Amiga 1000 keyboard

Hi People
Just Wondering i was given an Amiga 1000 without a keyboard
and was wondering if i can butcher a pc keyboard or does someone want to sell me one if possible (im in Australia)
Thanks

[Severin]

Butchering a pc keyboard won't help, iirc you will either need a proper A1000 kbd (see. rocking horse shit), a home made adaptor for an A2000/A4000 keyboard (easiest soultion) or check out epic or mmkeyboard on aminet for a home made pc->amiga adaptor...

Option 1 would be really nice, I loved the way I could just slide my A1000 keyboard under the computer to get it out of the way

[gary]

I think your best bet would be to track down a second hand A500 and use that keyboard with simple re-wiring with the A1000. On the other hand you may want to just use the A500 instead?

[Severin]

Originally posted by gary
I think your best bet would be to track down a second hand A500 and use that keyboard with simple re-wiring with the A1000. On the other hand you may want to just use the A500 instead?

hmmm, not quite so simple as the keyboard controller chip is on the A500 motherboard, but the A1000/2000/3000/4000 keyboards have the chip in the keybaord itself...

So when your doing your simple rewiring of an A500 keyboard please don't forget the following...

1. You will need to remove the keyboard connector from the A500 mothorboard as you can't solder to that nasty plastic ribbon stuff

2. Rip off the controller chip, and any other components it might need

3. Design and build a small circuit board to mount it all on

4. Spend many many hours trying to get the thing working


Or use my method, get an A2000/4000 keybaord and replace the lead with a telephone one...

Hmmm, tricky choice

[Jope]

Originally posted by Severin
hmmm, not quite so simple as the keyboard controller chip is on the A500 motherboard, but the A1000/2000/3000/4000 keyboards have the chip in the keybaord itself...

So when your doing your simple rewiring of an A500 keyboard please don't forget the following...

1. You will need to remove the keyboard connector from the A500 mothorboard as you can't solder to that nasty plastic ribbon stuff :)

2. Rip off the controller chip, and any other components it might need :)

3. Design and build a small circuit board to mount it all on :)

4. Spend many many hours trying to get the thing working :)


Or use my method, get an A2000/4000 keybaord and replace the lead with a telephone one...

Hmmm, tricky choice :lol

Untrue. The A500 keyboard is fully functional, if taken out of the box. The A1200 and A600 keyboards are just pieces of plastic and metal, however. Those machines have the controllers on the motherboard.

If you plug the A500 keyboard into a big box Amiga, you'll notice that the keyboard reset won't work (it'll only reset the keyboard :-) .. removing transistor Q1 should do the trick to make it behave like it's big sisters. (IIRC .. it's a long time since I last had to do that)