Does any one know how to make a new keyboard for the 800 xe

[atarihacker]

I was wondering if any one knows how ben heck
wired the atari laptop key board out of tact switches
if you know or have a diagram please post or send it to me
thanks,

[Sparkfist]

Older computers didn't use the good old PS/1 or PS/2 style of wiring the buttons together. They used a matrix, basically how pixels in an LCD work. Each character would correspond to a input on the matrix.

As for Ben wiring it up. He did what all good people do, he backwards-engineered/copied it. The keyboard is likely very simple, and from what I can tell from the images it works like all other forms of input on the Atari. You push a button, the circuit is closed and the input responds to that data address.

If you have the keyboard, and you need better instructions try posting a picture of what you have questions about. We should be able to help you more if you do that.

[atarihacker]

i have trouble telling where the wires are going what wires go where and what pins on the keyboard controller they go to

heres ben heck`s picture I am having trouble with

[bicostp]

The keyboard probably has an encoder chip that reads the aforementioned key matrix in a predictable way. Since the keys are just switches that short two pins, you could take something with probes on either end and short pairs of pins on the encoder to figure out which pairs of pins represent which keys. (You could use a piece of solid wire, or an alligator lead with a sewing needle clamped in each end.) Write down what pins do what (for example, 1 + 5 = A), and it should be fairly easy to recreate the keyboard from there.

Just make sure you work on the right chip! (You don't want to mess anything up.)