Simple KiCad For Simple Vintage Computer Hobbyists: Part 8a (Soviet Key Switch 1) [TCE #0625]
12Thanks to #PCBWay for their ongoing support! https://www.pcbway.com/
Let's see if we can design a carrier board for Cherry MX-style key switches to replace old, Soviet-era key switches (possibly called «ВМ16») in a Микроша (Mikrosha) computer. These key switches are used in various computers, calculators (like the Электроника МК44) and in telephones.
The ВМ16 (VM16) key switches come in blocks of different sizes which can be cut to purpose - in the Микроша they are mainly 1x4 with some cut-down 1x2 blocks used. The cursor/function key cluster is one 3x4 block.
As we'll need a few of these boards to replace all the original key switches, lets try panelisation this time. We can either panellise the design ourselves or ask PCBWay to do it. For simplicity, let's see the result when PCBWay do it ... we'll request a panel of five PCBs, with five panels ordered, meaning we'll have replacements for up to 100 key switches.
0:00:00 ... Intro
0:05:35 ... Removing the key switch block
0:10:55 ... Taking measurements
0:15:45 ... The schematic
0:18:40 ... Creating a footprint for Soviet key switch
0:22:45 ... Let's try that again
0:29:00 ... PCB layout & design
0:48:00 ... Panelisation info
0:52:14 ... Test fit of design
0:56:38 ... Panel by PCBWay configuration
1:03:00 ... Channel outro & thanks
The design can be found here:
https://github.com/0ddjob/Soviet-Keyswitch-Replacement
Disclaimer: I'm not a KiCad super-user, I'm not a circuit design guru, I'm just a simple vintage computer hobbyist who needs simple PCBs from time to time. And yes, this sort of thing has probably been designed a dozen times before, but there's no harm in trying to learn how it's done is there?
I'm using KiCad 9.0.3 on a 2022 MacBook Air (M2 with 24GB RAM) running macOS 15.5.
Application: KiCad arm64 on arm64
Version: 9.0.3, release build
Platform: macOS Sequoia Version 15.5 (Build 24F74)
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