Omega ISO

Preamble

This is mostly the project by Elia, I (Technofrikus from Moinboards) helped with the case, the rest was his and others work (see below). Because this site exists, he asked if he could publish the project here. The rest of this site is written by him. Enjoy this crazy ride.

Facts

Topic	Explanation	Link
Case	OpenSource	Case on Github
PCB	OpenSource	PCB by Piit
Sponsors	without them, the project wouldn't be possible	42. Keebs, XMI
Mounting	Top Mount
Special Feature	Instead of normal Keycaps, the entire board consists of ISO Enters

Story

Idea

The Basic Idea started at the end of 2021, when Pat made another stupid KLE. Around 4 days later, Hali made a case for the initial KLE that looked awesome.

After that, there was a long time of nothing happening.

Around half a year later, I jokingly got some quotes for the keyboard. While some things were easy, most problems looked as if they could never be solved. While you can get stabs and switches quite easily, there were three main problems:

• getting such a big case
• getting such a big and stable plate (for a potential handwire)
• getting around 100 ISO Enters

Realization

After searching the entire internet, I found some decent sources for cheap ISO Enters. But the main problem was still the case.

I was about to give up until Techno stepped into the project.

He solved the main problem at that time: the case. To help this project become a reality, he offered to print the case on his huge printer. But even though his printer could print up to 40x40 cm, the board still didn't fit.

Things didn't look good, but Techno decided not only to print the board, but also to basically redesign the whole board to fit it on his printer.

Plate and PCB

Since I wanted to keep the budget as low as possible I planned to do a handwire. However, to do a handwire I needed a plate, which I soon realized would be the new biggest problem of the project.

Most plates at that size would either be a) too unstable to hold the handwire or b) cost way too much for me to stay within my budget. And even if they would fit the requirements, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't warp at this massive size.

I contacted a lot of vendors and shops and asked them for help. Most vendors either didn't reply or had high prices, even if they partially sponsored the plate.

So for a longer time, the project seemed dead again. But after a month of silence, I received an E-Mail from Piit of 42. Keebs. He told me that he really liked the project and would consider sponsoring it even without me mentioning him. That's when the project gained drive again. After planning countless versions of handwires, Piit pointed out that it would be easier to use a PCB than to do a handwire. The only problem was: a) The project didn't have a PCB and b) a PCB was also a bit costly. But Piit kindly offered to solve both these problems by designing and ordering PCBs. In the end, Piit helped me not only with the plate, but also with ordering parts for the build and designing the whole PCB.

The PCB turned out awesome, with perfectly fitting artwork from The International Kit Podcast.

Keycaps

While constantly talking to Techno about revisions on the case and talking to Piit about the PCB, I had to figure out the best solution for the Keycaps. After talking to many vendors and keycap manufacturers, XMI kindly offered to sponsor the keycaps and gave me a big bag full of white ISO Enters to support the project.

However, I found the plain white ISO Enters a bit boring and decided that I wanted to try to dye-sub all the ISO Enters in the "Handarbeit" colors.

So I bought a big Pot and some Dyesub Colors.

After careful planning, I dye-subbed all caps in different colors. The results were not perfect, but quite satisfying for me.

Case

During the whole process, I constantly talked to Techno, who made one revision to the case after another to make it 3D-printable and fitting to his printer.

We looked for several ways to cut the Case into two parts. The main goal was to make the Case stable and the split of the case not too noticeable. After some testing, the results were quite satisfying.

The original Case that Hali designed had an ISO Enter weight. I quite liked the Idea and decided to include it. However, the original Case was just a sketch, designed for Alu. Since the "new case" was 3D-printed the whole "Weight Section" had to be redesigned by Techno.

To honor Piit's work for the whole project, for which he never demanded anything in return, I put the logo of his shop 42. Keebs in the middle of the ISO Enter weight.

Techno had to do lots of revision of fitting the newly designed PCB from Piit and the laser cut weight into the case while maintaining the Case stable and not getting too thick.

And then it was finally time for Techno to print the whole case.

And after countless hours of printing, the case was finally finished.

Finishing Touches

After receiving all the parts and the case I finally put everything together and finished the project.

Final Images

Since I'm horrible at taking pictures, I gave them to a kind friend, who took all the good pictures of the board.

Credits

To end this article, I want to thank everyone who helped to make this project happen.

Thanks to the MKD and ClackTales Community for constantly listening to my stupid ideas and helping me throughout the project.

Thanks to Pat for coming up with this stupid idea and helping me throughout the whole project.

Thanks to Hali for initially designing the Case and including all the small details in this awesome case.

Thanks to Technofrikus for making the project possible when it seemed impossible, listening to all my stupid ideas, and realizing them to the point of 3D-printing the whole project.

Thanks to Piit from 42. Keebs for making the PCB and sponsoring big parts of the project.

Thanks to XMI for sponsoring the ISO Enter Keycaps and Erland for handling the contact and the whole shipping process.

Thanks to you for reading this way too long article