Upgrading a Laptop with a Mechanical Keyboard
To improve the typing experience on his laptop, Marcin Plaza ripped out the original keyboard and replaced it with a mechanical one.
One big advantage of my profession (which is writing these articles for you lovely folks) is that I can work from anywhere in the world with a decent internet connection. But I’m not a digital nomad. Why? Because laptop keyboards suck and I much prefer to type on the mechanical keyboard connected to my desktop computer at home. But Marcin Plaza is in college and living in a dorm, so his options are limited. To improve the typing experience on his laptop, he ripped out the original keyboard and replaced it with a mechanical keyboard.
A lot of laptops do have mechanical keyboards, but they almost always have scissor switches that don’t feel good. There isn’t enough travel, the break is usually muddy, and the ultra-flat key switches make everything even worse. Marcin’s laptop keyboard broke and he decided he wanted a legit mechanical keyboard with the same Cherry MX-compatible key switches that you’ll find on models meant for use with desktops.
But while Marcin’s laptop is five years old, it is still very thin. In fact, the entire laptop was thinner than even the thinnest “real” mechanical keyboards on the market. Marcin knew that the only way a mechanical keyboard would fit is if the laptop’s enclosure grew to create more space.
Most of Marcin’s work on this project went into designing that new, larger enclosure. It includes everything below the screen hinges. Marcin modeled it in CAD as two pieces: a complex 3D-printable top and a more basic flat bottom. He had PCBWay print the top in a nice resin, then fabricated the bottom himself out of polycarbonate sheet. That’s transparent, giving everyone a nice view of the inside bits. Marcin also had to craft a few internal aluminum brackets by hand in order to mount the parts.
Those parts are all of the original laptop components, with a couple of exceptions. The major exception is, of course, the keyboard. That appears to be a portable 68-key model from Redragon. Marcin connected that to the laptop’s motherboard through a USB hub tucked into the new enclosure. That was clever, because it also gave Marcin some additional USB ports on the front of the laptop.
This upgraded laptop may not be as sleek as it once was, but it genuinely isn’t bad. It is thic, not thiccc. And now Marcin can type his college essays in clickity clackety comfort.