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ATARI XL Keyboard for PC


dazpants1

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Hi,

 

Just had an idea which i'm sure someone else has had before but i'm going to throw it out there anyway....

 

I was looking at my PC keyboard and thinking how boring it looked when i thought, wouldn't it be great if it was in the style of an 800xl so that when i look down to type it was an 800xl there in front of my monitor instead of the one i have.

 

I'm not techie so i couldn't build one but just thought i would put it out there as it sounded cool in my head lol.

 

Ta

 

Daz

Edited by dazpants1
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What would be really cool is to use keyswitches and custom caps to make a new Atari keyboard. It would be even better if you could drop it in an existing machine. An 800XL with Cherry Browns would be sweet!!! I wonder what the costs would be for the non-standard caps...

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That's neat. I've always wanted to be able to use my 1200XL's excellent keyboard, instead of the crappy keyboards that I end up getting, since I've moved to laptops. Of course, I wouldn't want to gut my 1200XL. I imagined some kind of terminal app running on the 1200XL, and a 'listener' on my Linux laptop, which would pass along the 1200XL keystrokes. Of course, doing it via USB makes way more sense than what I thought up (but I think when I first thought about this, USB was still kinda new ;) )

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From the linked write-up:

 

"Still, from the appalling industrial design to the completely impractical keyboard to its anemic system memory, the Atari 400 is definitely not a computer milestone worth repeating in my opinion."

 

 

Well. The author can just kiss my ass.

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You are correct, it has been done with a 65XE. I found this while researching Atari keyboards last month:

 

http://blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk/2014/03/atari-65xe-usb-keyboard.html

 

The blog also mentions a 800XL version, but I never found that one posted.

 

This was a very good find!!! I'd like to start another thread just based on this, so that more people know about it. I find the idea of the Raspberry Pi integration (that he offers as well) to be really interesting. Some time in the not too distant past, we were considering how to get an Atari 8-Bit into an Atari ST case, to have the Atari-branded case with the full keyboard, and large console layout. It strikes me that a Raspberry Pi inside an ST case would be a really nice solution for modern emulation for Atari 8-Bits. It is too bad that he is charging so much money to get the 65XE with the Pi inside... if this could be made inexpensively, it would be a real boon to emulator users.

 

 

 

From the linked write-up:

 

"Still, from the appalling industrial design to the completely impractical keyboard to its anemic system memory, the Atari 400 is definitely not a computer milestone worth repeating in my opinion."

 

 

Well. The author can just kiss my ass.

Well said! Thanks! Torches & Pitchforks will be distributed to the townspeople, in the queue, on the left, ha!

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Hi UNIXcoffee928,

 

The comment about "Torches & Pitchforks will be distributed to the townspeople, in the queue, on the left", really made me laugh loads. Thank you.

 

Daz

You're welcome! Ha, ummm, yeah, well, "While Time alone can put the punk into the rocker, little can be done with regards to taking the punk out of the rocker.". lol.

 

post-7682-0-99013100-1439160144_thumb.jpg

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I could see two relatively easy ways to do this, both include using a teensy Arduino ($16). One is to gut the machine, wire the current keyboard into the Teensy and write the code to convert the matrix (see http://makezine.com/2014/08/07/the-ti-pi-a-raspberry-pi-powered-ti-994a/).If you don't want to gut a machine, wire it into the joystick ports and write some code for the machine to send the key presses out to the Teensy, which then appears as a keyboard to the computer.

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Hmmm... anyone with a laser scanner or good calipers?

 

http://cubiq.org/build-your-very-own-pc-keyboard

 

and

 

http://gizmodo.com/i-built-a-keyboard-from-scratch-1649325860

 

Get exact sizes of the keys and then we could have them 3D printed. Then someone design the PCB and we could go in on a small batch of them proffesionally done so we don't have to wire them ourselves.

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Ok random thoughts on full again here (please forgive me if this is a mad thought as i am not a techie)....

 

Could an Atari 800xl be powered by batteries or even a mobile or laptop battery.

 

Again just throwing my thoughts out there to see if anyone has thought of these already or if anyone knows if if is possible.

 

Any links are welcome too :)

 

Ta

 

Daz

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Ok random thoughts on full again here (please forgive me if this is a mad thought as i am not a techie)....

 

Could an Atari 800xl be powered by batteries or even a mobile or laptop battery.

 

Again just throwing my thoughts out there to see if anyone has thought of these already or if anyone knows if if is possible.

 

Any links are welcome too :)

 

Ta

 

Daz

Yes. But why? It's never going to be portable unless you want to drag a monitor around and that would still need a power supply.

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Yes. But why? It's never going to be portable unless you want to drag a monitor around and that would still need a power supply.

they've got small LCD 'TVs' which will run on battery power as well. Have a look at car backup cams. You could pretty easily make a suitcase or large briefcase into a luggable A8.

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What would happen when one wanted to access Home/End or any of the other keys not available on the Atari keyboard?

 

This seems a lot more practical:

 

http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/computer/niyari-atari-400-usb-keyboard.xhtml

The look of this keyboard is really awesome, but that price tag! Yikes!

 

For emulation purposes, I have seen a place that sells(or sold at one time) stickers that'd stick onto modern keyboards that'd replicate vintage keys to help mapping. I could see that being handy, but nothing near as cool as that 400 aesthetic of the one for $149.

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Yes. But why? It's never going to be portable unless you want to drag a monitor around and that would still need a power supply.

Hi Yorgle, just throwing out my random thoughts to see what kind of things people have thought of as i love a good mod :)

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This thread remembered me a friend's project: he build a PC inside an 800XL case. He also remapped the keyborad by himself, so it can be used. See by yourselves... one PC inside one Atari.

 

Preview:

atari_pc24.jpg

Hi Vitoco, that looks cool. I wouldn't even know where to start trying to do something like that. Your friend is definatly skilled :)

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