this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
174 points (97.8% liked)

Mechanical Keyboards

8878 readers
9 users here now

Are you addicted to the clicking sounds of your beautiful and impressive mechanical keyboard?
If so, this community is for you!

Here you can discuss everything about mechanical keyboards (and only mechanical keyboards).

Banner by Jay Zhang on Unsplash

founded 4 years ago
 

Manufacturer wanted $25 (+shipping) for a replacement garage door opener wall switch. 13 minutes of printing + 5 minutes of soldering + two leftover Cherry MX Blue switches (that I'll be use) and the problem is solved ๐Ÿ‘

Note: The wiring was slightly more involved than I thought... needed a resistor for the light (there's only two wires but it's got two functions: Light on/off and garage open/close.

If folks are interested I could make a much fancier PCB-based version with screw terminals and whatnot. It's a very trivial schematic.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Curious, wouldn't waterproofing be an issue? Or is this on the indoor side of the garage?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's inside the garage so water isn't an issue.

Having said that I would have no trouble at all making a version of this that's waterproof! For that though I'd make a PCB and use my own magnetic key switches (Void Switch)...

https://youtu.be/iv6Rh8UNWlI?si=HLxDopztmpPDVTVI

When I made that keyboard for Chyros I asked him if he wanted it to be waterproof and he said no so I never bothered but it's not very difficult to do such a thing when your entire keyboard is contactless.

The "key" is to use waterproof connectors or just solder the wires directly to the PCB. Then you just coat the whole thing in silicone sealant (or similar e.g. seal it with epoxy, Flex Seal, etc). The chips don't care and hall effect sensors will still work just fine through any non-ferromagnetic coating (e.g. any plastic or hydrocarbon-based material).