At long last, production of keys has begun.

Master keys mounted on Acrylic backing

To the right you can see the masters mounted on a 6 mm plastic sheet. The dark parts are areas built up with balsa wood, and or tape - some areas were ground down too. Fiddly work it was.

However fiddly, it's done. Now the next stage begins.

To the below left, is the masters clamped onto the molding box:

Ready to pour moulding resin

BTW: If you should be possessed of the whim to do this your self, Write on the resin containers ""lube??" to tell you to spray on the special lubrication that allows the mould to unstick from the master, or the cast items to unstick from the mould - I forgot to do this for the second set of key casting, and boy, were they hard to get out, despite the presence of lubricant from the first casting.

I can't say it's efficient or fast.  The first pair of keys took over an hour to make. 

However, once a mold is made, mixing and pouring the resin into the mold is fast. I'm going to make many molds - several a week. Once I have 6 or 8 , I should have the ability to make a keyboard conversion kit or three.

Ken.

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An important milestone: the masters of the new keys are in from Diversions Inc.(Thanks, Kevin).
Update - with all the redesign some dimensions are off - I'm sanding, hand-carving (with the help of various tools), and filling in with balsa wood.
I'm almost finished the re-re-re-design.
Whatever M-Audio pays it's designers, it's not enough. This is hard work, working in .05 mm increments - I used a piece of thin paper to adjust the depth of the grinding, for example.
Ken.
Further update, Sep 8: Finished the masters, and have begun making the keys.
Ken

Master keys

Here's my rough plan:
1) Check them over v.e.r.y carefully.
2) Polish, sand, and enhance where needed
3) A-fix them to a thick sheet of clear acrylic
4) build mold boxes and make many molds
(These will be available for purchase if you can't wait for me)
5) run off n keys.
6) buy a M-audio Keyboard with n keys and convert it.
7) test it, then sell it.
7b) refine the design as needed.
8) Once my time and material costs are known, I will be able to estimate the sales volume and timings.
Then I'll be open for business.
Ken.

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Hi,
Here's my first dry run at making a resin cast mold. (trust me, I'll need more)

Then they were clamped into a shallow wooden box:

and the Room-Temperature Vulcanizing Rubber (RTV) was mixed and poured in.

This led to the discovery that I should have sealed every crack, no matter how tiny.

Waiting for the rubber to dry

 

Some of this liquid gold drained away. But enough was left to do the test.

The acrylic sheet turned out be be a good idea - I could shake out the larger bubbles easily. and by facing the mold with the plastic on the bottom the smaller bubbles floated up to the wood, out of the way. Building a little mold vibrator to shake the bubbles out automatically is a worthy idea.

The master and the resin

Left, are the results of the first resin pour. Not too bad - I coloured the resin black for ease of photographing. I did not need a top acrylic sheet - just a level floor.

Success!; the key assembled OK. The back end of one half was missing, but the rest was within tolerance. 

A key is born

A successful first try.

Updated Notes
1) the time to build the the RTV mold is on the order of one per day, with about 1 hour of effort.
2) The time to mix & pour the resin (Por-A-Kast Mark 2 from Hyperlast) is about 1 minute (pre-measure in 2  disposable plastic cups,  pour into a third to give yourself as much time as possible, sitr gently with a plastic fork to mix as fast as you can for the count of 30 seconds. It gets warm and starts to gel  30 seconds later, but is very nicely liquid and flows well for at least a minute, long enough to fill the mold to very sightly (just a whisker)  above the level of the mold - there will be a bit of shirkage as it cools. it sets to stiff, bendable plastic stage in about 15 minutes, and can be pulled out, but has to be put down on a flat surface to finish.
3) difficulty is low.

With a long wooden molding box holding multiple molds, the work should be reduced.


Ken.

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Sorry to have not blogged for a while!   I hope your summer is as busy and happy as mine. Currently I have my son and grandson visiting from Montreal, so jammer keys is pretty low on my priorities list. Greater Vancouver during the summer is a wonderful place.

But enough of petty distractions. I'd like to let you know about my findings thus far. In 2 weeks, I'll have more time to devote to this, so I promise the pace will pick up.

(1) The idea of making the keys from laser-cut flat sheets seems to be a dead end.  The one company that I really talked with gave me a $2 or more cost per key.

Jammer Key Pair - more easily molded in 2 halves?

