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Bare computer keyboard

Does anyone know where I can find a bare computer keyboard? I'm looking for just the bare plastic keyboard that has the tactile mechanical switches and the keycaps. I want to make a specialized keyboard using an old keyboard encoder chip to product a 7 bit parallel output. Mike

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mlawson
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"mlawson" schreef in bericht news:Hq6dnVc0i_CWBVPUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

A keyboard like that may be difficult to find but easy to make.

The next not too new second hand keyboard consists of a foil key matrix with tactile dome switches and a little pcb with a processor to interface to the PC. Problem may be the matrix not matching with your old keyboard encoder chip.

Even older keyboards may contain one PCB with the matrix and the electronics. So you can cut traces, remove or at least disconnect the existing electronics and wire your own matrix. I ever used an existing matrix and translated the generated codes using an EPROM (2716).

Finding a matching keyboard at once is possible. Like it is possible to be hit by a falling plane. Sometimes it happens to someone.

BTW

  1. What's the type of your encoder chip?
  2. Why do you want to use that encoder chip anyway? Converting using some micro looks a lot easier to me. The code for interfacing a keyboard to a PIC is available on the web. Implementing the parallel interface is not that difficult. Same may be available for other micros as well. Use some Google?

petrus bitbyter

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petrus bitbyter

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