After finishing modding the mouse, I decided to do something with the keyboard...
The easiest thing to do is to change the color of the indicators. I have heard and seen many times how the LEDs are soldered in the "Num Lock", "Caps Lock" and "Scroll Lock" indicators, I have seen blue options, red, multi-colored. All this is interesting, but too simple, maybe. Any beginner can solder an LED.
I believe that modding should be not only beautiful, but also functional. After a few minutes of thinking and experimenting with a screwdriver, I remembered that the "Num Lock" indicator is on when the additional keyboard is on, i.e. part of the keyboard on which there are numbers and the "numlok" itself. So why not light up that whole keyboard with a numlock indicator? Turned on the keys - they lit up. It turns out both convenient and beautiful.
It remains only to figure out how to do it. There is not much space inside, a small LED can hardly fit. I took an SMD LED, soldered the wires and started looking for a place where it would give a lot of light, would not be visible and would not interfere. There were many places, but the best of them is at the top, right below the button: 
Fixing the LEDs there was very simple: I soldered thin wires without insulation to them, drilled 2 holes (0.5mm) in the keyboard cover and put the wires into them. Wires pulled inside and secured with tape. The LED was tightly pressed to the body with stretched wires, but for reliability, I covered the holes from the wires with super glue. After waiting a bit, I put the buttons back, turned the lid over and started thinking about how to attach the wires inside.
The wires sticking out of the cover should not "interfere" with the buttons and block the contacts under them, otherwise the keyboard will not last long. I didn’t invent anything and just glued the wires with insulation to the lid so that they didn’t intersect anywhere, twisted the ends of the wires together so that both diodes were connected in parallel. Further, as in the mouse, thick wires were soldered to the thin wires, which I inserted in place of the "numlok" indicator. 
I connected the keyboard, checked it - it burns brightly and beautifully, all the buttons work and nothing is broken.
The hardest part is putting it all together. The soldered wires interfere, do not allow the lid to close normally. I suffered for 20 minutes, shortened the wires, but closed the lid and screwed it on all 13 bolts. It seemed that you could forget about this horror and enjoy the craft, but no ... A hole remained in place of the soldered LED and it is very striking. I found a solution quickly - I glued a small plastic ball from a toy gun to the lid from the inside. From above, it is indistinguishable from the LED, it just does not glow.
Next on the agenda:
Add a few more LEDs - 2 from the bottom, and then according to the situation.
Make contacts on the springs so that the cover can be removed and put back without fear for the wires.
Put 2 red LEDs under the "Esc" button.
Highlight "Caps Lock" in the same way as numlock - here it will be even more useful, maybe. The capslock indicator often obscures the monitor.
Then you can highlight the space and the trinity "ctrl+alt+delete".
What, besides laziness, prevents you from doing this: In order to increase the number of LEDs on the numlock, you need to add a transistor, maybe. the keyboard controller is not designed for such a load.
Capslock and Esc need red and green SMD LEDs, but I can't find them yet.
In general, I hope that the above will interest at least someone and the work will be continued. If you want to put more LEDs, please note that the PS2 port may not draw more than 150-200mA and you may need a separate power supply. To connect additional power without additional wires, I came up with a small adapter ... I'll tell you about it later.
Well, as it should
PS: I am not responsible for crooked hands and damaged equipment!
And one more thing: disassembling the keyboard will void your warranty!
On which he talks about products made in the spirit of the 19th century.
His name is Jake von Slatt and here is his blog.
Jake wanted to make a stylish retro keyboard that is comfortable for everyday work. For his project, he chose the rugged IBM Model M "Clickly" keyboard. This keyboard, manufactured in 1989, was included with the IBM PowerStation 530. 
First, it was necessary to separate the base of the key from the "cap". First, Jake tried to carve the warping from the key, which ruined one of them. After several attempts, Jack decided to extrude the base with a red-hot rod and he got the undamaged bases needed for further work. 
Jake then stripped the rest of the plastic off the keys and put them back in place. Jack set about designing the frame for the new keyboard. He was going to use thick brass plates. 
Jake wanted a simple design that took up less desk space than the original Model M. 
The next step was to shape the brass part. 
Details and holes were made with a jigsaw and a drill. Brass is easy to process and all the work could be done with one jigsaw. Jake processed the details with a file, smoothing out the contours. 
Holes were drilled in the parts with a diameter of 3/16" (3/16" ≈ 0.5 si). 
The parts were then machined with grinding tools and bolted together. 