(2) The idea, however, of making the keys in two halves split down the middle has come to me. 

If the key is cut into 2 halves, down the long axis, then the following happens to the parts from a molding perspective:

So there's probably a gotcha - there always seems to be -  but this should put me nearer to $2-3 grand for injection molding molds. To see the keys in more detail, here's the ProtoMold rendering

It also gives me a fallback to resin molding.
For resin molding, I need to get the time per key way down.
Can I get it under say 3 hours per set of 88 or 66 keys? (I like my keyboard friends on the net, but I neglect my wife at my extreme peril)  Time will tell, but I think I have a way to skip the vacuuming step, using sonic de-bubbling. If I can do say 12 keys at a time, then it starts getting feasible for running off a few prototypes or more. 

So I've asked Kevin the Plastic Design Guru to 3D to print one each of the two kinds of keys.
I will take them, split them in half with a razor, and try making some resin casting molds out of RTV. 

2) I've also asked for an estimate of his charge for the redesign of the 2 keys into 4 half-key injection molding. Injection molding design is an art form.

So, comments are welcome. Resin molding experts help is needed too.

Ken.

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Hi loyal readers. You sure are a varied lot.  See: my site monitor  .

While work goes forth on the Generalized Keyboard conversion kit, I'm refining the design of the jammer.
I had to take it apart to analyse the keys and to show to plastic makers. Now I'm improving it as I put it back together.

The main change is invisible: I've tuning the keys to the same, much lighter weight, so that I have more hope of learning to play it well. when first constructed I was happy to have a working instrument with all keys that worked and had pianoforte. Now, as I learn the details of construction and the mechanics of playing, I'm getting more fussy. When I measured the pressures required, I found they were way out of spec. The good part is that, now that I've found this out, others are saved the work.

But enough of technicalities. On to the important things: gadgetry.
Can you guess what I'm going to do with these items?

WhatIsIt

Ken.

Update: Here's what it looks like after the 1st assembly, but before refinement and styling.

JamStik 1st assemly

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Ok, if at first you don't succeed, try again. 
If you still haven't succeeded, try changing the goal.

I've established that the low price for just setting up to make M-Audio generic keyboard conversion kits via injection molding is in the $6-7K region*. Thereafter, I can make them for $50 each.
This is a bit much for me, given that' I'd have to sell a lot of kits to break even and that sounds like serious work ... but not entirely out of the question. Let's put this idea on the shelf for a while.

*For those newly coming to my blog, these keys will allow one to convert an M-Audio semi-weighted keyboard to a simpler-to learn and play jammer (Wicki-Hayden), Thummer, Janko, C-Thru Axis-64 design, also know as an Isomorphic keyboard or 6-by-6 keyboard. 

There are better possible alternatives. The one I'm most excited by is that of breaking the key into smaller shapes that I can make locally. For example, if you look at the key here:

Prototype jammer/Janko key

Ever wonder about how music works? How harmonics interact with the ear and brain to produce harmony? Ever longed to learn an expressive instrument quickly?

    This site, with the help of a growing community, is becoming a cool place for information about music, especially how to learn it, make it, and how the thing actually works, all in a more-or-less scientific (yet whimsical) way. 

Jammer & components

Initial focus: making a faster music keyboard
See Kit for a DIY General-purpose keyboard

Building an innovative keyboard called a jammer, similar to

a Thummer.  Think of it as a "piano 2.0", built using simple principles.   

In a nutshell, all we did was use current music theory and simple ergonomics. I've built two jammers and have found they have very significant advantages over the traditional design and few disadvantages. They are faster to learn, very significantly faster and easier to play and more expressive. They are also easier to play by ear, in other words, to jam, hence the name.

   In practical terms, it takes 10 years to become skilled enough to be passable pianist. With the jammer design, the same level should be reachable in 3 yrs. It's not a free lunch, but it is less expensive, yet more filling.

   The meshing of the keyboard layout with music theory, kinesiology and human perception is likely to be the greatest leap forward: its fun to have an instrument where the melody and the chords intertwine, where it's easy to add chords to a melody and the music makes sense.

     However, it takes a community to raise a child, so please join in; post your ideas and comments. This is your opportunity to make a difference, to get in at the start of something very cool, and have fun doing it. If you see anything where you think "that wasn't too clear" or "I wish I could see a demo of what he's talking about" there's your chance.

