2018-12-07 (F) Weekly Summary

Hackaday articles have been a little sparse lately. That should change. To start off December, I found one about diabetes. Truthfully, I found this article last month, but I had not written about it until I saw a feature article on the front page of Hackaday where another author recounted some of his experiences with diabetes in the family. The device in this article was meant to measure glucose in tears and did it a little differently than Alphabet who recently gave up their efforts to measure glucose with a contact lens.


ModuKey kept moving forward and at a reasonable pace. This model which is named the Lazy Brown Dog, due to its wooden platform and brown keyswitches, may be used for writing these posts soon. The right half of the keyboard was populated with keyswitches when all the connections were tested against the computer feedback. It seemed logical to start as far from the processor and work toward it.

The right half of keyboard assembled

When the right half of the keyboard was proven to be in working order, the left half, with the processor, was given keyswitches. Like the first half, each switch had to be placed, soldered, reseated, then soldered a final time. It was a time-consuming but mentally therapeutic process.

Keyswitches installed

After all the keyswitches were installed, the keycaps were gathered for installation. Four different sets were cobbled together for this keyboard. The orange keys were the most noticeable and most of the set was used. The plain white keys came from another set, and the white keys with symbols were still another set but the same shape as the plain. There were three black keys which were blanks and covered the F and J switches and have the little nub on them. The original F and J keycaps are currently on my work computer which is full of the blank black keys. These make it easy to see home row at a glance and add a little bit of character to the keyboard.

Keycaps installed

A rotational series of photos was taken with a black background. To create the continuous motion, the camera was set to burst shot and recorded the entire rotation while I spun the Lazy Brown Dog on top of a wooden Lazy Susan with my hand. That is why the bottom of the Lazy Susan is not visible, and if you look carefully, the rotation is not a consistent speed.

Lazy Brown Dog

Some of the white keys are inconvenient or just look out of place. It seemed like it should be possible to paint over the legends on some of the keys to make blank keys which could be given labels with a label maker. This would not work well on backlit keyboards.

Paint cleanly applied with scraps

The rest of the summary posts have been arranged by date.

First time here?

Completed projects from year 1
Completed projects from year 2
Completed projects from year 3
Completed projects from year 4
Completed projects from year 5

Disclaimer for http://24hourengineer.blogspot.com and 24HourEngineer.com

This disclaimer must be intact and whole. This disclaimer must be included if a project is distributed.

All information on this blog, or linked by this blog, is not to be taken as advice or solicitation. Anyone attempting to replicate, in whole or in part, is responsible for the outcome and procedure. Any loss of functionality, money, property or similar, is the responsibility of those involved in the replication.

All digital communication regarding the email address 24hourengineer@gmail.com becomes the intellectual property of Brian McEvoy. Any information contained within these messages may be distributed or retained at the discretion of Brian McEvoy. Any email sent to this address, or any email account owned by  Brian McEvoy, cannot be used to claim property or assets.

Comments to the blog may be utilized or erased at the discretion of the owner. No one posting may claim property or assets based on their post.

This blog, including pictures and text, is copyright to Brian McEvoy.

Comments