The visible casing and the plates are laser-cut acrylic plates. They can be engraved as suitable.
The casing is mounted onto a 3D-printed backplane, which also holds multiple switches. The switches are pressed by protrusions of the inserts (which of course have 135 degree angles!). The slits on the side have a backside made of diffuse acrylic with LEDs mounted behind them to allow illumination of the inserts.
The SVGs for lasercutting are generated "by hand" in python.
The 3D-printed base is generated using MuSCAD[https://pypi.org/project/muscad/] and OpenSCAD[https://openscad.org/].
<gallery widths="400px" heights="300px">
Datei:Ancient_board_base.png|3D printed base
Datei:iter2.png|with insert and translucent side walls
Datei:iter3.png|the translucent side wall is covered by a black front plate with cutouts for the inserts
Datei:iter4.png|plates are clipped in horizontally and serve as the bottom of the pocket
Datei:iter5.png|the pocket is closed with plates. cutouts at the bottom allow exit of cables for the switches
Datei:iter6.png|the whole box is covered with a top plate
Datei:iter7.png|all plates on the side are fixed by screws
</gallery>
==== Electronics ====
The system is controlled by an ESP32 running ESP-IDF and FreeRTOS.
The switches are handled by I2C port expanders. The LED strips are controlled by WS2812 chips.
<gallery widths="400px" heights="300px">
Datei:IMG_20230416_023446_267.jpg|Bottom side with port expanders and logos
Datei:IMG_20230416_023438_465.jpg|Top side with ESP32 and connectors for LEDs and Switches
</gallery>
I'm particularly proud of this because this PCB was a "first" in multiple ways
* It was my first PCB made with '''LibrePCB'''[https://librepcb.org/] (that actually works). If you want do create PCBs with an open source tool and found Eagle much more usable than KiCad, you should check it out.
* It's my first 4-layer PCB. 2 Layers would probably have been sufficient if I spent more time on optimizing the design. But I wanted to try out making a 4-layer PCB anyway.
* It's the first time I soldered TSSOP packages. They are a PITA if you are as motorically incompetent as I am.