Kaypro II keyboard fault / keyswitches wanted

Jules Richardson jules.richardson99 at gmail.com
Wed Apr 18 18:01:39 CDT 2018


Hey all,

I snagged a Kaypro II a short while ago which I finally got around to 
looking at. After some minor TLC to the drives, it's booting.

However, the keyboard appears unresponsive. Pressing keys (with the 
exception of caps-lock, the two shifts, and ctrl) results in a buzz/click 
from within the keyboard - if I'm interpreting the schematics right, the 
click is actually driven by the system in response to a keypress, which 
suggests that my keyswitches are OK (I believe these use a foam disc 
approach, which are prone to deterioration) and that keyboard data is being 
received OK (at least on some low level).

Any suggestions for possible things to investigate? It doesn't feel like a 
memory fault, given that it's using 64kx1 ICs and booting as far as a 
prompt, but I suppose it's possible.

On the back of this, I'm in need of three keyswitches, if anyone happens to 
have a parts machine and would be willing to sell any. A student of the 
machine's previous owner dropped the keyboard years ago and broke three of 
the keys off. I have the keycaps, but the switch stems are broken and it 
would probably be easier to replace the entire stem portions rather than 
attempting to glue things back together.

cheers

Jules


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