Here are some more shots of this marvelous keyboard: 
Note:
This is a copy of his work that was sold to a man who was tempted to buy a keyboard made by Jake. However, Jake himself refused him, answering that such projects for him are a break from work. Thus, he sent the client to another craftsman. He repeated His work in an aluminum version, using a modern USB keyboard. The keys were the same as when Jake was working. The space (which confused me in the original) was made using a frame from an old painting. 
The author promises that he will be able to make such a keyboard for anyone (not for free, of course). To do this, just contact him by E-Mail. Various colors available: 
Has there ever been a time in your life when you wanted something strange for a long time? No matter what - because everyone has different tastes and preferences. My passion sat in me for a long time, but one day it finally broke out. I like doing unusual things and I've always enjoyed modding as a way of expressing myself. A few years ago, I was inspired by the products of modders from different countries and began to think about several of my projects. In particular, I really wanted to make a nineteenth-century styled keyboard.
After studying the work of such well-known modders as Filimon and Datamancer, I got to work. I want to say right away that although I do not complain about the complete lack of imagination, I like to get a predictable result. Therefore, before taking up the tool, I tried to simulate what I want to get in the end. Another feature of this project is that all the software that I used in my work is open and free: OS - Debian testing, software - Blender, LibreCAD, Inkscape.
Since my idea was to make a keyboard in a wooden case, first of all I needed to know the sections of the wooden blanks that I would need. Having carefully measured the donor keyboard, I sat down to sketching and modeling.
Having drawn two-dimensional projections, I started modeling in 3D.
So, the appearance of the device has emerged and it's time to embody it in wood and brass. Ash was chosen as the body material and oak veneer for the fingerboards.
The donor keyboard in the final should be between two veneered MDF plates. The key seats were carefully measured and, based on the data obtained, a drawing was made in LibreCAD. According to it, holes will be cut in the MDF plate.
The green LEDs were removed and larger LEDs were soldered in their place, giving a warm, lamp-like glow. In order to make the LEDs look even warmer and more lamp-like, a brass overlay was made for them.
According to the drawings, wooden bars of the required sections were ordered, which were further processed by the hands holding the tool. As per the drawings.
By the way, the device was supposed to have a USB hub, the holes for which were immediately milled. Also, a brass lining was made under it.
The whole structure will be tightened with studs, but I categorically did not want nuts and stud ends to stick out of my work, so I decided to make decorative brass plugs.
As for the keys themselves, I had an option to make them from buttons, but I decided that this was not true. Therefore, the round keys were machined from a brass rod, and the oblong ones were forged from a brass plate.
Separately, the "space" key was made. It consists of three soldered blanks.
The keypads were cut from glossy black plastic. The letters and symbols are laser engraved.
After all the preparatory work, the parts were carefully sanded, sanded, opened with several layers of stain and polished (also in several layers). After assembly, everything began to look something like this.
Additionally, a case was also made.
The dream has become a reality, but now there is an irresistible desire to raise the bar higher. There are many ideas, besides, challenging yourself is very interesting. Wish me success.
It all started with the fact that during the cleaning on the balcony an ancient device was discovered!
It already had a yellowish tint, and the first desire was to throw it into
trash can, but something inside me stopped me. Keyboard long
served me faithfully, and I put it in a bucket! This is wrong. It was
decided to make it the object of a straightforward experiment. And so, for the cause!
They used to make reliable, solid hardware, and therefore it is still in working condition, but it no longer looks decent.
Now
almost all keyboards are black or black and silver,
although it is practical, stylish, it is less readable for the eyes. Since either
letters have the same white color (Russian and English) or one of
layouts - red, which many users criticize.
At the white
the colors of the keys have their advantages - they are well readable, less annoying
eye and as a result faster dialing. There are also disadvantages -
modern color and next to the black and silver system unit and
monitor - do not put.
As a result of our experiment, a certain HYBRID will be obtained.
Well! Let's try to "revive" God's forgotten piece of iron. And, perhaps, it will serve even more than before!
And so let's get started:
– there is a keyboard, white, old;
- screwdriver;
- A can of paint of the desired color (acrylic is better), in our case the color is black;
- a plastic bag without holes;
- the desire to experiment - an infinite amount.
First, we need to clean the object from age-old dirt.
For this:
- unscrew the bolts.
- we understand.
–
keys, take out (previously it is desirable to photograph or
fix the location of the keys in another way so that the process is
reversible).
- wash the front panel with detergent and a brush.
–
put the keys in a bag (without holes), add water and detergent there
means (powder for example) and arrange a “thrashing”, launder with such
manner.
- After all these simple manipulations, we dry everything washed.
