The finish really exceeded my expectations and is almost too good looking considering that it will be hidden inside a case… ![]() The aluminum bracket is also a nice addition to the great looking C64 Reloaded and Ultimate64 boards! The aluminum brackets have been lasercut and bend by hand and they have submilimeter precision. I therefore completely redesigned the bracket using 1.5 mm black anodized aluminum which is way stronger and similar to modern high-end mechanical keyboards. These parts need 1.5 mm plates to snap into place correctly. The acrylic plastic is also very brittle and may break during normal use. They had a thickness of 2 mm which is too thick for the Costar plate mounted clips, the microswitches and the C64C slim cases. The first prototype had a bracket (the part holding the microswitches and the PCB) made of black acrylic plates ( link). The circuit is described in further details below. This is overkill as all force during key presses will be on the aluminum bracket and not the PCB… At the bottom right side of the board is the Shift Lock circuit which handles the functionality of the Shift Lock key without using a locking type switch. We want things to look nice, right? I had the PCBs made in 2 mm thickness to make them as sturdy as possible. The PCB is black because I wanted it to have the same color as the C64 Reloaded boards. Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did creating it. This post is an elaboarion of the build of the MechBoard64 for my two C64 Reloaded boards. The keyboard is based on microswitches from Gateron, lasercut aluminum brackets that are anodized in black and a black PCB. The MechBoard64 consists of 123 individual pieces and 200+ soldering points connect it all. The MechBoard64 is a drop-in replacement keyboard for the Commodore 64, including the new motherboards (Ultimate64 ( link) and C64 Reloaded ( link)). So without any further ado, here is the final version of my new mechanical keyboard for the Commodore 64 – the MechBoard64. Following the presentation of the first working prototype back in March ( link), I redrew the bracket and made small adjustments to the PCB. Truth is, the project was laying kinda still until a few months back when I decided to just get on with it. So the basic idea was to simply make two new keyboards as no one else seemed to have picked up the idea… How hard can it be, ehh? Well, more than two years have passed since I initiated the biggest Commodore 64 project that I have ever done. Thus, all that I needed to have two brand spanking new Commodore 64’s were some new keyboards. ![]() I also entered the Phase5 Indiegogo campaign to get some sweet new keycaps. It’s finally time to show what has been clutting up my workbench for way too long! Back in 2015 I got my hands on two C64 Reloaded boards ( link) and installed them inside cases from the Kickstarter campaign ( link).
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