My Saturday began. I collected all parts from the mail for my projects. There was solder wick to take the mylar sheet headers off my typewriter's keyboard serializer. My RAMPS board isn't due for another month. I have my Teensy microcontroller for the keyboard of my laptop project.
I loaded my rice cooker and set it to "brown rice."
My laptop project is a project to build my own, new laptop. I will use a BananaPI M3, equipped with an Allwinner A80 as my computer board. I will use a IPS FHD panel with an eDP->HDMI adapter connected to the BPI. I will use 5 18650 batteries to power it. They would normally produce about 18V, so I would step down the voltage to 12V and 3.3V with a couple buck converters. The panel takes 12V, the BPI 3.3V. I am in the process of modifying a Wheelwriter keyboard to a 60% layout to fit it in the laptop. I will make a case out of either walnut or mahogany. I will use a handle from a 70's Jaguar XJ, using the button as a latch.
I'm about halfway through my keyboard mod. I took the keyboard out of the typewriter months ago, but didn't really do anything with it until recently. I used a chisel to remove the plastic rivets holding it together. That revealed it was a metal back plate under three sheets of mylar, the bottom with conductive traces on top, and the top with conductive traces on the bottom. The middle had holes where the keys were. When a key was pressed, the traces would touch together and complete a circuit. One set of traces is rows, and one is columns. On top of the mylar sheets, there was a plastic thing that heald each of the keycaps in place. I cut the metal plate and plastic thing with a hacksaw and mylar sheets with a knife into the 60% layout. I then spent forever using copper tape to fix the traces I had severed with the cutting. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't cut the mylar sheets. I would just fold them under the rest of the keyboard.
The keycaps don't directly press the mylar sheets together. There are little springs attached to feet. When the keycap goes down, it presses the spring. Once the spring gets to a certain compression, it bends to the side, and the foot slams against the mylar sheet. I'm missing a whole bunch of those, and I need four more to finish the keyboard.
Before I find them, I started on the controller. I desoldered a couple headers, but one was broken on one pin. I resoldered that onto perfboard. I don't know if it's going to connect well enough to transmit a signal. My soldering iron finally gave out, but just the pencil part. The temperature ajustment station thingy was fine. I ordered a replacement. I borrowed my brother's iron, and it burnt everything. I might disolder and resolder the header, but its more likely that I'll just use a burnt board.
I need to order some pink salt. I want pink kosher salt, but can't find any.