[Coco] Mechanical keyboard upgrades for the CoCo

[Zippster]

I would like to see this as well.  They would be expensive though.
Without digging too hard, I came up with the following prices…

Cherry keyswitches (57) = $85.50
Keycap set = $30

Add to that a PCB with a CPLD on it to remap the keys to what the CoCo expects = $25 (parts)

So we’re looking at ~ $140 for just the basic parts for such an item.  Then you’d have to assemble it.
I’m not sure how much could be done with volume discounts to get this down.

So, not cheap, but they could be made super nice.  :)

- Ed


> On Aug 21, 2015, at 7:08 AM, Steve Batson via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> This would be my preference over Mylar if the price was reasonable. Way back when I had my first CoCo 1, I obtained a surplus new Model 1 keyboard. I wired it's matrix for the CoCo (took several hours) an it was awesome. 
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 20, 2015, at 11:46 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
> 
>> The discussion of producing new mylar sheets has gotten me thinking... Way back in the day, I recall drooling over fancy keyboard upgrades for my CoCo 1 that were advertised in Rainbow Magazine. If I recall correctly, they were the HJL-57 keyboards. I didn't have any money, and I couldn't talk my dad into buying one, but they sure looked nice compared to that hard chiclet keyboard.
>> 
>> Has anybody considered manufacturing new mechanical keyboard upgrades for the CoCo family, perhaps using the popular Cherry MX series keyswitches? I expect that it would be prohibitively expensive, and I doubt that the entire remaining market for such a thing would be large enough to get the cost down even to the range of high-end gaming and programmer keyboards, which can run well over a hundred bucks. But maybe I'm wrong about that, and talking about the topic for a bit might be fun anyway.
>> 
>> So, what do y'all think? I'd enjoy replacing the mushy-feeling keyboard in my CoCo 3 with a set of clicky Cherry MX blues, even if only in my imagination.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
>> http://www.nf6x.net/
>> 
>> 
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