Mod - add a Trackpoint to a Tipro MID Series

[CeeSA]

First, the result for the thumbnail at the mainpage:

final.jpg (115.87 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

Is there a better place for cutting as much as possible lines?

pcb solder points.jpg (178.96 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

I wanted to keep the little side wings from the buttons. They keep the buttons down.
So i have to make place for the buttons and their wings (plastic scratching):

housing top - buttons holes.jpg (116.63 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

cut the iron.jpg (94.53 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

The holes:

tp and mousebuttons hole.jpg (140.95 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

The housing fits a little the mousebottuns so i kept them:

mousebutton.jpg (125.57 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

Searching the right fixpoint for the trackpoint:

tp mounting.jpg (74.47 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

It's getting hot:

mousebutton.jpg (125.57 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

left_up.jpg (123.94 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

tp and mousebuttons.jpg (139.47 KiB) Viewed 14222 times

The PCB's from Tipro have tracelines on both sides! I knew this already from insert a touchpad.
Either way it's not easy with plate mounted switches

I hope you enjoy the pics, thanks for watching.

[7bit]

Great mod. Where did you get the trackpoint from?

Also, why didn't you put the mousebottons in the already existing gap left and right of the Space key?

[CeeSA]

this is a trackpoint from a IBM KPD8923.
Fortunately tipo33 was great in harvesting the tp from the kbd's for me.

http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/ibm- ... harvesting

"The housing fits a little the mousebottuns so i kept them"

The only alternate idea was, i would like to have cherry mx switches for mousebuttons.
But imo there is not enough space.
And, it was complicated enough

[Icarium]

Damn, girl! The way you mounted the mouse buttons looks awesome!

[kbdfr]

Great mod, the buttons look as if they were original Tipro!
Care to show the keyboard fully equipped with keycaps and trackpoint cap?

[CeeSA]

some more impressions

left.jpg (166.63 KiB) Viewed 14002 times

right.jpg (156.18 KiB) Viewed 14002 times

top.jpg (129.66 KiB) Viewed 14002 times

Unfortunately the Tipro 2 piece caps are not the best to cut/file...

Of course i will change the layout 2 ANSI.

[hasu]

Greate job!
How do you feel when you type H and N key? no problem?
I also always use trackpoint with my right index finger, that position of nub looks like easier for right handed.

[kbdfr]

Splendid!

[CeeSA]

Greate job!
How do you feel when you type H and N key? no problem?
I also always use trackpoint with my right index finger, that position of nub looks like easier for right handed.

After a while i could say something about the usage. It' s good to have the TP between H, J and N. It's fine, because the nubble has the same hight as the caps. The optic feels a bit different. A few times i pusched my keyboard to the left "more in the middle". But the middle isn't here the TP is.

Since the TP is there, i don't want to move my hands anywhere. So i put the arrow keys to JIKL 2nd layer.
Now i could live without a scrollwheel. "Scrolling" with I and K is good.
I want to put HOME and END also near by. I think about 8 for HOME and , for END 2nd layer.
Alternative 3rd layer I and K.

I changed also the bottom row to: CTRL, ALT, Layer3, Layer2, SPACE, Layer2, Layer3,ALTGR, Backspace
But Backspace is also set to SPACE 2nd Layer.

I'm also pleased with the TP buttons positions. In my next mod, i will try to put 2 or 3 MX switches as TP buttons down under the spacebar. Have to check the space there once again.

Otherwise as to my last mod for a working keyboard (2 time 96 matrix layout with touhpad) i feel confident in about 1 hour. It's my new daily driver at work, although i did not changed the switches from black to blue.

[CeeSA]

2x 96 Tipro w/ Trackpoint.

The TP is in a increased hole of a switch mount.

2x96 matrix w tp.jpg (128.43 KiB) Viewed 13612 times

The mouse buttons are the two switches in the lower left of the right hand modul.
Hope you enjoy the pic.

[Okeg]

some more impressions

*pictures*

Unfortunately the Tipro 2 piece caps are not the best to cut/file...

Of course i will change the layout 2 ANSI.

Interesting, would it be possible to do a little hackjob, and cut off the top part?
To kinda make your own compact keyboard?

[bester42]

2x 96 Tipro w/ Trackpoint.

Thats quite a cool idea for a split keyboard.

But it seem hard to get this 96 tipros (or 64 tipro) for a good price. 128 tipros are cheep to buy (I got a lot of 10 for 69€ on ebay an hour ago), but a split keybord with 128 keys for each hand is a little big (even the 2*96 split keyboard is a bit large).
The changable keycaps are also a very interesting thing - I want neo2-layout (something like dvorak4germans), and these keycaps would be perfect for relabeling. Do anyone know a distributer for this keycaps? As tipro uses MX black, the caps shoult be very universal for other boards also...

I will also see to get a Trackpoint to integrate it in one of my tipros.

[CeeSA]

maybe I could sell you some keycaps. What do you need?

In the past years we have a little groupbuy for Tipro things. Half-Saint did the buying. I did the orga and proxy.
The last GB seems to be stuck....
http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/ ... Tipro%20GB

[bester42]

Thanks for the offer.

As the delivery of my freshly ordered tipros will take a week, It will take 1-2 weeks to inspect and check wich keykaps (if any) are needed. I ll tell when I know.

[zmurf]

Your mod looks a bit better than mine...



(pictures from the build)
https://plus.google.com/photos/10369092 ... banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/10369092 ... banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/10369092 ... banner=pwa

But I would never be able to work with the trackpoint in the wrong location. The other mod was really nice though. I've have also considered getting a split keyboard and put a trackpoint in it. But I have too much other projects going on to have time to mod another keyboard.

[pfoff]

Great!-))
Which controller did you use? Do you use the controller that came with the trackpoint?