Interesting posts

The jammer explained (forthcoming)
A summary of its pros and cons, where you might best benefit, and a comparison of alternatives

Why the Jammer is laid out they way it is:

The Short and Simple explanation

A longer explanation for those who like detail & theory,
    Part one: It's easier to learn
    Part Two: It's easier to play

What we want to develop
a portable, flexible design example - here's how I built it

The surprising contribution of volume (forthcoming)
Pitch seems to reign, but volume actually rules.

In music, everything, but Everything is relative (forthcoming)
A "G" is the dominant of "C", but what is C the dominant of?

Playing Chords

Building jammers
Without an electronics degree and not as hard as one would think

A wearable jammer
The first attempt - it worked, but had issues, above I describe how to make it.

- a demo is forthcoming

Making a kit for a DIY General-purpose keyboard
The project is now underway.
Note that it can also be a Janko or a C-Thru Axis design too

Future Improvements:
1. a better keyshape?

2,  Other improvements I'd like to see
  - Key spacing, shaping and other tweaks.

Design notes

Making a virtue out of necessity

Having fun with design to create a very powerful instrument                  

Colouring the keys

An idea that paid off very well 

Learning to play a Jammer
Learning is simpler and faster if the instrument helps the learner, instead of confusing.
Fingering the jammer
How to get started

Advice from those who have gone before
Thummer (tm) users offer tips

Key shifting is simple
Really, really simple

Reading a musical score and playing it on the jammer
The musical score makes sense at last

Playing by ear
Finally we have an instrument that it's feasible for a novice to play by ear.

Playing Chords
Chords on the jammer – simple diagrams
- the root / key center     - building the triads          - building the major 6ths and 7ths
- building the minor 7ths  - building the jazz chords - building other fun chords 

Possible shortcuts to faster learning

                http://musicscienceguy.vox.com/library/post/shortcuts-to-faster-learning.html

Humor
Fortunately rare, and not well done
Music for Nerds
Music and musicians explained simply, as befits the subject and this writer

Related sites

Working from a keyboard to music:                

http://www.aqwertian.com

Try out the jammer/Thummer keyboard on your own PC              

http://www.thummer.com/ThumBoard/thumboard.html

Copyright (c)  2008 Ken Rushton
  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
  or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
  Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

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The quote for the revised pattern, the one that was supposed to be a whole lot cheaper, came in at $5,700 to make a mold and $.40 a pair to make the keys.

While the hunt for better quotes continues, it's time to see if another way to make the keys is possible.

Candidates are:
1) Print out a few master keys and from them make self-vulcanizing rubber molds, and cast by hand.
This is time and labour-intensive, but perhaps can be streamlined.

2) laser-cut the sides of the keys, and separately cut the connecting parts, so that they can be glued together by hand. This may be the best compromise.

Ken.

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Hello those who are following my attempts to make alternative, improved (that is Janko and jammer keyboard conversion) keys.
On Friday, I met with the local engineer for Hong-Kong Moulding, a firm that sells plastic parts in Vancouver via intermediaries in Hong-Kong and manufactures in said parts in Shi Jie Dongguang Guangdong.
Interesting experience, as I had to work, carefully, through an interpreter. Since this is a fair amount of money, and a mistake can mean that I'm eating "Kraft dinner" (an inexpensive Canadian macaroni and powdered cheese dish) for a while.
The bottom line is that by removing the "hook" on the key (the thing that juts down, hooking over a bumper on the base) and making it a glue on part, costs will come down 45% or so.

So I'm getting there, the cost has gone from ridiculous ($6,500 startup +  2.50/2 keys, limit of 2000 keys) to exorbitant ($6,400 + .40/2 keys, many, many keys possible) to just barely possible $under (?) $4,000 + $0.30/2 keys.

The next step? Stay tuned.

Ken.

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I bought a Keyrig 49 ($100), the lowest end of the M-Audio controllers. The thought was this would be a good entry-point, and that 2 keyboards together would make an awesome 96-key jammer. Also M-Audio's boss had told me we could get a good deal on "reconditioned" 49-key units.

Alas, it was meant not to be. The keys on the keyrig are cheap plastic things, very much unlike the keys on the 88es. Apparently, the key word to look for is "semi-weighted" keys. They do have 49-key units with weighted keys, but they come with unneeded bells and whistles.

Ken.

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