Preparing DSKY keyboard for final assembly

DSKY SUBSTITUTE FOR THE APOLLO GUIDANCE COMPUTER

Keyboard

I turned the honeycomb upside down to expose the inner, bottom portions of the 19 plungers. Each will have a spring glued in place, so I proceeded to add epoxy glue and insert each spring into position. These need a day for the glue bond to become fully hard, so I set this aside.

Epoxy of springs into recesses in key plungers

The keyboard is almost ready for final assembly at this point. I have all the shims in place between key plungers and along the sides and bottom of the enclosure. I though the top of the board needs shims but it does not have a surface to apply them, being an open framework. That would have required some additional plastic pieces to close in the open segments and provide the base to mount the remaining shims.

Fortunately for me, the guide slots in the honeycomb restrain the top five plungers from moving in the direction of the open gaps. It is not necessary to fill in those areas or add shims; the keys will move properly as they are.

Tomorrow I will put the honeycomb/plunger assembly atop the PCB and screw together the two halves. The four mounting posts will be attached to allow this to be installed inside the enclosure. I decided that the PCB is bowing a bit in the center from the combined spring pressure, so I need some legs to epoxy on, to support the bottom of the board.

Underside of keyboard PCB with Arduino Nano and cable in place

Top of keyboard PCB with keyswitches that will be pressed down by coil springs