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Mac Plus Wireless Keyboard?

Submitted by Mac128 on November 12, 2007 - 6:17am. Hardware Hacks

What would it take to adapt the Mac Plus keyboard to the new wireless Apple keyboards? In looking around the net these new keyboards seem to have some kind of thin rubber film and sort of rubber nipples that support the keys themselves. I can see traces in the membrane, so theoretically I would just solder wires from the Mac Plus key switches to the wireless keyboard membrane traces. Or would it be nearly so easy? There's more than enough room in the bottom of the MacPlus keyboard case to do it with the circuit board removed. But can it be easily done without destroying the delicate looking membrane?

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gobabushka's picture

that would be soo cool if you

Submitted by gobabushka on November 13, 2007 - 3:24pm.

that would be soo cool if you could do it!!!

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eeun's picture

You won't be able to solder t

Submitted by eeun on November 13, 2007 - 4:59pm.

You won't be able to solder to the membrane layers. They're made of a very thin printed-on layer of conductive paint on top of a thin mylar or similar. Any attempt to solder would melt the mylar.

What you might be able to do, though, is wire a plus keyboard to the same matrix, and connect that to the wireless keyboard's PCB.

...or bypass re-wiring and get a pic programmer and have it translate the plus kbd. matrix to the wireless matrix, similar to these chaps for the Atari ST. I've built 5 of those, but designing and writing the program is way out of my league.

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Jon's picture

You'll need to map far more k

Submitted by Jon on November 14, 2007 - 2:03am.

You'll need to map far more keys than a single Plus keyboard has too. No F-keys, fewer Meta keys, no paging keys, no media controls. You may do well to just match up to the existing Plus keys but you'll loose a lot of functionality.

EDIT: Well, I just counted 76 keys on the new wireless keyboard, 78 on a Plus keyboard (w/ number pad). I first responded with the first gen BT keyboard in mind.

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DrBunsen's picture

There's an open-source keyboa

Submitted by DrBunsen on November 14, 2007 - 7:46am.

There's an open-source keyboard protocol translator project at http://www.kbdbabel.org for (inexpensive) PIC microcontrollers. It's already up and running for several protocols. I would encourage everyone who's interested in this kind of thing and has the necessary chops to sign up and help out. The ADB protocol in particular seems to need some help Laughing out loud

For example, they already have a working translator for a Mac 128k/512k/Plus Keyboard on a PS2 Computer, and PS2 kb on a Plus. Getting the ADB protocol sorted out would add a whole buttload of niftyness.

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