24 Nov
2002
24 Nov
'02
6:17 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Sark once stated:
Actually, I've been planning on building my own. I am currently
tracking down old, broken keyboards from terminals, etc. to get keytops
and switches from, and I am going to canniballize a cheap PC USB
keyboard for it's encoder chip and associated circuitry. Basically, I'm
going to build a new key matrix from real switches, to replace that
membrane and rubber disc thing modern keyboards use. I've done stuff
like this before, rewiring a very old PC keyboard to replace a broken
TRS-80 Color Computer 3 keyboard. With any luck, I'll have something
that won't wear out nearly as fast as others, and be comfortable to
type on as well. The only thing I might run into is contact bounce. I
don't know if there is anything in a USB keyboard to deal with this, as
I don't think membrane keyboards have quite the problem with contact
bounce as mechanical switches do. Any ideas?
IBM AT or PS/2 keyboards. The AT has a slightly better tactile feel, but
the PS/2 is easier to find and has separate editing and numeric keypad.
And they're nearly indistructable.
-spc (I've wore out cheaper keyboards ... )