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ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

github.com

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Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#4

Post by pmontra »

rwmj wrote: post #2

Looks fantastic! Just FYI there was a full travel keyboard for the ZX81 back in the day (and I own one): http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/hardware/dkTronicsKeyboard https://t-lcarchive.org/dktronics-keyboard/ I should get it out and take some good photos ...

Does it enclose the ZX81 or is it connected to the expansion bus, the one we used for the extra RAM card?

Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#5

Post by rwmj »

pmontra wrote: post #4
rwmj wrote: post #2

Looks fantastic! Just FYI there was a full travel keyboard for the ZX81 back in the day (and I own one): http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/hardware/dkTronicsKeyboard https://t-lcarchive.org/dktronics-keyboard/ I should get it out and take some good photos ...

Does it enclose the ZX81 or is it connected to the expansion bus, the one we used for the extra RAM card?

It entirely encloses the ZX81 and the RAM pack. Which is an issue because when myself and my father originally fitted it (back in probably 1982) we threw away the original "doorstop" shell of the ZX81 designed by Rick Dickenson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Dickinson).

Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#6

Post by buescher »

rwmj wrote: post #2

Looks fantastic! Just FYI there was a full travel keyboard for the ZX81 back in the day (and I own one): http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/hardware/dkTronicsKeyboard https://t-lcarchive.org/dktronics-keyboard/ I should get it out and take some good photos ...

Nice. In the US, I definitely remember seeing kits (perhaps loosely defined) of surplus keyboards and instructions for adapting them to the ZX81. A friend's dad who had built his ZX81 from a kit added a keyboard that way. Just little later on I think surplus TI/99 keyboards became the go to mod for anyone who was still running a ZX81/TS1000.

Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#7

Post by kjs3 »

rwmj wrote: post #2

Looks fantastic! Just FYI there was a full travel keyboard for the ZX81 back in the day (and I own one): http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/hardware/dkTronicsKeyboard https://t-lcarchive.org/dktronics-keyboard/ I should get it out and take some good photos ...

I recall seeing an Eastern Block manufactured ZX81 clone with a mechanical keyboard back in the day, and a couple of different Soviet era ZX81s with not-mechanical-but-vastly-improved keyboards. Seems like they really liked to clone the ZX81 behind the Iron Curtain.

That said, really isn't new. Lots of people took ZX's and modded them with new keyboards, bigger cases (better thermals & PS), better mechanical connection for expansion ports, etc.

Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#8

Post by cpcallen »

This is definitely tidier than the mechanical keyboard I had for my ZX81—build by a friend in the early '80s and purchased by me circa 1994!—which had keycaps which were more or less photocopies of the picture of the keyboard in the manual that had been photocopied and glued onto the keys of some ancient surplus terminal keyboard, with a healthy dose varnish to protect the paper on top and a lot of kludging of the PCB underneath to configure it to scan the same as the ZX81 membrane keyboard.

Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#9

Post by dfawcus »

A bit nicer than the one I did for a ZX80 many years ago.

I simply stripped the membrane key layer off the PCB, and soldered a set of mechanical key caps in place. It worked, and was a lot nicer to use.

The key caps were clear (and removable), so I placed pieces of paper with the various symbols under them.

Re: ZX81 Mechanical Keyboard

#10

Post by tpmx »

rwmj wrote: post #2

Looks fantastic! Just FYI there was a full travel keyboard for the ZX81 back in the day (and I own one): http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/hardware/dkTronicsKeyboard https://t-lcarchive.org/dktronics-keyboard/ I should get it out and take some good photos ...

I had this one piece "keyboard upgrade":

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/36030/Sinclair-ZX81-...

It's debatable if it improved things or not. Must have been really cheap to manufacture though.

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