Keyboard Ribbon Cable/Connector Source

[slinkeey]

Is there a source for these? Or has anyone soldered a header on the keyboard and put a pre-made cable between the two? I am going to google it.

 

I was pounding away, and some of my keys decided to stop working. Well when disconnecting the cable from the motherboard to see what is up, the whole ribbon broke loose from the keyboard, I am guessing some of the wires already broke causing dead keys.

 

FYI, I tried stripping back the cable, to resolder, but it is brittle and just crumbles when bent.

 

Maybe the rainbow ribbon cable with a Dupont housing.. I could cut a 20 down to 15.. That is assuming it is the same pitch.

Edited November 4, 2014 by slinkeey

[TI-Sissy]

u have a bkup?"

[slinkeey]

Nope, but it looks like the pitch matches those Dupont Style connectors with the 2.54mm pitch may work.

[Omega-TI]

Nope, but it looks like the pitch matches those Dupont Style connectors with the 2.54mm pitch may work.

 

There was someone on here who had a boatload of old keyboards. It might be cheaper to just gut one of his... if he speaks up. Actually I hope he say's something, because I'd like to get my hands on a black "HI-TEK" version in good condition. One of my backup consoles has a flaky ALPS version. If I'm going to go through the trouble of ripping it apart, it's gonna get a diode, but the fix looks ugly on an ALPS. On a HI-TEK it takes all of 30 seconds and looks good when done.

[+Ksarul]

Note: almost every single spare out there is one of the later Mitsumi keyboards (cream keys). There were boatloads of them available after TI pulled out of the market--and a lot of them have deteriorated to the point of uselessness while stored, unfortunately.

[Omega-TI]

Just say

 

 

to Mitsumi keyboards!

[slinkeey]

Mine is the Hi-Tek, I'm going to try replace the cable with something suitible.. What is this get a diode business? Any why would a diode look bad?

Edited November 4, 2014 by slinkeey

[+Lee Stewart]

Mine is the Hi-Tek, I'm going to try replace the cable with something suitible.. What is this get a diode business? Any why would a diode look bad?

 

It's the fix for preventing the Alpha-lock switch from messing with the ‘up’ direction of the joystick: http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/console/alpha_lock.html

 

The ‘ugly’ refers to the difficulty with doing the mod on an ALPS keyboard.

 

...lee

Edited November 4, 2014 by Lee Stewart

[slinkeey]

So I bought the following in hopes of just fixing it. I think the 2.54mm pitch will work..

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 181561940904

 

I know it is 16pins, but that's okay. 40pc though.. lol.. I guess this is one reason those electronic nuts end up with stockpiles of oddities..

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 351175296887

 

Kind of bugs me sourcing from China, but I didn't feel like spending ages chasing some down domestically.

Edited November 5, 2014 by slinkeey

[slinkeey]

Parts came in, put a new cable assembly together, and I am back in business!

[Ed in SoDak]

I had to do the same thing just a few days ago. Years ago, I "remapped" a TI99 keyboard to work on a Timex TS1000. I originally just hardwired a ribbon cable to it, but since that locked it to the computer it was wired to, I decided to add a connector to use the original TI's ribbon/connector.

 

Within a few days of using it bare board, almost all the TI's ribbon conductors broke away, same as on yours, while my 30-year-old hack made with more flexible ribbon was still working fine.

 

I trimmed back TI's stiff ribbon to where the individual conductors had the plastic removed from between them, so I could deal with stripping wires one at a time and resoldered that back onto the keyboard. All good so far. Not sure why it was built that way, but it was very handy to be able to shorten the cable. I don't know if doing that makes it too short to reconnect to a TI motherboard, since I was doing this to benefit my Timex and cable length was unimportant.

 

For my male connector, I had some double-row solder-tail pin header connectors that matched the TI kbd connector's spacing. Bought 'em years ago in surplus from some catalog, long forgotten. I extracted the second row of pins from the plastic header with a fine needlenose, clipped it down to 15 pins and soldered it to my ribbon. Now my TI99/Timex keyboard hack is transportable.

 

More relevant to the TI, I also did a similar thing to a surplus TI keyboard, where I added an extension ribbon from a second keyboard to the main unit and housed that in a compact wooden housing. That TI sported two keyboards, but one was on a long flexible ribbon that could be positioned on your lap or near to you on the desk, while the console and unwieldy firehose were way to the back and not subjected to jostling.

 

-Ed

Edited November 14, 2014 by Ed in SoDak

[+Ksarul]

I have a TI keyboard with one of those ribbon extender cables on it--also in a wooden housing, that I got as part of a collection of TI things a number of years ago. . .

[unhuman]

I remember doing the diode fix and it would work for about 15 minutes. After that, the Caps lock key wouldn't work (up stopped working unless caps lock was off). Tried several different diodes, but... never worked.

 

Based on the pics, I had a hi-tec keyboard.

Edited November 14, 2014 by unhuman

[slinkeey]

That ribbon cable that I bought. Well I ended up ripping it apart into individual wires when it was all said and done. This stuff was stiffer than the OEM stuff. I figured individual wires would be more flexible.

 

[dphirschler]

FWIW, I have seen three variations outside of the beige Mitsumi keyboard and the two documented on Mainbyte (Alps and Hi-Tech). I have photographed them and here they are:

 

Unknown (black). This one has had the Alpha-lock mod done to it by OLD_CS1:

 

Futaba (black):

 

General Instruments (beige):

 

 

Darryl