[Coco] Mechanical keyboard upgrades for the CoCo

[Troy Brumley]

I had one of those keyboards. Sigh.
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Sent from myMail app for Android Friday, 21 August 2015, 09:28AM -04:00 from Brian Blake < random.rodder at gmail.com> :

>
>The HJL-57 was $80(?) in 1984 - according to this website: 
>http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=80&year=1984
>
>$80 in 1984 would be $186 and change now....
>
>
>On 8/21/2015 8:37 AM, Zippster wrote:
>> 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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>>>
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>>
>
>
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