Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Sealed Keyboards - Update

John Stevenson wrote:

> Received the sealed and flexible keyboard from inpace today.
> www.inpace.com
> Standard windows layout, transparent. Not that too impressed at first
> glance. The keys are high and blocky and the membrane looks quite
> thin.
> This stuff will definitely NOT stand hot chips. They welds themselves
> to
> the plasticised bellows so they would easily burn this.
> Anyway connected it up and tried it. Still not impressed. the keys
> have no
> feel to them, you need to press dead centre or they don't work. Any
> rock
> and again no keystroke.
> Can anybody remember the old Sinclair Spectrum? well these are twice
> as bad
> because they are twice as big.
> Went in and edited a file, jogged the table around a bit and put it
> back in
> it's box.
> O well another flat battery in the car park of life.

Well, thanks for being the tester on this one. I paid roughly $20 for a
membrane
cover for a standard keyboard, and have been using it for 6 months or
more. It
looks very flimsy, but stands up to use in the shop pretty well. It
doesn't alter the
feel or function of the keyboard at all, but does make reading the
legends on the
keys a little harder. Hot chips do melt into the keyboard a little, but
generally the
really hot ones, right off the cutting tool are not able to hit the
keyboard the way
I have it mounted. it is the ones that take a bounce or two (maybe off
me, then
off the machine's head or whatever) and then finally land on the
keyboard. There
are a few heavy machining operations where I have had the whole area
around
the machine covered with little curls, and they eventually get all over
everything.
And, some of the chips have coolant all over them, or the coolant
splashes on
the keyboard, or my hands are covered with coolant and small chips. I
don't
have to worry about the keyboard failing and possibly causing loss of
control
of the machine or some dangerous undesired jog motion from a haywire
keyboard.

Just a thought - they make these things (obviously) by draping a
membrane
over either a real keyboard or a plaster cast of one, and vacuum forming
the
material to conform to the shape. I wonder if you could make your own
by
taping an appropriate material to your own keyboard, and using a shop
vac
for the vacuum and a heat gun for heat, soften and allow the membrane to

suck down around and between the keys. I wish I'd thought of trying
this
before buying mine!

Jon