Anodized aluminum poker cases

[oneproduct]

All the international cases that had to be glued are shipped out. Only 4 people in the US to go! I'll try to work on them on Thursday and have them out either then or on Friday.

I am currently $334.38 out of pocket for ones that I have shipped. So if you check here and see that I've shipped yours out and you haven't paid yet, feel free to do so.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... SUXc#gid=0

[oneproduct]

I notice that after mounting a few PCBs to the inserts that the foam isn't insulating as well as I'd hoped. When you tighten the screws very tight, I'm guessing that the solder points on the back are poking through it a bit, as it sometimes short circuits and I have to fiddle with it to get it to work. If I have the screws on but stop turning once I meet resistance it works okay, but it may be worth putting some electrical tape on the insert in addition, or finding a tougher insulator. I'll try that tomorrow and see how it works.

[dorkvader]

You should use some plastic. I've kept some insulating polymer from an old UPS I took apart for just this sort of purpose.

[WRXChris]

Mine arrived today, and it looks great, thanks oneproduct! Very happy with the weight and finish. Looks like it got a small ding on the front lip in the mail but I was expecting imperfections so it's no biggie.

I used 3m double sided foam tape to stick the insert to the case. See pics below for what the gap looks like between the keycaps and the case, I tried to show it from all angles. It's only approx. 1mm.

I tried using the packing foam as an insulator, but as oneproduct mentioned in the previous post, solder points poke through and short circuit. Also, the packing foam isn't dense enough and caused the PCB to flex when tightened down, leading to awkward gaps between the keycaps and case. After a bit of experimentation, I decided to try covering the bottom of the PCB with electrical tape. It still shorted out when tightened down with one layer of electrical tape, but 2 layers did the trick!

If you don't want to cover the bottom of your PCB with electrical tape, you could make an insulator out of only electrical tape by taping long strips to each other.

Here are some pics:

[Elrobo]

Jealous.

I planned to just make an insulating layer out of a single layer of the foam + electrical tape (however many layers needed) So it's not gumming up my board. But we'll see when it gets here. I feel like my mail carrier is holding out on me, waiting on this, billiards and pi keys, a new pen, and ink to go with it.

[elton5354]

Yup, I went with electrical tape and 2 layers of the included foam and it worked well.

[WRXChris]

just wanted to give you guys a quick update since I've been using this keyboard all day.

The 2 layers of electrical tape almost completely got rid of the pcb flex; there is still a fraction of a mm flex around 5, 6, 7, 8; I could probably add some electrical tape around there to take care of it. The PCB is essentially sitting directly on the aluminum plate with a very thin, dense layer of insulating material, so it only makes sense as far as physics are concerned. I have never felt a pcb-mount board that feels this close to being plate-mounted. It's super awesome! Thanks again oneproduct!

[oneproduct]

I would have thought to put the electrical tape on the case's insert rather than the Poker's PCB. Do you think it works better the way you did it?

Also ouch, I'm pretty surprised that they managed to put a little ding in that through the packaging. They must have hit that pretty dang hard to dent the metal.

[oneproduct]

Tried the electrical tape today and it works great. I put two layers of electrical tape on the metal insert and put two layers of foam between the electrical tape and PCB just for some extra cushioning. I used glue so its still low enough that the walls come all the way up to the height of the keys.

[emptythecache]

I'm kind of blown away by how good the orange pure looks in the blue case.

[oneproduct]

Shipped out 3 more today. Only one person left to go!

[boost]

The cases look great

Off topic..

Shocker green. It's looks much brighter irl

[absyrd]

Blue poker and pure cases with orange CCs and orange backlights... Jeremy Lin still has a hold on the nation. Looks good.

And that looks like a Montana color, boost. What'd you go and do to the bottom of it? Drag it behind your car?

[boost]

Blue poker and pure cases with orange CCs and orange backlights... Jeremy Lin still has a hold on the nation. Looks good.

And that looks like a Montana color, boost. What'd you go and do to the bottom of it? Drag it behind your car?

Was using it to ghost ride

This was the first case that op made.

[The_Beast]

Lol, nice case boost

[emptythecache]

Blue poker and pure cases with orange CCs and orange backlights... Jeremy Lin still has a hold on the nation. Looks good.

I choose to believe they were inspired by the poster for GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra.

[oneproduct]

That green case looks really awesome.

I don't know if there's enough interest, but if we can get 30 orders, I can get another 30+ cases made at the price of $50 each, down from $64 as there would be no prototyping costs this time.

If you go for brushing + anodizing on the case only ($11 assuming I can get the same price) and US shipping ($12.66) it would end up at $73.66. To that I'd need to add a bit for screws, glue, shipping materials and other little things so something like $80 as a final cost would probably be doable.

We could do a second round with red and/or gold ones instead of blue and silver (clear). It would also be much faster this time as the metal working place could probably have it ready in two weeks. The anodizing place I don't have much control of though.

Edit: whoops, made a mistake on the numbers. It's basically the same as this time but $14 less because there's no prototyping costs.

[boost]

I can offer powder coating for the 2nd round if you'll want

[kekstee]

I would love to join for a new round.

By the way, what's the weight of those cases?

[oneproduct]

About 2 pounds =~ 900 grams.

[The_Beast]

Can we order them without anodizing?


I'd rather paint it flat black or a flat black powder coat (if boost has that color).

[WRXChris]

I would have thought to put the electrical tape on the case's insert rather than the Poker's PCB. Do you think it works better the way you did it?

I'm sure either way would work the same. I just didn't want to get tape goo on my super nice looking polished anodized insert!

I made a wallet out of nothing but duct tape in high school, and am thinking about using that method to make an insulating sheet out of electrical tape. Probably would be a lot easier to find some sort of thin but substantial plastic sheet, like the UPS insulating material someone mentioned in a previous post.

[metafour]

I was thinking about taking two layers of the foam and applying gaffers tape to the outside layers. One long ways and then one short ways with a wrap-around on the top edge to help reduce the flex on those keys.

[oneproduct]

Can we order them without anodizing?


I'd rather paint it flat black or a flat black powder coat (if boost has that color).

Yea, could certainly go without the anodizing. I'll have to make a proper thread to see if there's enough interest for a second batch. I've had 5 PMs asking if there are any leftovers already so I know there's at least a bit.

[The_Beast]

Would it also be compatible with the Pure, I see treble318 has made a revision to his aluminum poker case that allows a pure to be mounted in the same case.


I'd rather buy from you since it's quite a bit cheaper, but I'd also like it work with the pure encase I would get one.

[oneproduct]

Yup, it's already compatible with the Pure. Elton has pics of his Pure in the case higher up on this page already.

[The_Beast]

Nice now I just need a pure/poker to put in the case

[Elrobo]

And I need to get a pure to justify a second case.

[metafour]

And to think I had mine for sale for a week or so on geekhack and no one wanted it.

[damorgue]

You should add a pin inside of the tray yo which they can attach their clamp for electricity, which can later be removed, or if designed correctly, can just be left there invisible. This would result in more homogenous surface.