speak & read - drilling around keyboard

[karczilla]

so i was finishing up my circuit bend speak and read and decided to add two more banana jacks (+ and -) for various usage as voltage dividers (have a patch bay with pots etc)...

anyway i turn on the damn thing and only half the keyboard works..

so i peel away the keyboard and find that the damn keyboard matrix layout goes way further than i had assumed and now i need to swap the keyboard (put it wayy too much work into this thing..)

happen to find a broken one for 10 bucks on ebay. buy now.

here's the picture of the keyboard matrix for the speak and read. i wouldn't be surprised if the other speak and Xs have similar layouts. stay away from drilling the keyboard.

i heard using PC dust spay upside down (as a frost spray) helps with peeling off stickers/plastic...going to try this to take off the replacement keyboard.

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[Bogus Noise]

There's minor variations, but they're all roughly similar to that.

You can also draw a new trace using conductive paint or a conductive pen.

Also Isopropyl Alcohol is great stuff for dissolving the kind of glue they used to stick the keyboard down.

[karczilla]

there in indeed minor variations. the replacement for parts one i bought had a slightly different keyboard matrix that did NOT go down in that region.

more importantly, the ribbon connection to the PCB was different. the traces would not line up in the same places as the old one. guess i have to buy another :/

the replacement speak and read keyboard's blue background color was very dark navy blue FWIW.

the one picture above was a lighter blue and the top has a bit of texture, for lack of better works.

[Bogus Noise]

That's odd - I've always seen them with the same connection! Can you post photos of the two side by side?

I found it really difficult to plug the new keyboard in, until I discovered my Tesco Clubcard keyboard is the right width to plug into the slot while being thin enough to not stretch it out too much, and now I use that to push the keyboard ribbon in

[karczilla]

here ya go. hope it helps someone one day.

note- the dark blue one (with green matrix plastic) has these odd hex-like screws, whereas the clear matrix plastic speak and read has normal phillips screws.

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IMG_2057.jpg
Description:	the original keyboard pad of the halfway bent speak and read. this speak and read had normal phillips screws in the back. drilled through the bottom of the pad to add banana jacks and ended up with a half working keyboard. drilled through unknown keyboa
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IMG_2058.JPG
Description:	the original keyboard pad of the halfway bent speak and read. this speak and read had normal phillips screws in the back. drilled through the bottom of the pad to add banana jacks and ended up with a half working keyboard. drilled through unknown keyboa
Filesize:	1.6 MB
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IMG_2054.jpg
Description:	the original keyboard pad of the halfway bent speak and read. this speak and read had normal phillips screws in the back. drilled through the bottom of the pad to add banana jacks and ended up with a half working keyboard. drilled through unknown keyboar
Filesize:	2.26 MB
Viewed:	334 Time(s)
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IMG_2056.jpg
Description:	replacement, for parts, speak and read keyboard. this keyboard was a darker blue color (see side by side comparison photo below). and was very....flat....for lack of better words. also didn't have much of a texture. this speak and read has odd hex like s
Filesize:	2.04 MB
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IMG_2049.jpg
Description:	replacement, for parts, speak and read keyboard. this keyboard was a darker blue color (see side by side comparison photo below). and was very....flat....for lack of better words. also didn't have much of a texture. this speak and read has odd hex like s
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[karczilla]

side by side comparison of the colors.

also note the slight difference in font thickness.

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Description:	side by side
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[karczilla]

indeed this worked buying the 2nd cheap, for parts, replacement i found on ebay. looking out for color, texture, and font and nailed the model i required.

my baby's alive again!