Thread: Indash Retractable Keyboard - in progress

Originally Posted by daveg360

Will get some tonight when I put it back in (glued the limit switches in last night)

Thanks. Interested to see how you made out.

Nice, was reading the motorized screen cover thread and thought a keyboard would be sweet. So i bought that little keyboard. Just got it today. Now with a huge machine shop at my work and access to the SLA machine i can make some prototypes.

Here is my first idea. with keyboard out.
http://home.comcast.net/~cstrachn/da...out_screen.jpg
and keyboard in without screen.
http://home.comcast.net/~cstrachn/da...d_in_clear.jpg

I think i can fit my screen in my dash with HU and keyboard modded into the slide out ash tray.

Originally Posted by pRoFiT

Nice, was reading the motorized screen cover thread and thought a keyboard would be sweet. So i bought that little keyboard. Just got it today. Now with a huge machine shop at my work and access to the SLA machine i can make some prototypes.

Here is my first idea. with keyboard out.
http://home.comcast.net/~cstrachn/da...out_screen.jpg
and keyboard in without screen.
http://home.comcast.net/~cstrachn/da...d_in_clear.jpg

I think i can fit my screen in my dash with HU and keyboard modded into the slide out ash tray.

If you have a machine shop, maybe you want to try this....

Just use a small piece of small track used for tracklighting. It's small, cheap and strong. I got a couple 18" pieces for like 10 bucks at Home depot. Then you just have to machine a little piece that fits in the track. There should be a plastic end piece that's almost the perfect shape on one end. Just needs to have the flash around the edges removed. You can use that for your prototype. (I tried to tap the plastic cap on mine with no luck.

Then just tap it and thread it. Attach a motor to the threaded rod and secure the motor to the track and you 95% done and it will be a nice narrow form factor.

Then tell me what exact brand/part of track you used, machine another fitting and sell it to me

I've got a bunch of stuff going on, but the plan (unless someone steps up) is to find a cnc guy and try and make the fitting. Not much of a CAD guy and like I said, busy, so i haven't been able to get to it.

Another benefit is if you had the equipment, you could cnc the "runner" out of plastic and add some contacts to fit the track and you could run power to whatever was mounted via the track if you wanted no wires or worry about catching them in the mechanism.

Originally Posted by n2k

Couldn't this be done easyer by salvaging the tray mechanism from an old 5.25" cdrom ?

just my 2c

.n

Doubtful. I ripped apart 3 cds before I tried to make my own.

None were even close in how they worked. The only one that had an actual acturator, it was a tiny one for the head. Maybe 2 inches of travel. There was one other that maybe could have worked but it would have been huge as the mating teeth were molded to the sides of the housing. I cut it down as much as I could and it was still large for where I wanted to put it.

what about something like this?
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...=&SUBCATID=432

stepper motor controlled by the PC or Manually?

only $50 AUD which is cheap would have enough power to slide the keyboard out and back again.

Originally Posted by NiN^_^NiN

what about something like this?
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...=&SUBCATID=432

stepper motor controlled by the PC or Manually?

only $50 AUD which is cheap would have enough power to slide the keyboard out and back again.

I just went with a regular motor with limit switches for simplicity. I have steppers around, just didn't feel like making a PIC circuit to drive it. I'm going to have too many damn microcontrollers as it is when I'm done.