Capslocker 2

caps

Almost exactly a year ago, we posted the random USB capslocker. [Garrett] has revisited the idea to build a smaller, neater version. He has posted the build process to give us an idea how he goes about building things. The overall build is quite nice, but part if its neatness can be attributed to the fact that he had access to an Epilog laser cutter. If you think you might be using one in the near future, this is a great writeup for you.

[via the Hack a Day flickr pool]

19 thoughts on “Capslocker 2

  1. This might be a time to once again point out that a webmaster can supply alternative page styles that then become selectable in browsers like firefox by selecting them in the menu view->page style, and thus you can give people that say don’t like everything lowercase or with a black motive etcetera some options.
    So how about it hackaday webguys, google “page style” and show what you can hack together.

  2. Some years ago, I saw a plug-in-between PS/2 keylogger. Maybe this should be revisited for USB? That would be so awesome.

    PS: no, I’m not from the FBI. *cough* JGSFD is the name *cough*

  3. Yea, the actual technology is far more interesting, especially considering that it is a redo of a former project. The detail of the laser etching was quite impressive I found. Very nice. I would love to see a homemade laser etcher on hackaday with similar precision. That would be overly cool. Over the top.

  4. Hey Michael. I hate that caps lock too. I just physically remove the damn key. I think the device your looking for is a knife. It worked for me! Murder the damn thing! I also murder any windows keys when I run out of IBM 101’s. Good luck in your endeavor to destroy the evil caps lock.

  5. god, once again caleb makes what could be an interesting (or even worthless) post into a whiny bitchfest about how this guy had access to a special piece of equipment to make his pcb a specific shape, and with a smarmy attitude says that if us readers happen to have access to it, this may be interesting to us while insinuating that obviously none of us do, and are thusly not interested since we can hardly find enough newspaper for blankets every night while we sleep on a park bench since we’re so destitute.

    newsflash caleb, many of us have dremels and are adept as their use even when the cuts are precise, small, and rigorous. if a dremel won’t do it, then we’ll get out a razor and trace out the piece to be removed and use pliers to break it out. or maybe, just maybe, if we have the pcb made we could use a magical force called auto-route.

    i’m absolutely sick of caleb kraft and his bullshit, stupid, whiny bitchfest posts. he’s either asking a thousand questions to readers about how we’d use this hack as though he expects comments to be a forum, or he’s making bullshit smarmy remarks on how something isn’t entirely useful or ready for mass market. this is *hackaday*, not *ready-for-wal-mart-a-day*.

    god, i fucking hate caleb kraft posts. if the post has a thousand question marks or if it sounds like it was written by a bitchy third grader, i already know the author before i look up to verify.

  6. oh, and yeah, capslock is an entirely unnecessary key. i didn’t think about it until i read the comments but hell, when is it EVER even remotely useful? maybe when you’re printing banners for a birthday part in the office?

  7. wow… almost a year ago, it seems like it was only yesterday. t’was posted on april 2nd of 08, if i’m correct? nice to see he made a few upgrades, the old one was a bit bulky.

    -Scott

  8. @albert

    Think you went over the top there, but I have noticed hack-a-day in general follows that kind of format: Praise – tech details – finish with slightly degrading comment.

    I’ll also see it when someone does have market potential, but is expensive- they usually jump on that.

    HAD, are you listening?

  9. albert, I didn’t use the laser to cut the PCB. I used it to burn away spray paint to leave a resist mask, and then chemical etch the exposed copper. I used a dremel to cut the outline (badly). And auto-route means automatic placement of traces, not cutting the outline of the PCB…that’s called milling.

    I think it’s obvious you came in here without reading the article, with the goal of trolling caleb kraft and the rest of us with your own opinions about this site.

  10. I wonder if you could use the laser to remove the mask just from the solder pads so you effectively were left with a silk-screened board?

    If you need a full coverage (bare PCB areas too) silk-screen perhaps spray a complete layer of paint first and burn out the pads (burn out both silk-screen/paint layer and the mask layer) to expose the copper pads?

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