Comment on Touchscreen smartphones aren't even fun or novel anymore, they're just necessities for daily life
theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months agoInteresting, had a quick look and saved to look in more detail later however I don’t think I have the skills to actually build something like this. Maybe I’ll give it a go anyway, the blackberry keyboards are chefs kiss
squaresinger@feddit.de 7 months ago
They are really nice. I wouldn’t want to go without one of these.
It does require the full set of “maker skills”, so it’s not that easy to make. If I get some time, I could maybe cut down on the need for soldering.
What you could do, though, is ask someone at fiverr to make it for you.
You need someone with Blender skills to adjust the 3D print file to your phone.
You need to get it printed (you can use any 3D print service for that, e.g. JLCPCB).
You need to order the PCB (that’s easy, no need for someone else here).
You need to solder the two hand-solder components onto the PCB. The cheapest way is probably to get a phone/laptop repair shop to do it for you. For someone with good soldering skills, that’s like 5min of work. They do that for very cheap.
theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
I have had a more in depth look at it since making my previous post. It isn’t like it is completely beyond me, I understand what is going on in the instructions but the main thing I am worried about is that I have very very limited experience soldering things and what I have done before hasn’t exactly been great work so I’m not sure I would be able to do a good job on the small stuff that is involved here.
It would be a good learning process though and like you say I could employ some help from various different places.
Do you have a sort of roundabout figure in terms of cost for all the parts? Just to give me an idea of how much they buy in for the project would be before I started fucking stuff up? XD
I do definitely like the concept though and certainly appeals to me so I will be looking more into it. Thanks!
squaresinger@feddit.de 7 months ago
Minimum order quantity for the populated board is 2. That costs, iirc, around €20 for both plus shipping (if you are patient, that’s a few more €).
This micro soldering part can by now be ordered to be included in the assembly, so that you don’t have to solder it. I haven’t tried the process of ordering extended parts from JLCPCB, but if that works, that’s another ~€10. Otherwise you’ll have to source it yourself and end up with a similar price.
The Blackberry keyboards go for €3-6 on Aliexpress.
A 5-pack of the USB connectors is about €10 on Amazon, but on Ali you can get one for ~€1.
That’s all the electronics, so for two of them, that’s about €40-50.
You also need a 3D print, which costs around €1 if you print it yourself or get a friend to do it. If you order it, that can be anything from €10 to €50. The cost of these services varies wildly.
theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
Cool. Thank you so much for the information and taking the time to reply :D