–
It's dry, let's move on. Shake the paint (according to the instructions), take the front
panel, lay on a newspaper or other lining so as not to paint over
nothing more, and apply uniform layers. Paint color can be chosen
any, complete improvisation.
- We will not paint the keys. Let's leave the pluses of the white keys.
- We wait until it dries completely (see instructions for use).
- This is what we got:
- Now we insert clean and dry keys back (we fixed the location).
- We twist our transforming keyboard and get a rather unusual thing!
A little
comical and unusual, but I conducted an experiment, put instead of my own,
familiar keyboard, modified.)) Assess readability
I couldn’t right away, because I need a habit, but in absentia - better than on mine
black.
All my guests threw their first glance at her,
evaluated differently. Someone laughed, someone was surprised, but most
recognized the idea as quite interesting and unusual. What else do you need
a little thing that no one even remembered a day ago? Now our
KLAVA star 😀
Good luck with your experiments!
I was given an interesting challenge again. Or rather, I slipped it on myself (yeah, yeah, a bad head does not give rest to the hands!). In general, one of my clients, due to limited movement, suffers from turning on or resetting a computer, the buttons of which are on the system unit, and the system unit is on the floor.
Once I was visiting him and said: “So let's take these buttons right to your keyboard, since you are sitting at the table with her?”. This is how Ideas with a capital letter are born in the heads, which then turn the world upside down. As usual, a detailed photo report under the cut (as well as a small bonus).
The idea of the task itself was impossibly simple: the task was solved head-on - we take a button or a toggle switch, fasten it to the keyboard, wire it from it to the system unit, where we put this wire on the regular “Power” contacts from the motherboard. But we are not looking for easy ways: our task is not only to do it, but to do it more carefully and with the possibility of “expanding” the design — say, if it is necessary to display some more buttons or indicators in a similar way.
At the joint council, it was decided to leave only one toggle switch on the Power button: with a short switch you could turn the machine on or off, and with a long switch you could make it crash (and Reset is not needed). It was also decided to abandon Reset due to the fact that it can simply be accidentally pressed. And again, for the same reason, the choice was made in favor of the toggle switch.
The keyboard was Cherry with a built-in touchpad. For some reason, it seemed to me that such a device should have been with a USB port (it implements the HID class and is seen as two devices: a mouse and a keyboard), but everything turned out to be simpler and more brutal: the tail from the keyboard branched into two PS / 2 connectors for the keyboard and for the mouse. Inside, I disappointedly saw an old brownish scarf, which inspired me with nostalgic memories for some reason from 286 computers and when the “clicky” keyboard was chic (the buttons clicked so cool when you pressed them). I was also smiled at by the food supply in case of a nuclear war, which immediately quickly migrated to a vacuum cleaner.
So, let's get down to business. First, we drill a hole and fix the toggle switch using the mnemonic rule: to the right - on, to the left - off (is that not Usability?).
As a connecting cable, I used a soft (multi-core) twisted pair that turned out to be in time after me - a very convenient cable, as many as 4 pairs of wires (it just pulls on Power, Reset, Power LED, HDD LED, gee)), gray (almost like regular tail from Claudia) and soft. I decided to show off: I carefully drilled a hole exactly above the place where its regular tail comes out of the clave, carefully skipped the twisted pair cable and secured it with a coupler, at the same time putting it behind the switch: now it can be torn out if only “with meat”. It also turned out that the cover of the keyboard, the switch and the cable made up one single whole: it can be removed separately, and no frail wires are pulled behind it.
I also left some rather long unused ends in case you really need to screw something to the clave. I fixed them with hot glue to the lid, then filled everything else with hot glue and assembled the structure. I soldered a standard chip of the BLS-2 system, which is used in a regular connection to the motherboard, to the second tail of the cable. Klava was dragged, stuck and immediately tested. It worked as it worked (didn’t break anything, hehe), and for some reason, after soldering and screwing, the toggle switch became even easier to switch, and the client got used to it in 5 minutes and was satisfied.
Here is the promised bonus. Once upon a time, we were sitting with a dude (DJ Riff - a hellish tamer of Soviet speakers and translator of Thief) in the kitchen, and I gave out: “What the hell are these MICE plastic anyway? Why doesn't she have fur? After all, it would be nice - you take it in your palm, stroke it on the back ... ”, to which the comrade gave me:“ So what? I have a piece of fur! Let's go glue! And we pasted IT on the mouse. It turned out awesome and cool. In the dark, it still glowed like a living thing. The mouse is alive and plows so far - what will happen to it? ..
Mouse DJ Riff "and with glued fur :)
