[sdiy] 61 Note Keyboard from Electronic Goldmine

[Scott Stites]

Hi Tim,

The keyboard is at home right now, so I'm going from memory...

Mechanically, the keyboard has a metal frame, and right now I can't remember if
you could remove the metal frame and get away with still having the key action. 
Offhand, I can't remember if it could be easily 'chopped' or not.

Electrically, using the PCB and membrane contacts, it ought to be fairly easy to
transfer that stuff over with relatively little hassle.  The diode matrix is
divided into two different boards, with ribbon cable connecting them together. 
IIRC, the left board has 24 contacts and the right board has 37 contacts (which
would be perfect for the Oddy).  Fortunately, this is also the side with the
connector on it (ribbon cable type with locking tabs).  The membranes themselves
attach to the PCB.  The board is fairly narrow and should be unobtrusive, which 
might give you some room for that microprocessor circuit. 

I'll con my brother into coming over tonight with his digital camera and take
some shots, so you can get a better idea of the mechanical side of things.

Take care,
Scott



On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 09:14:29 -0700, Tim Parkhurst wrote:

> 
> Hey Scott,
> 
> How difficult would it be to cut one of those keyboards down to three
> octaves? This just might be the ticket for a replacement in (yet another)
> ailing Odyssey I'm working on. Yeah, I know it'll need a micro to get it
> working, but that still might be easier than cleaning the #*&^%@*&^@ contact
> wires every month! Either that, or I'm thinking of slotted optical switches
> (the main purpose of doing this is to keep the Ody as a self-contained unit,
> and it really needs a more robust keyboard).
> 
> Tim Servo
> 
> "Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein
> 
> www.home.earthlink.net/~timservo2
> 

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