[Coco] Here's a CoCo 1 with what appears to be a custom keyboard

[Al Hartman]

Those are not individual keys. That is a full keyboard with keys attached to 
a plastic spine. I have one somewhere. I bought it at the TCF fleamarket.

Behind each keystation is a set of contacts one would solder to a logic 
board, or hand wire up. The perfboard replaces a logic board with traces, 
and is the obvious way to mount it.

If one were to draw, make and fabricate a one off logic board to mate that 
keyboard to a Coco, you'd better get it right first try (or with minor 
fixes) because once you solder all those contacts, it would be a bear to 
de-solder them all. And you might damage the keyboard in the process.

Someone took a bare, generic keyboard and wired it up for use on the Coco, 
attaching it to the perfboard for stability, and ease of mounting. It sits 
up so high because the keys are mounted above the line of the mounting 
posts. Look at an Apple keyboard, or any after market Coco keyboard that has 
a metal back with the logic board the keys are mounted to below that line.

-[ Al ]-