Month: July 2020

C64 Mini Keyboard kit – a successful user :-)

By reddit user mfriethm. Looks amazing

I sold the first batch of kits mostly on Reddit

Over the past few weeks they’ve been making their way around the globe and I’ve had a lot of happy reports back

Today, Ive been able to relax finally, the Mould works 🙂

Reddit users fantastic gallery

He’s done an amazing job using a silicone mould!

The workflow – make a mould of your uncut keybaord

Cut the keys out, tidy them up

Place keys in mould

Put glue in keys

Place keyboard on top and use screws to align

Voila!

C64 mini Quick doodle for the USB hub mod

Had someone ask, so here’s a quick and rough explanation

You need to make SIX solder connections

First, lift the centre two pins of USB1 on the mini

Second, cut off the plug and solder four pins from the USB hub cable to the bottom of the USB1 connector pads on the PCB

Third, cut off the mini USB of the longer USB cable and create a bare end. Solder two data wires to the lifted pins on the mini’s USB connecote

This then attaches the USB hub in full to the minis processor

And just uses the physical connector on the mini as an extension of one of the sockets on the hub!

Assembly of the C64 Mini working keyboard kit! – PICTURES

Follows a couple of pictures of the install, I’ve also put a couple of videos up on youtube. More will follow

https://www.youtube.com/user/bleughdean/videos?view=57&flow=grid

DIODE orientation. Note, make sure they’re all the same way round. One here isn’t!

I’ve put some videos up on youtube about the assembly process – the playlist is linked below

Putting the switches in Wonky for the first round of alignment (smt diodes hand soldered on the original prototype)

Make sure you solder the arduino headers on before you get this far with the switches

Back of board showing Diode legs clipped and only ONE switch pin tacked per switch

USB HUB TO FOLLOW – Pictures shown in blog previously if you need them quickly

Assembly of the C64 Mini working keyboard kit! – TEXT

Some quick steps right now – photos to follow.. Suggest have two tabs open, this one and the other PICTURES tab for reference

Some videos are up on youtube also

https://www.youtube.com/user/bleughdean/videos?view=57&flow=grid
Link to Youtube videos

SUMMARY- SOLDER PARTS ONLY IN THIS ORDER

DIODES

ARDUINO HEADERS

SWITCHES

DIODES

  • Cut one leg shorter on the diodes – Use scissors . About 1-1.5cm is good
  • bend the short leg side to a right angle
    • Note the orientation of the diode – The F Key diodes have a diode picture on them. The white bar matches the location of the black bar on the diode.
  • put diode in holes and bend slightly to lock in
  • repeat for all diodes
  • Solder all diodes
  • clip the excess legs back
  • you have a few spare diodes so don’t be afraid to experiment on one or two to get the right bend / fit

ARDUINO HEADERS

  • Probably best to solder these in now before you forget
  • I’ve found it useful to PLACE the arduino on the headers (DO NOT SOLDER YET) so it keeps the headers parallel
  • Make sure the black part of the headers is on the underside of the PCB
  • Solder one pin of each header
  • remove arduino
  • finish soldering

