Another Update:
( Bet you thought I'd given up! )
The story so far...
The brave and possibly insane Charlie had an idea:
'I've had an idea!'
'I'll take my Acorn A3000 and replace its guts with PC
components:
Retro gaming heaven, and a proper pute on which to
play Oolite!'
'It will be my magnificent Octopus!!'
Besides the keyboard is near identical to a modern PC
one. That should make it easy.
Well, much keyboard-induced frustration later and I'm
on the last lap!
So, here goes:
The Return of the Spring
or
-I'll be buggered if I'll rewire the original keyboard-
Bottom line:
Acorn keyboard is both incompatable with
and a
little smaller than a PC one despite appearances.
So I decided to cut a standard one to bits and make a
suitable one with the aid of the much used Dremmel
and vast quantities of super-glue.
Plan A - Nice Pussy:
Sony Vaio keyboard. Nearest match for dimentions.
Function keys too close, slightly over-size, PS2 instead
of USB... But I have a plan!
Ooo - Pink Nipples:
Now you've got the idea.
Chop that b*gger to bits, glue it back together slightly smaller
than before, and move the funcion keys further away...
'What about those pink nipples?' I hear you ask.
Well, yes it's a shame to cover them up again, but they should
be soft enough to move about a little while firm enough to
retain their perkyness when you fiddle with them.
Um.., oh, and yes. Sorry, miles away... This all means when a
keyboard is reconstructed a little undersize the membrane
should work without modification. ( all part of the plan to aviod
much fiddly re-wiring )
Much dremmeling later...
Nope - I don't like the colour! Not a good match. So start again
with expensive Cherry keyboard.
Days more fiddly tedium later...
Ta-da:
Neat-o eh?
Closeup:
-Cut that keyboard up... ( Yes, made extra-tricky by the cover
being part of the mechanism!
)
-Hours & hours of Dremmeling, measuring, re-Dremmeling, etc.
-Glue it all back together. ( just a bit smaller but with the F-keys
much closer for this one )
-Check those nipples are sufficiently malleable but perky.
-Much more Dremmeling to 'massage the fit'.
-Wire the keyboard controller directly into the motheboard.
Phew!
Other bits & bobs:
Original power switch reconstructed and functional...
As is the reset switch. Also floppy blanking plate made and glued
in.
Ok, so I could have taken more care with making the screenshots
line up a bit better.
A voice speaking in the wilderness:
In stereo!
Well the A3000 has stereo internal speakers... So they
had to be
put back and duly wired to the mobo.
Now, just in case you thought all of this was B.S:
She may be pretty brainless. But she has a pulse, and doesn't she
look great with her top off!
Top on:
A more wholesome image for those who prefer their computers as
Acorn intended. ( sort-of
)
I'm on the last lap now. More fettling to be done - could do with a
bit of 'lippy' round the function keys.
A custom build of WinXP is going well and will soon be installed...
Maybe the next update will show the finished arictle..?
