A500 Mini – Twisty Keys Part Deux. Less room to wiggle

That was quick! – It’s amazing what’ll come to you at random moments.

I was looking at some uneven fitting panels on a car earlier today and wondered, ‘why can’t the gaps be smaller?’ –

Well, my first idea is to simply see what happens when the gaps between the keycaps are smaller……..

If there’s no room for keycaps to wiggle, they won’t wiggle! – that’s the theory anyway – Prototype is on the printer as I type.

If this ‘rough and ready’ bodge works, I can knock out a more elegant solution that’ll look much better :-), it’ll involve going right back to the beginning, but…ho-hum, such is the nature of product development!

The idea is currently on the printer! – this is a ‘zero cost’ solution that may reduce keycap wonkyness to a level that’s acceptable.

The next idea introduces double the 3D printed parts and some extra parts on top of that – BUT, it’s still a very cheap solution compared to the alternative…..

A500 Mini Keyboard – Minor reset needed?

Have been steamrollering ahead with the keyboard, and making rather good progress – Except for this little annoyance……..

It’s annoying enough to me , and a couple of trusted others to put a freeze on this method of doing things – and to invest more time doing something else!

The problems i’m facing….

The keys rotate around a bit – which, frankly, to me, is unnaceptable.

The GOOD news –

I have a way to IMMEDIATLEY fix it, Different, more expensive switches- BUT…it will increase my COST by 400% – meaning this product needs to sell for around the £70-80 mark, which I feel is waaay too high.

I do believe I have a few other good ideas which won’t cost so much, but need quite a bit of development. I’ve gotten the keys to print superbly and quickly on the printer, so I can work to good, tight tolerances. I can iterate quickly!

SO, it’ll take a couple of months longer than intended, no worries, worst case, i’ll do a limited run of expensive boards…and a wider run of boards with keys that rotate if there’s a demand (I really hope not)

A500 Mini PCB’s have arrived!!

….and, already there’s a small electrical issue!

But….they fit perfectly, everything looks fab!

Now comes the long process of test and tweak 🙂

Pimped up A500mini!

The picture shows the three PCB’s and the 1 3D printed part inside the A500 mini.

Also shown is the A1011 mini which contains a single PCB and 3 3D printed parts.

And finally shown is the floppy disc, which is going to be two 2D printed parts, one 3D printed part and a single electronic component!

Phew…..it was only supposed to be a small single PCB keyboard kit, that’s feature creep for you

*disclaimer, it may also be able to be a single PCB kit to save people ££, other PCB’s will be options to ease installation and add features

A500 Mini – HD+

This one’s been nagging away in the back of my head for some time now…I Always wanted one of these containing a hard drive when I briefly owned an Amiga. This is a GVP HD+ / HD8. and maybe a few other products also. This design really struck a chord with me when it continued the Amiga 500’s contours rather than just shove a box on the end.

No idea what I’m gonna use this for – likley a USB hub or ‘something’

This’ll need to be printed to ensure everything aligns, some of the proportions don’t look right – but seem to measure OK.

Have already updated the rear ‘fins’ they were just too long in this shot

First time the shell command has worked well for me!

A500 Mini – Floppy or hard?

Prototype PCB’s will be here late next week 🙂

So, whilst waiting, I’ve been playing around a little with the CAD and the ‘extras’ for the keyboard kits – the Real Mini 42″ scale floppy disc.

The cocnept is – to have a ‘working’ floppy disc that you can play games off.

The concept, once again!

The Sliced and supported Floppies!!

Real mini floppy

Real mni floppy rear

Still some work to do optimising, but i’m rather happy with this second attempt at printing. The metal part has been cut out on my KNK ZING vinyl cutter and has been extracted from a projected sketch.

That works for the Amiga side – But, people will need a way of getting the games onto the floppies , so – Early days yet, An External mini floppy disc drive for a PC!

Cutaway view

A 1011 Clone!

This was surprisingly quick to knock up . I found an image of an eBay sale, imported as a canvas, ‘traced the canvas’ and set the scale around the floppy disc slot. I’ve never owned one of these so had to work from many pictures. Still a lot more to do, but fundementally, i’m keeping the exact same PCB’s and mechanism / holder that i’m creating for the A500 Mini. Just putting it in a shell and using a different USB cable….

I will be releasing the design files publicly for this thing so anyone can print up / adjust and make their own ones as international postage gets expensive for things larger than 25mm high here in the UK…I’ll also offer up these for sale with keyboard kits

And, if you’re wondering, just how many picures…and files needed to create a floppy drive and disc…….Here’s a quick snapshot of my A500Mini folder – just for the floppy! and these are the ones i’ve kept for now….

Still Here Update – PETSCII

I Did a thing.

I had somewhat of a PETSCII induced fever over the past few weeks, one that needed Sating before I could practically start anything anew, or even continue anything existing……..

So, when I (eventually) re-make the C64Mini keyboard kit to be less soldery, more easierer and betterer, It may well have PETSCII on those keycaps, for all your milliputty smudgery into-ey goodness!

A500 Mini Prototype 2 is in the post, Every C64Mini keyboard kit and parts have been posted – I’m finally fully up to date!