Building my own Merc Stealth (complete project writeup)

[Hal Richard]

I gave up on the idea myself, but look forward to your results!

I have looked into it for awhile. The actual physical part of purchasing switches and key caps is easy and relativey cheap. The transistors are readily available and the solid copper wire cheap. I have a workshop with the equipment,mats and the experience to build a nice box/platform. Yesterday looked into the Coding Installation that looks actually pretty easy. You can DL a Keyboard software install and customize it to your liking without really getting into actually writing code. The PC electronics piece is priced just over $20 for a 5 volt version and has like 48 pins available. For my Custom Claw I counted a requirement of only 28 pins.
I build RC Sailboats and have some commitments in that regard at the moment so it may be a few weeks before I jump into this but I can imagine a weeks worth of work and less than $100 USD. Sure I will send a few pics.

 

[coxwain]

After a few pointers from Rilot, I decided to have a go myself and here is the result.

Warning: The sight of my first ever attempt at soldering may cause distress



My first ever soldering attempt. Red Gateron Switches soldered to diodes in a matrix.



Soldering complete and tested.



Gluing down the final USB cable. I had to reposition a few of the wires first.



View from the top.



Keycaps added



Build complete. I tested it with a solo game of Deep Rock Galactic! Above is the original MERC Keyboard.

I still need to replace the 4 corner bolts with some nicer ones and then cut them down to size, which will lower the whole thing by 1.2cm. Finally I'll stick on some rubber feet to stop it sliding around as currently its just resting on the 4 bolt ends. Both things should arrive mid next week.

Thanks for listening and thanks to Rilot who by originally posting his build introduced me to the (extensive) world of custom keyboards

Images hosted on Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/PRv0Lhl

i love this. Seriously, I would like to put this into production. Anyone interested in getting these made in real life to sell?

 

[Hal Richard]

Very well done Mr Coxswain. Im still interested to do this.

 

[coxwain]

I seriously want to go into production on this keyboard. I have no experience in this type of thing. I don't even know where to start

 

[Hal Richard]

I seriously want to go into production on this keyboard. I have no experience in this type of thing. I don't even know where to start

Start by building it the way you like it. Then polish it up a bit. See what happens.

For me its the advantage of spacing everything out the way that I want it, eliminating keys that I really do not use or want on it, and finally using keycaps with the actual sizing I want for for each keypoint. A custom job for sure.
I have been using the Merc Stealth since it came out. I liked it so much I bought another one for back-up. That was almost 20 years ago. While the Claw side of the keyboard was miles ahead of anyone, I still had my problems with it. Mainly that my hands are large and fingers felt cramped, plus I didnt like all the very small round cap keys for 1-11. I think you could actually produce one of these on a boutique level and get orders.

 

[Mrbotmachine]

Hello everyone,
I found this tread when i was looking for something like my old Mercstealth and i was thinking of use an old one that i have for spare parts and rebuild the gamepad!!!
As anyone used a Mercstealth and build something with it???
Thanks all

 

[von Humboldt]

I won't link to it as they may be seen as a competitor, but I found a guy making gamepads based on the Merc design and layout. Unfortunately it's very expensive (doubt he sells many and a lot of the parts are bespoke), but some of you might want to check them out. Think they sell parts as well if you want to build it yourself. Google Ergostrafer.