Well, for now I'm giving up on my 3D printer and moving onto a new project. After the new project is finished, I may circle back to the 3D printer. The new project involves putting a Raspberry Pi Zero W and LCD into a TI Calculator case and getting the buttons to function as a keyboard. I will also be adding a Lithium Ion battery so that the whole thing is rechargeable.

This is something I've had on the back shelf since December or so when I got the idea. In the mean time I've acquired a couple of TI calculators and the Raspberry Pi Zero W. I also got an extension cable and have been planning how everything will fit in the case. Yesterday I took apart a TI-86 that was non-functional and used a heat fun to remove all of the components from the board. I plan on using a TI-83 Plus for the case because I think it looks a little better and it doesn't have the clear plastic that would go on top of the LCD so I could still use the touchscreen. I'm considering the option of mounting the LCD flush so that it's easier to touch the edges, but I'm not set on that..

I went ahead and ordered a Adafruit PowerBoost 1000 Charger to handle the charging of the battery as well as a battery that should fit where the AAA batteries go. Once I have that, I should have everything I need to complete the project. The next steps are to clean up any remaining solder on the circuit board from the calculator and start mapping out the key matrix.. I'm using an Adafruit PiTFT Plus Capacitive Touchscreen and separating the LCD from the circuit board. The reason for the separation is that the circuit board makes it too big to fit in the calculator case. I may also end up cutting the board down as well as desoldering the buttons and larger connector and soldering the raspberry pi directly to that board. I may also end up soldering a ribbon cable between the board if that would make them too thick. I'm also hoping to be able to fit the PowerBoost where the button cell battery would normally go, but I'll know more once I receive everything,

At this point I need to get everything working together electrically, then I'll get it to fit in the case and finally I also need to work on the software. I'm hoping to find some information about reading the keys and placing the key presses directly into the input stream.