[Coco] Mechanical keyboard upgrades for the CoCo

[Mark J. Blair]

I'm listening to episode 3 of the CoCo Crew Podcast, and my ears began ringing when they talked about this keyboard project. Cool!

Looking through the November, 1983 issue of Rainbow Magazine, I see five keyboard upgrade advertisements:

p76  $89.95 KeyTronic
p82  $69.95 Super-Pro
p149 $59.95 Spectrum Projects
p231 $79.95 HJL-57
p313 $89.95 Macrotron Premium (ALPS keyswitches)
p313 $49.95 Macrotron Professional (no picture?)

The return key placement on that Spectrum Projects keyboard is awful!

Taking the HJL-57 keyboard price as a benchmark and adjusting for inflation, it cost $191.56 in 2015 dollars:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=79.95&year1=1983&year2=2015

The other upgrades cost between $119.68 and $215.52 in 2015 dollars. Those selling prices appear to be right in line with the construction cost I'm estimating so far for a top-end, low-quantity keyboard, with a relatively light markup.

Here's where I am right now:

* Cost of keyswitches is understood.
* Cost of custom keycaps is understood.
* I have a feeling for the likely PCB cost.
* Next step is to design the sheet metal and bezel, then shop those around for quotes.

This weekend I need to spend some time on a Timex Sinclair 2068 project that I've said I'd do, so I don't know if I'll make progress on the keyboard project this weekend. But it's moving along, and it might even see the light of day!

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/