A1200 Keyboard Shortage

[acidbottle]

Well, after looking at the sterling job Amiga Bill did with his pi4, thought it might be fun to throw togther an a1200 version, a fully pimped and emuated Amiga system!

So getting a case is fine (have a spare), keyrah no probs and the pi4 is in abundance.

Question was keyboards. None to be found, anywhere. Best was Analogic for £140, with missing keys!! Bit too much.

Kipper2k has vanished, handing over the rights to manufacture to AOTL, where of course none are to be found.

I literrally looked at over 30 Amiga stores worldwide and found nothing. Just several crapped up ones on ebay .. sigh. Covid surely hasnt caused such a shortage in a fundamental piece of the Amiga hardware.

Anyone able to help me here, preferably an original keyboard. Any of the custom mech keyboards would be nice also, if the price is right.

Thought about a500 keyboards but seems you need to trim the cases for it to fit, plus no Keyrah compatibility, I believe.

Thanks in advance.

[Daedalus]

I believe Rastport are also working on a similar mechanical replacement keyboard for the 500 & 1200. It might be worth looking into that if it's near completion...

Facebook linky

[acidbottle]

Thank you for that. Looks like nothing tangible as yet but will keep an eye out for them, pretty cool looking.

[SpocksBeer]

You can DIY one if you have the time:

https://github.com/aeberbach/A1200KB

Designed and built by aeberbach here on the forum:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...200+mechanical

[acidbottle]

Cheers for the link Spocks, if all else fails I can try and bodge one together I suppose haha!

Further investigation led me to a neat membrane that is readily available. Just leaves the plastic mould for the keys and the metal frame to house them in that is missing! Think I actually have an a500 plastic keyboard mould kicking around, if that is useable just the metal back required. So near, yet too far ..

[Jope]

Originally Posted by acidbottle

Cheers for the link Spocks, if all else fails I can try and bodge one together I suppose haha!

Further investigation led me to a neat membrane that is readily available. Just leaves the plastic mould for the keys and the metal frame to house them in that is missing! Think I actually have an a500 plastic keyboard mould kicking around, if that is useable just the metal back required. So near, yet too far ..

It is super trivial to convert an A500 mitsumi keyboard into an a1200 keyboard. All you need is an angle grinder / a hacksaw. And of course the a500 keyboard and an aftermarket a1200 membrane.

- strip the a500 keyboard by removing the controller board, switch tray, membrane
- put the a1200 membrane into the a500 mitsumi metal backplate, mark where the long cable part of membrane comes out at the back
- cut a notch in the back of the backplate where the membrane would come out, tidy the edges
- look at the top right corner of the backplate where the controller board used to be, cut out all metal from inside the opening at the top right corner so that it is a neat rectangle for the A1200 led board to fit through
- look at the switch tray, tidy up the top right corner with your hacksaw so that there are no protrusions above the asterisk key, again so that the LED board will fit
- do a test fit with the switch tray + a1200 membrane, perhaps hollow out a tiny bit of the back of the switch tray where the membrane comes out at the notch if it seems to crimp it
- reassemble your a1200 membrane + modified a500 switch tray to your modified back plate
- enjoy an a1200 with beige keycaps

This is very quick to do if you have an angle grinder and steady hands. Slower but still easy with a hacksaw or dremel.

[acidbottle]

Absolutely spot on Jope, many thanks for that reply.

Have literally just been on ebay and noticed a guy selling A500 metal backplates (and screws) for peanuts and have located my A500 keyboard tray, missing several keys but have those sorted to. Just need to borrow a dremel! Wasnt sure it was going to be a spot on fit but the A1200 keyboard does near look identical, aside from slot for the ribbon cable.

Think this is going to be the best way to go by far happy days indeed.

[Jope]

I did a couple of these, super simple to do and A500 keyboards are plentiful. :-)

[aeberbach]

I will chime in and note that a converted A500 keyboard is just as mushy and horrible as a real A1200 keyboard, but I'm a bit biased If I could buy an AOTL kipper2k keyboard I probably would, it would be cheaper than buying correct Cherry MX keycaps from Signature Plastics. If AOTL have stock of keycaps they are crazy for not just pricing a set at $100 and ordering more from their supplier - with the amount of sets out there I don't know if they can have recovered the price of having a custom set made yet.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by aeberbach

I will chime in and note that a converted A500 keyboard is just as mushy and horrible as a real A1200 keyboard, but I'm a bit biased

Yep. Get some KPQ/KKQ rubber sleeves in place of the springs and it becomes nicer. I've gutted old PC KPQ mitsumis for the rubbers. :-)

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Mitsumi_KPQ_Type
https://deskthority.net/wiki/Mitsumi_KKQ_Type

[jlin_au]

You could wait for A1200NET to complete their A1200 keyboard. See https://www.a1200.net/amiga-compatib...ical-keyboard/

Note - they may launch it as either a Kickstarter or Indiegogo funded project.

[Krashan]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

I believe Rastport are also working on a similar mechanical replacement keyboard for the 500 & 1200. It might be worth looking into that if it's near completion...

KA59 model is for Amiga 1200 only and indeed it is near completion. Next model planned is Amiga 600.

[amigasith]

Originally Posted by Krashan

KA59 model is for Amiga 1200 only and indeed it is near completion. Next model planned is Amiga 600.

Awesome Are you going to sell international layouts, too, for KA59? Sorry, if I wasn't following your news updates very closely.. If you are going to produce German ones, I'm all in for at least one

[Krashan]

Originally Posted by amigasith

If you are going to produce German ones

Why not. This one is already somewhere in Germany.

[amigasith]

Originally Posted by Krashan

Why not. This one is already somewhere in Germany.

Now you made me jealous I LOVE mechanical keyboards

[acidbottle]

Those KA59s look fantastic and are on my wish list for sure. Will follow progress closely as missing out would be annoying!

[MickGyver]

Originally Posted by Krashan

KA59 model is for Amiga 1200 only and indeed it is near completion. Next model planned is Amiga 600.

Shut up and take my money is obvious, but where can I follow this project?

[Jope]

Originally Posted by MickGyver

Shut up and take my money is obvious, but where can I follow this project?

Check RastPort's facebook and twitter feeds.

[acidbottle]

Well the project is a disaster!

Unless a Kipper2k appears in the wild then anyone's hopes of building an FPGA or PI Amiga clone are pretty much dead in the water. Keyrah is out of stock everywhere and according to one site, discontinued! Would seem then KA59 wouldn't even help, unless it had a usb option, which is unlikely.

Maybe one day ....

[Jope]

Which project was this that failed?