this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023

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Anyone have a good way to mount a low profile rotary encoder? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by jhelvy@lemmy.world to c/ergomechkeyboards@lemmy.world

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I usually mount encoders by just gluing them in place. JB weld works great. But I got this low profile one from beekeeb and if you put glue on the bottom it will stop it from rotating. I'm trying to think of other strategies. Right now I'm working on a way to somehow mount it to the bottom half of a choc switch and then glue the switch to the pcb, but still don't have a good way to do it.

Edit: To be clear, I'm not trying to mount this in a pcb designed for an encoder. I'm putting it in place of a typical switch on a pcb. In the past I've just used JB weld on the bottom of an EC11 to hold it in place and it worked great. The issue with this one is that the bottom is open, so if I use any kind of glue to mount it the glue will also prevent the encoder from rotating. You can see what I mean here: https://shop.beekeeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/IMG_2433-scaled.jpg

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[–] FlatFootFox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you trying to make a hotswap encoder or something? The two big pins on the sides are mounting pins. Just solder those bad boys down and you should be good to go.

[–] jhelvy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

solder them to what? I don't see anything that would work on a typical switch mount in a pcb. Not trying to make something hotswap.

[–] FlatFootFox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Ah, sorry, just saw your post update. I thought you were working with a PCB with an encoder footprint. Unfortunately I don't have much experience adding an encoder to a non-encoder board.

[–] morsebipbip@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i guess you could put it in place, bend the big fixation pins outwards and then glue those directly on the inside of the case.

[–] jhelvy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That's not a bad idea! I'll see if I can try that.

[–] Skree@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Before the whole reddit explosion squished sales I was working on having hotswap EC-11 single key pcbs. I'm basically there. It's expensive with the method I've found that works but an option if you're interested.

Honestly, if you don't want hotswap you could also just solder them to one of the EC-11 single key pcbs I've made.

[–] jhelvy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good idea on the single key pcbs. Got a link? And man, sorry about the explosion. Totally didn't think about how it'd affect sales. So far I still don't think it was a good move. I keep running into more buggy stuff with lemmy, and every time I search for something on google I get a reddit link. No new posts on here are gonna get picked up by Google so that's the end of searchability.

[–] Skree@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

https://github.com/WainingForests/Universal-Toe-Beans Or toss me a email / message me on discord (Alakuu or Skree_LLC) and I'll see about getting a listing up. My prototypes in black worked perfectly fine. I haven't ordered for the hotswap just yet but if you're interested I can finalize the design tonight and order probably tomorrow!

[–] obosob@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It looks like it fits the standard EC11 footprint. Surely it'll just mount to the PCB directly.

[–] jhelvy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue is if I try to use any kind of glue to mount it, the glue will also prevent the encoder from rotating because the bottom is open. It's not like an EC11 where the bottom is metal. You can see what I mean here: https://shop.beekeeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/IMG_2433-scaled.jpg

[–] obosob@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But why do you need glue? It's got an EC11 footprint, solder it to that.

Okay, just saw your edit. What's stopping you from just modifying the PCB in kicad and swapping a switch footprint, rather than bodging it?

Anyway, yeah, dremmeling out a choc bottom sounds a reasonable solution. Or just be careful and only glue the perimeter

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