Back in 1982 I bought a third party sculpted keyboard for my Coco 1. IIRC the keyboard was made by ALPS and someone soldered the right cable and connector onto it and sold them through an ad in a magazine. It was similar in style and feel to an Atari 800 keyboard and so, so much better than the Coco 1's chiclet keyboard!
While the Coco's original keyboard left a lot to be desired, it wasn't even that bad compared to some other low-cost home computers like the Atari 400, Timex Sinclair ZX80/81, Mattel Aquarius, Magnavox Odyssey 2 and many others. I have all of those machines now in my vintage collection and always encourage visitors looking at them to give typing on them a try. :-)
The Coco was my first computer and I think that keyboard was the first mod I ever did to it (the first of probably a dozen mods and add-ons I did in that Coco 1). To this day I still enjoy a good keyboard and have a variety of custom split mechs.
This project it is just amazing that someone wanted to put the time into building a better keyboard for such a retro machine.
I know this will horrify some as they want retro rigs to be OG and preserved in amber for all time. Perhaps, as I was an Atari 400 owner first, I put this notion in my rear view when I upgraded the keyboard on that atari so that I could write better ASM/Action code before I got 800 and 800xl later in life.
I really hope no one is upset at this point by that sort of thing.
For any Commodore, Apple, Atari, these computers sold in the zillions; there are plenty of decaying originals. They rot over time; if you want to keep using them, you have to replace the power supply; recap the motherboard; the case will generally have yellowed and if you want it to not look nasty you have to do something about it -- retrobrite, paint, total replacement. It's always going to trend to a ship of theseus situation unless you want to encase it in an unlit vacuum forever as an object to occasionally think about but not interact with. And if you want to use it and you have to make changes anyway, why not make it more pleasant to live with?
I was happy to make it somewhat modular, so at least the original keyboard (and Tandy bodge board) has survived intact. The machine was never original in my possession – the previous owner has done a lot of modifications to it - so I feel like I am carrying on with his wishes rather than tinkering with Tandy's.
I do want to still replace the membrane/backplate inside the keyboard with low-profile switches as I did to my PC-6001mkII (https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/11/26/pc6001mkII-keyboard-...), but that involves a lot of picky measuring for mounting holes, outlines, key switches, etc and you can tell from the article that accurate measuring is not one of my strongest suits :)
I probably just need to stop hanging around snobby retro enthusiasts who brag how they have a VAX 11/780 in their basement with OG parts salvaged from other Vaxen? Vaxii ?
Totally. I sort of understand it with big(ger) iron -- there are fewer made, by any measure, and you want to do things like get a VAXBI adapter because your goal is to get a an 8MB disk the size of a washing machine or whatever connected to it. But if you could power it from USB-C instead of a custom three phase power line with the original power supply -- you probably can't -- I might still argue that would be more sensible to do so.
While the Coco's original keyboard left a lot to be desired, it wasn't even that bad compared to some other low-cost home computers like the Atari 400, Timex Sinclair ZX80/81, Mattel Aquarius, Magnavox Odyssey 2 and many others. I have all of those machines now in my vintage collection and always encourage visitors looking at them to give typing on them a try. :-)
The Coco was my first computer and I think that keyboard was the first mod I ever did to it (the first of probably a dozen mods and add-ons I did in that Coco 1). To this day I still enjoy a good keyboard and have a variety of custom split mechs.
I know this will horrify some as they want retro rigs to be OG and preserved in amber for all time. Perhaps, as I was an Atari 400 owner first, I put this notion in my rear view when I upgraded the keyboard on that atari so that I could write better ASM/Action code before I got 800 and 800xl later in life.
For any Commodore, Apple, Atari, these computers sold in the zillions; there are plenty of decaying originals. They rot over time; if you want to keep using them, you have to replace the power supply; recap the motherboard; the case will generally have yellowed and if you want it to not look nasty you have to do something about it -- retrobrite, paint, total replacement. It's always going to trend to a ship of theseus situation unless you want to encase it in an unlit vacuum forever as an object to occasionally think about but not interact with. And if you want to use it and you have to make changes anyway, why not make it more pleasant to live with?
I do want to still replace the membrane/backplate inside the keyboard with low-profile switches as I did to my PC-6001mkII (https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/11/26/pc6001mkII-keyboard-...), but that involves a lot of picky measuring for mounting holes, outlines, key switches, etc and you can tell from the article that accurate measuring is not one of my strongest suits :)
I probably just need to stop hanging around snobby retro enthusiasts who brag how they have a VAX 11/780 in their basement with OG parts salvaged from other Vaxen? Vaxii ?