Keyboard, recased with wood

I decided to spruce up my favorite keyboard, some.

In 2005, I bought an I-Rocks KR-6110 keyboard from Newegg, because it was exciting then for short-stroke scissor-style keys on a desktop keyboard to be in the awesome standard 104 key layout that I just cannot do without. Prior, I was using a Zippy keyboard with some re-purposed laptop key pads, so the layout was undesirably compact.

The low-profile 6110 offers ergonomics no longer considered by I-Rocks, apparently, as they prefer fat round cases now. Less than a day of using the keyboard, I had stripped it of its casing and enjoyed the resulting typing experience.

Afforded to me was a profound freedom of movement for fingertips to strike keys. Just groping around for the keys between the mainpad and numpad was enough to convince me that naked keyboarding is the way to go. No bezel around the F keys, no bezel around Esc. Without a bezel in the way, all is keys again: a triumph for nearly flush-mounted laptop-style desktop keyboards.

After two years of using the keyboard like this, I felt like it was overdue in needing an enclosure to make it less ugly.

A year after that, I actually felt like doing it. Half of the alphabetic labels were rubbed away by then. I began by removing the remaining key labels for those groups significantly affected, and by trimming material around the frame base to make room for a new one.

Being the packrat that I am, I used materials on hand. I had made keyboard cases out of plastic, and of metal, but not yet wood. I had some wood: hardwood dowel, and craft wood strips purchased around 2001.

Here is the test-fitted frame after some carving, shaping, and light sanding:

The design is a faithful redux of the original 6110 profile. It’s a damn shame that it seems impossible to get a keyboard anymore from I-Rocks in a layout as pictured, without the double-height Return key.

A big part of why it took so long to start this mod is because I could not decide what to do about the lack of a bezel around the key groups. The keys pad itself has ugly holes in it, notably the missing corner where the circuit board and LEDs traditionally go. This approach is a compromise I can accept for until it turns nasty or something.

I was almost going to just make a black bezel, as that is easy and safe around these parts.

I opted for a printed design, to pee off minimalists, and because I did not try to source thin, rigid, black plastic sheet. I’ll likely replace this one with black when I find it.

Too bad printing something to scale is a bitch, when DPI means nothing across software to hardware. I lazily kept the 99% reproduction I got.

Here is the pending completed enclosure, stained, sealed, and protected.

99% reproduction explains why the keygroup holes don’t exactly line up, and why it’s a bit short from left to right.

The sealed bezel is apparently loosely taped to the keys pad. Like most humans, I use it from the overhead angle, so that it’s not exactly stuck flush doesn’t bother me much.

The Ipswich Pine 221 wood stain failed to match my desk/Sauder’s “Sky Alder” finish but I’ll take it.

Maybe later I will have salvaged a black USB cord and be bothered enough to swap it in, assuming the mod still functions. I have a history of ruining keyboards.

LED lamp fixes

A lightning strike from a recent thunderstorm killed my USB-powered LED lamp I designed in 2005. The PC still works. I haven’t figured out how to get this building grounded, which it probably isn’t, given the number of lightning-damage incidents I’ve had…

This was supposed to be a post about how I got replacement LEDs wired up and the lamp system was working again. Almost, not quite.

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a lamp

Since I haven’t yet designed it properly, I may as well make use of this inverter, also known as a ballast, and some compact fluorescent bulbs I bought too long ago.

I’ll use it for lighting things for photoing. I think you know what I’m going to photo, too.