SWITCHES – STEP 1, JUST TACKING IN PLACE

  • Pay attention to orientation
  • don’t worry about straightening the switches at this stage, the goal is to just ‘tack’ them in with a single solder blob to hold them in place. They can be wonky, it doesn’t matter.
  • DO NOT SOLDER MORE THAN 1 PIN OF EACH SWITCH IN ONE GO
    • The switches are easily heat damaged – they become ‘sticky’ and no longer move smoothly if the plastic is melted due to excessive heat. During the entire soldering procedure for the switches, do ONE leg, move to the next switch. when all are done, move back to the first switch and repeat.
    • I’ve damaged only 2 switches this way soldering the prototypes but it can happen if you’re not careful
    • Note that the white part of each switch is asymetrical. One side has a ‘dip’ / inset which guides the switch up and down. the other side is smooth
    • there’s a marking on the PCB to represent this dip / inset.
    • ALL switches go the same way
  • Get a sheet of paper
  • Insert the top row of switches into the PCB
  • Place PCB on sheet of paper and fold paper over the top, tightly
  • flip the PCB over
  • hopefully all the switches stay in place
  • Solder just ONE leg of each switch – any one – say the top right
  • Repeat for Row 2
  • DO NOT FORGET TO SOLDER THE ARDUINO HEADERS IN PLACE
  • Repeat for Row 3
  • DO NOT FORGET TO SOLDER THE ARDUINO HEADERS IN PLACE
  • Repeat for for row 4
  • (Hopefully you didn’t forget to solder the Arduino headers in place?)
  • and finally the space bar

SWITCHES – STEP 2, Straightening

  • This is probably the most important step to getting a good looking keyboard with all the switches aligned. Spend some time getting this right, you have a handful of ‘spare’ switches so now’s the time to make mistakes and fix them whilst there’s only a single solder blob on them
  • I’ll post a few videos shortly but there’s a technique.
  • Hold the board in the air
  • Use your index finger to push in, and slightly down on each switch whilst soldering the previous blob. The goal is to move the whole switch slightly so that it’s slightly at the top, or the bottom of its footprint.
  • when you melt the solder whilst pushing in and down, the switch will move slightly, sometimes you’ll hear a little click or snap as the solder melts
  • repeat this for each switch, pushing in and down slightly – when you look at the final position, there’ll be some of the pad visible at the top of each switch
  • NOW IS THE TIME TO TEST EACH SWITCH FOR SMOOTH MOVEMENT
    • of the 5 keyboards i’ve soldered, I’ve had two defective switches, this is partly the reason why there’s a few extras in the kit
    • of the 5 keyboards i’ve soldered, I’ve broken 3 switches by either over-heating, or trying to remove after putting them in backwards. unless you’ve got a hot air gun, they’re tricky to remove intact, hence check NOW whilst there’s only one solder blob!
  • When you get close to one side of the keyboard, you’ll have to fiddle a bit to keep pushing the switches in the same direction. I’ve found that changing technique a little and ‘flip’ the board lengthwise works. hold the board against yourself and use your thumb to pull the switch down instead of push
  • repeat the alignment technique for ALL switches!

SWITCHES – STEP 3, Final soldering

  • This is the easy / relaxing bit!
  • DO NOT SOLDER MORE THAN ONE LEG OF EACH SWITCH AT A TIME
  • do it by rows, clusters, however works for you, but here’s what worked for me
  • Solder ONE pad of each switch, then move to the next
  • once all switches are done, start from the beginning
  • Solder another pad, etc etc
    • A SMALL CHEAT – You only actually need to solder 3 points. Two on the ‘bottom’ of the switch – these are the electrical contacts. ONE on the ‘top’ – this is for mechanical stability. As you look at the keyboard, the bottom two pins are the important electrical ones. Pick any on the top
  • on my prototype, I found soldering all 6 pins tiring, so on my second version I just soldered 3 and it worked perfect. Up to you, but DONT SOLDER MORE THAN 1 PIN AT A TIME

Arduino

  • Note the orientation of the Arduino by the Small USB socket and a mark on the PCB. Also the silk screen on the PCB will match the letters on the Arduino.
  • these need a little more heat to solder to the pins

Finished Keyboard!!

The Hub

Zx Spectrum Next Blinkenlights …inserts arrived!

Not a huge post this one, just a quick couple of photos

A bit more diffused! Still a bit more work to do
It’s tiny! That’s a British 1p. 8 LED’s
Lots of hand soldered inserts ready for the dev boards.

The inserts fit perfectly into the case also. I’m going to experiment a bit with diffusion methods, surface finishes and colours.

I picked up about 80 of the inserts so plenty to experiment with and get the dev boards done