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NovelKeys Big Switch - Tactile
Assembling your own custom keyboard is quickly becoming a fun hobby among computer enthusiasts, but what if you could build a 6-foot-long one? This tactile Big Switch from NovelKeys looks like a normal mechanical Cherry MX switch, but the major difference is that it is four times the size! Each of these switches is 100 percent fully functional and can be used to build your very own giant keyboard or numeric 10-key pad, an emergency eject button for your favorite space flight simulator, or a giant "nope-outta-there" button for times when you see a scary picture on the internet and need to backpedal as quickly as possible. Really, whatever you can do with a regular-sized keyboard switch can be done with a NovelKey!
When we first found these switches, we didn't care about the practical applications; they just looked fun. Since then we've thought up a ton of cool projects and wanted to share the Big Switch with you so you can come up with your own!
- 1x NovelKeys Big Switch (Tactile Type)
- 1x Burnt Orange Keycap
- Tactile Mechanical Switch
- Burnt Orange Trigger
NovelKeys Big Switch - Tactile Product Help and Resources
Button and Switch Basics
May 7, 2013
A tutorial on electronics' most overlooked and underappreciated component: the switch! Here we explain the difference between momentary and maintained switches and what all those acronyms (NO, NC, SPDT, SPST, ...) stand for.
Cherry MX Switch Breakout Hookup Guide
April 21, 2016
How to assemble and use the Cherry MX Switch Breakout, allowing you to turn a matrix of mechanical switches into a full-size keyboard!
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That's not 4 times the size of a normal Cherry switch, that's 400 times the size!
This would be great fun for our Scratch+MakeyMakey class. Do you mind posting the design for the laser-cut base used in the video? (what dimensions did you use for the opening?)
Thanks!
Sure! The laser cut files and example code can be found on GitHub: https://gist.github.com/ShawnHymel/d5175f28062d5c9e63d302850cafa290. Specifically, the laser cut files can be found in the save_early_laser_cut_stand.zip file.
At $30 a key, I don't see a lot of people building full size QWERTY layouts. For that kind of money you could buy a 3D printer and make your own, which would include a full size space bar.
This isn’t a normal mechanical switch that you’d use for a keyboard. Watch the video for a sense of how big it is: it’s really huge, and that’s the gimmick it’s trying to sell on.