2015-09-14 (M) Wrist Mounted Chording Keyboard

Someday I'll create my own robot house keeper, probably name it Rosie, and my stuff will finally get put away. The technology exists to do this but I'll be darned if I'm going to spend the next five straight years developing a robot with enough smarts to put my socks away. So, the picture below shows what my electronics bins look like in the middle of sorting. I should have been asleep but instead I sorted these into neat bins for two hours. My cat tried to help.

Awful, awful mess

Enough background.
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The model designed to replace the folding key version was printed and the supports were cut away. Some of the remnants remained but nothing which would impede operation. Switches were purchased which could fill the 12.7mm sockets and had a comfortable feel when pressed. Unlike standard 12mm switches these were meant to be inserted into a specific socket so some plastic had to be trimmed away from the bottom. Fortunately anyone using standard switches will not have to perform this step.

Something unexpected occurred which originally seemed like a problem. Modeling for the keyboard was done as a left-handed model because attention was not being given to the button orientation. After printing and holding it was apparent this model would be ambidextrous without any hardware or software changes.

 Switches and enclosure

Trimming bottom of switches

 Bottom of switch after trimming

Standard 12mm switches would require the leads to be bent inward in order to be mounted and the switches being used had one lead which needed to be bent over to lie flush. Once bent over wire could be soldered to the lead.

Bent lead

Soldered lead

Thumb switches were intended to be touching while the finger switches were meant to be separated. All three thumb switches were glued together in a row and held securely with clamps while they dried. Ordinary Super Glue was used.

Switches held while they dried

Leads were soldered to all the switches. Salvaged Cat5e cable was used. Each of the wire pairs was used for a switch and the striped wire was designated as the ground wire. Switches in this care were not polarity sensitive but keeping wire locations standard could become important for troubleshooting later.

Finger switch with soldered leads

Soldered finger switches

Soldered thumb switches

All switches installed


Downloadable Files:
To do:
  • Wrist mount
    • Add limit switch mounts
    • Lengthen servo arms
    • Integrate:
      • Controller
      • High precision potentiometers for tuning servos
      • Servos
      • Enclosure for each controller
      • Limit switches
      • Activation switch
    • Debug 
    • Test
    • Refine
    • Repeat
    • Activation switch
  • Write instructions
    • Compress and link to all files
      • OpenSCAD files
      • STL models
      • Arduino code 
    • Make diagram with everything labeled 
    • Schematic for servo controller

The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.

First time here?

Completed projects from year 1.
Completed projects from year 2



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2015-09-11 (F)

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