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Commodore 64 keyboard repair/replacement

N

noodlepringle

New Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
4
Location
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Hi folks,

I can't believe that suddenly now when I search C64 (admittedly I haven't for some years) on ebay almost no listings for breadbins come up!

For years I would grab them here and there or parts for them easily and cheaply, but I guess that was 15 years ago now..

Anyway I have a couple of Commodore 64s that I saved from a neighbour who had found them in kerbside rubbish and was roughly levering the keys off to make into badges to sell at a market, it was heartbreaking to see them so roughly treated.

I've had 3 of them on the shelf to keep as spare parts for my main Commodore 64 that I use for years, but recently I've been building analogue modular synthesizers and found myself interested in the Cynthcart which will allow me to use a C64 in my rig with all of that lovely SID sound, so I'd like to resurrect at least one of them for the purpose so I don't lose my main one for gaming etc.

The keyboards are pretty trashed, and though I haven't fully pulled them apart I can see that the cross-shaped plastic that links the keys with the switches underneath is mostly snapped off on majority of the keys that have been removed.

I had found a site that was selling individual keys, but being that the switch links are damaged, I'm wondering if there's either replacement aftermarket keyboards being made, or if anyone has a cheap goto for this kind of replacement part?

I cannot wait to integrate a Commodore 64 into my monster synth rig via MIDI, and also build a small mounting for it so it has a tiny screen, and potentiometers to link in and modify parameters for Cynthcart.

Many thanks
 
Search ebay worldwide, there are still many listed including keyboards. They are getting more expensive though.
 
noodlepringle said:
Hi folks,

I can't believe that suddenly now when I search C64 (admittedly I haven't for some years) on ebay almost no listings for breadbins come up!

For years I would grab them here and there or parts for them easily and cheaply, but I guess that was 15 years ago now..

Anyway I have a couple of Commodore 64s that I saved from a neighbour who had found them in kerbside rubbish and was roughly levering the keys off to make into badges to sell at a market, it was heartbreaking to see them so roughly treated.

I've had 3 of them on the shelf to keep as spare parts for my main Commodore 64 that I use for years, but recently I've been building analogue modular synthesizers and found myself interested in the Cynthcart which will allow me to use a C64 in my rig with all of that lovely SID sound, so I'd like to resurrect at least one of them for the purpose so I don't lose my main one for gaming etc.

The keyboards are pretty trashed, and though I haven't fully pulled them apart I can see that the cross-shaped plastic that links the keys with the switches underneath is mostly snapped off on majority of the keys that have been removed.

I had found a site that was selling individual keys, but being that the switch links are damaged, I'm wondering if there's either replacement aftermarket keyboards being made, or if anyone has a cheap goto for this kind of replacement part?

I cannot wait to integrate a Commodore 64 into my monster synth rig via MIDI, and also build a small mounting for it so it has a tiny screen, and potentiometers to link in and modify parameters for Cynthcart.

Many thanks
Click to expand...

If you are just looking for a keyboard the VIC-20 keyboard is the same. VIC-20s are usually cheaper than bread bins and a good option for harvesting a keyboard if you need one.
 
Do you have the keycaps? And does the mainboard work if you use a multimeter on connectivity and just touch the keypads on the PCB?

I am not sure what you are asking for, but it sounds like you are just missing the plungers, and there are STL files to 3D print them, although they are loose compared to the OG plastics ones, and the springs for the most part can still be found new for some manufacturing (I will try to find the site were someone links to a page where they said they had the same strength as most of the keyboard springs (not counting the space bar), but you had to order them in lots of I think 250 at the time and since I was just repairing a few lost ones didn't go for it). The hard part would be sourcing the rubber carbon pads the keyboard uses, but they are out there as apparently dissecting C64's and selling the parts like organs on the black-market is a popular thing at the moment.

And like @rpiguy2 I have a spare keyboard for a project that I am working on but am going another route for the keyboard, but the shipping costs anywhere internationally are insane at the moment.

Another alternative you can do, is if the keycaps are to trashed is paint them. I got a set of keycaps that had all of the graphic symbols removed form the front faces and most of the letters on top were worn off/rubbed off/faded/removed on purpose, so I spray painted them since they were pretty much useless and added these to the top (https://tinyurl.com/2p8vc9hp) so they had a 64C style printing. Not the best option, but since this was for a Raspberry Pi RetroPie rig I was building (I also used a literally smashed case with a dead motherboard so no real functioning hardware was harmed in the production) it did the job just fine and allowed me to use trash pieces to give them new life.

The Mechboard64 option, while not cheap, I think would also look great if you go for that option since you noted you want to add it to a MIDI rig, especially if you get the LED board (1.07 rev of the board).
 
rpiguy2 said:
I was cleaning my office yesterday and found a spare C64 keyboard under my desk. You are welcome to it, but honestly the price of shipping to AU these days is so high, I doubt it would be worth it for you.
Click to expand...
Oh man, that's amazing! Thanks so much, and apologies I missed this reply until now, I logged out and promptly forgot about this forum!

What kind of shipping cost would it be from where you are to Ballarat in Victoria, Australia?
 
If you are interested in using a PS/2 or USB keyboard with a C64, I have an open source project on GitHub that uses an Arduino and a MT88XX analog switch array. My GitHub username is Hartland.

C64 Keyboard

The PS/2 keyboard project uses an UNO or Nano. The USB keyboard project uses a SEEED XIAO (There is also code and diagrams for DUE, but it is such a cost ineffective solution, I do not recommend it)
 
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