Compaq Portable II New Keyboard Cable

[twconstantine]

This is my first effort in the Compaq Portable space. I picked up two units recently and am trying to make one. The nicer keyboard is a bit strange. It has the insides of a CPIII with the nicer membrane style. The cable also rotted away. I know you can splice in a keyboard cable and do the whole coil and heat method. I’m a bit too clumsy to spend much time around hot things, so I’d rather stick to just quick soldering.
I bought a cable on Amazon for a CD radio microphone because it was a nice black and already coiled. It has 6 wires inside, but I only used 4. I even got to match the colors to the existing cables left over from the old cable.

I’m a bit surprised, but it worked! I still have a Diskette Control error so I can’t test it out fully, but the keyboard error went away, and I press f1 to resume, and any key later on. They cable fits nicely back into the case and the keyboard clicks back on with no issues.

I’m having fun with this!

 

[PatrickB]

Did your's come with only one floppy drive? I have 2 of them..
But you did a nice job fixing that cable.!

 

[twconstantine]

Mine came with one floppy and a hard drive. Thanks!

 

[Moondog]

Mine had dual 5.25" floppies. I installed a 420mb hard drive. Mine also has the insulation falling off the keyboard cable.

 

[arodrigo]

This is my first effort in the Compaq Portable space. I picked up two units recently and am trying to make one. The nicer keyboard is a bit strange. It has the insides of a CPIII with the nicer membrane style. The cable also rotted away. I know you can splice in a keyboard cable and do the whole coil and heat method. I’m a bit too clumsy to spend much time around hot things, so I’d rather stick to just quick soldering.
I bought a cable on Amazon for a CD radio microphone because it was a nice black and already coiled. It has 6 wires inside, but I only used 4. I even got to match the colors to the existing cables left over from the old cable.

I’m a bit surprised, but it worked! I still have a Diskette Control error so I can’t test it out fully, but the keyboard error went away, and I press f1 to resume, and any key later on. They cable fits nicely back into the case and the keyboard clicks back on with no issues.

I’m having fun with this!

I'm looking for a pinout for the compaq II keyboard cable. I have a cable taken off the previous model portable but need to fashion a connector for the keyboard end as it's different on the portable II. Might someone be able to help me out? Thanks all.