Stalled Iris 16 - RGB Vandal Button

[iFreilicht]

Crippling actuation force, key spacing that requires hands the size of car tyres to reach comfortably, keycaps with no angle, no character labels, and the whole thing sits a good 10cm off your desk to make room for the backs of the buttons. But an unprecedented 12 RGB LEDs per key, and therefore 12x better for gaming! It's the keyboard everybody wants to have, but nobody wants to use!

Actually, the button is less than 2cm tall, so maybe profile wouldn't have to be that tall if cabling can be figured out. Amd on a normal keyboard, key spacing is 19.05mm, so a 16mm vandal switch might not be that big of a problem. Wanna try making that a thing?

 

[HeroXLazer]

Actually, the button is less than 2cm tall, so maybe profile wouldn't have to be that tall if cabling can be figured out. Amd on a normal keyboard, key spacing is 19.05mm, so a 16mm vandal switch might not be that big of a problem. Wanna try making that a thing?

Yep, one problem so many Mini HDMI connectors.

 

[iFreilicht]

Yep, one problem so many Mini HDMI connectors.

Micro HDMI even. Mini HDMI is too large

 

[HeroXLazer]

Micro HDMI even. Mini HDMI is too large

105 mini HDMI cables

 

[EdZ]

It's a terrible idea in every way. I still kind of want to do it.

 

[Phuncz]

It would be quite the vandal-proof keyboard and the RGB LED possibilities are endless.

Now that I think about this hypothetically as a project, how much power consumption would it have ? Because it would be quite a lot with 105 of these I would guess

 

[iFreilicht]

Now that I think about this hypothetically as a project, how much power consumption would it have ?

One I/O pin has an absolute maximum of 50mA drain current, and I will stay below that by a good margin, something like 27mA is the maximum current I got for the LEDs, I think. Then the MCU needs a bit of current for itself, and with rapidly switching its output pins it won't be a power saver. Let's say it stays below the 100mA a USB device can draw without requesting more current manually.
Even with a 60% keyboard you'd have 61 keys so you'd need about 6A of current. No way you can pull that from a single USB port, the board would need an external power brick

 

[jeshikat]

No way you can pull that from a single USB port, the board would need an external power brick

Ugh, now we'll have to get the debate on whether it's really saving space if you use an external power brick even with our keyboards.

 

[Phuncz]

Or you could go with a PCIe connector and DC-DC board If a CPU cooler can justify a PCIe 6-pin, so can a keyboard !

 

[3lfk1ng]

Can't USB 3.0 output up to 900mA? (admitting that I know nothing about power)

Perhaps someone could make a custom button box for MMORPGS/ racing sims/ mil sims/ flight sims.
You could probably get away with using 10 buttons right?

 

[EdZ]

Another issue would be the USB protocol itself: 105 keys is running very close to to the 127 device-per-host limit, and that 127 device limit includes any hubs. 11 internal 10 port hubs, plus another two to connect those 11 hubs to one port, would just about fit inside the 127 device limit.
You'd need a dedicated USB host card just for your keyboard!

 

[iFreilicht]

Can't USB 3.0 output up to 900mA? (admitting that I know nothing about power)

With the latest USB power delivery revision, 2A are allowed on a normal cable if the host indicates that he can provide that.

Another issue would be the USB protocol itself: 105 keys is running very close to to the 127 device-per-host limit, and that 127 device limit includes any hubs. 11 internal 10 port hubs, plus another two to connect those 11 hubs to one port, would just about fit inside the 127 device limit.
You'd need a dedicated USB host card just for your keyboard!

Oh at that point I was thinking you'd make a separate controller that used I2C/EUSART to control the LEDs in the buttons and read out the buttons themselves with a key-matrix. Actually, with the internal design I've chosen you could make a single PCB that all the (modded) buttons plugged into directly.

 

[jeshikat]

You could build a mini-PC in the keyboard to run the keyboard. Then have a mini-keyboard to operate it...

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

 

[iFreilicht]

I guess you could power that with a RasPi, that should have enough GPIOs... Oh god why are we even thinking about doing this?

 

[PNP]

Corsair wanted to occupy 2 USB ports for the first K-series RGB keyboards. Since there are 12 times the LEDs in the Anti-Vandal Finger Smasher™ (patent pending), we can easily justify a third. And because this is cutting edge keyboard science, it ought to be legacy-free, so USB-C only. And there's your 6 A.

Has anyone considered what sort of TDP we're looking at? Around 30 W? Might need some ventilation in an enclosed space.

I guess you could power that with a RasPi, that should have enough GPIOs... Oh god why are we even thinking about doing this?

Can a RasPi poll at 1000 Hz and still perform LED functions though? Better overclock it to be sure.

 

[Phuncz]

Oh god why are we even thinking about doing this?

When the madness began, it was already too late. Now we need to see this through ! Tablet Type Cover !

 

[jeshikat]

If you do a crowdfunding campaign for production, could there be a stretch goal for you to build a keyboard with the switches @iFreilicht

 

[HeroXLazer]

If you do a crowdfunding campaign for production, could there be a stretch goal for you to build a keyboard with the switches @iFreilicht

Yep

 

[iFreilicht]

Haha why not, would be a good way to spend the money I save in production when getting a large amount of orders. But I will only start manual work on that after I've shipped all the other buttons out

 

[Phuncz]

That would be one crazy expensive (but exclusive and unique) keyboard ! I can already image some peripheral company's marketing Chief: "gamers need more RGB in their keyboards, so what if we <drumroll> dodeca-RGB it ? That's like 12 times 16.8 million colors ! We could easily ask 12 times the price !"