyboard I have ever used" but considers the project a success.
To be fair usually the goal of a do-it-yourself is to learn or achieve something you personally hadn’t before.
I think they achieved a lot and I’m glad they maintained a positive outlook while also being honest with their audience.
I think they achieved a lot and I’m glad they maintained a positive outlook while also being honest with their audience.
I think he's overselling it. I've used some truly heinous keyboards in my life and I'm sure this is better than at least some of them. I had a roll-up keyboard where every time you hit the key you had to hit it dead center or the top of the key would tilt away and cause your finger to smack the adjacent key. I had another keyboard that was just projected on a tabletop with a laser and would correctly read keypresses maybe 95% of the time. Just good enough to be infuriating without being useful. I've used chicklet keyboards on 80s computers. Membrane keyboards where there is only a bubble in the plastic sheet to press down on. There is no way this is the worst keyboard ever.
Maybe his goal was to make a bad keyboard...
> The switches are printed in PETG. If you want to see them in action, you might enjoy my video of operating the switch tester. The final incarnation of the switch design lasted over 350k presses in all cases, and some instances still hadn't failed at 500k presses. This is a lot lower than the "tens of millions" that might be expected of a commercial switch
It would be interesting to know whether that keyboard still works after 3 years if not reaching those numbers, my impression is that plastic becomes brittle with time, specially under sunlight. Those quality measures seem meaningless as devices get a little old. For example the screen of my Galaxy Z Flip3 started breaking by the middle after just 2 years with average use.
It would be interesting to know whether that keyboard still works after 3 years if not reaching those numbers, my impression is that plastic becomes brittle with time, specially under sunlight. Those quality measures seem meaningless as devices get a little old. For example the screen of my Galaxy Z Flip3 started breaking by the middle after just 2 years with average use.
Depends on the specific plastic you choose, some are more sensitive to UV than others and you can choose the one with the appropriate properties for your usecase. That said, I don’t imagine the switches them selves have much UV exposure as they’re under the keycaps.