[Coco] Mechanical keyboard upgrades for the CoCo

[camillus]

I am sure it can be done cheaper. Only the caps are to me a problem. Finding the right caps with coco3 specific captions is asking for DIY or ordering at pricely manufacturers.
 The PCB of which I would go with should not cost more then $35 if self made. The sherry MX keys are found at $39.00 for 120 pieces ( is 2 boards when fill up the gaps in the original design coco3 kb matrix).

I just want it to cost max $100. I think this can be done.

cb

Sent from Mailbird [http://www.getmailbird.com/?utm_source=Mailbird&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sent-from-mailbird]
On 8/21/2015 10:09:10 AM, Brian Blake <random.rodder at gmail.com> wrote:
I'm not picking on Ed specifically here, especially considering all of
his contributions to the CoCo-Cause, but, I'm having a hard time
justifying the recent comments regarding a mechanical keyboard being
prohibitively expensive, and here's why.

We all have significant investments in our CoCo systems. Those of us
running MPI's, floppy systems, hard disk systems, etc... have hundreds
of dollars in them. When the items were available, you were looking at
$100+ for a hard disk controller (not complete disk system) from Cloud
9. An MPI on eBay is all over the map, but, I've seen them go for over
$200 or as low as $50. How much will Jim's replacement MPI cost?

Why is it that paying $145 for a drop in keyboard seems scary?
Especially considering a keyboard is used EVERY TIME the CoCo is turned
on - the above equipment may or may not be.

Are PS/2 adapters wallet friendly? Hell yes they are! They also offer
the ability to use the keyboard a bit of a distance from the CoCo due to
the PS/2 keyboard's long cord. But, there's a lot to be said about
keeping the CoCo original, or semi-original. If the original keyboard
dies, and we still don't know about the mylar replacements yet, I don't
think anyone can argue with the utility or durability of the switches Ed
mentioned previously being on a drop in keyboard replacement. Having a
drop-in ready keyboard to keep the CoCo semi-original would be a great
item. I've got three CoCo's here with dead keyboards - while I wouldn't
necessarily buy three replacements at once, I certainly would over time
since I can only use one CoCo at a time, and I do like my hardware to be
functional - I only have two CoCo's that I consider parts machines, and
I bought them that way.

And to explain my admittedly biased though a little more, let's look at
the cost of the 'original' replacement keyboards and compare them to
today's dollar:

Keyboard 1984 Cost 2015 Cost

Macrotron Pro $49.95 $115.78
Macrotron Premium $89.95 $208.50
Keytronic $89.95 $208.50
MarkData $69.95 $162.14
HJL-57 $79.95 $185.32


No, it's not any easier to swallow, but, $150 for a drop in replacement
keyboard is not out of line compared to what was being sold 'back in the
day.'

Ed,

Unless your plan is to make a keyboard that might be modular between
several systems (which would be difficult at best considering keyboard
layouts), I don't understand why a CPLD would have to be placed on the
PCB. As long as the CoCo matrix is mapped out on the PCB and there's a
cable with an adapter to fit the CoCo motherboard, it should be fairly
simple.



On 8/21/2015 9:25 AM, Zippster wrote:
> For sure. But if ease, economy, and practicality were the goal, none of us would be here. :)
>
> We’d all just buy a windows box from Walmart and be done with it.
>
> But yeah, this project looks prohibitively expensive.
>
> - Ed
>
>
>


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tandy Color Computer
Tandy CoCo Forum

--
Coco mailing list
Coco at maltedmedia.com
https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco