Will put photo's up as I slowly make progress. Saw a video on YouTube explaining how to do it (here) so I thought I'd give it a crack. getting the board out was the easy bit. Mapping the keys/pins is where the hard part starts. Then there is the fiddely soldering of tiny pins on the PCB. Burnt one board with too much heat of the iron, but a trip to the local tip shop fixed that and a couple of $ for another keyboard. Had to map the keys again though. Ggggrrrrrrr. Hate that bit. To date has only cost about $30 in a few bits and pieces to get me going. Will post how much it costs at the end as well.
I will say this. Mapping the keys is extremely difficult to get the keys you want, and VERY easy to make a mistake. The easier, and faster way is just to solder up a bunch of wires to the PCB pins and just see what combinations work and can be used. I was trying to get all the number keys 1-0 and ended up only getting 5 and 6. but have a bunch of letters along with the space and backspace keys. Will be more than enough to hook up to the number of buttons I will have.
Using the number keys has unwanted side effects. The look left, right, up and down buttons are all numbers so using them makes you look that direction as well as whatever you have the key mapped to. Better off using a letter key that does not have any other function. I agree with tb in the trial and error method of sussing out the bombinations.
Yep. That's why I'm going down this road instead of using a usb number pad I got. I was trying to use the numbers across the top of the keyboard. Not the ones in the pad on the side.
final buttons and switches purchased today, and layout worked out. Couldn't be bothered waiting for delivery from an eBay purchase, so just headed down to the local Jaycar and bought them from there. More expensive I know, but hey, support your local businesses. Now just to finish the wiring and figure out a mounting system/point for the rig.
Got it mounted on the rig. everything working nicely, except that is from the two missing buttons. Went to solder them up and realised instead of being closed when pushed, they were open when pushed. Look identical apart from the pins on the back. Must have been mixed up in the shelf at Jaycar. Just need a bit of black paint on the mount and it'll look like its meant to be there.
Another tip I'll share is to put hot glue over all the soldering on the PCB with the pins so close together, it is very easy for the wires soldered to them to touch giving you a double keystroke when pushing one button. Only do this once everything is tested and working though. Another video I watched said to put epoxy over it all, but hot glue was to hand, easy and worked a treat.
All done. Final cost was around just $60. That's everything from the box, to the donor keyboard. Very happy with how it worked out. Final tip, use the lightest wire you can get away with. They end up very bunched up inside. I only just got the box lid screwed down. Hope a few guys are keen to do this themselves, saves a lot of money and you get to build exactly what you want/need.
Not sure, what would you pay. Can be a frustrating, time consuming process. To charge properly would be too much, but might do it for a reasonable offer.
Was there a plan you worked off for this? I could throw one of these together if I had a plan to work from. EDIT: Nevermind, finally found the link to the video.