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Step 4Attaching wires
So, now you know which pins produce which letters. Now you need to connect your own mad creations to the boards.
But wait!
Before you can connect things to the board, you need to connect wires to the board!
Sigh...
You're going to need:
wire (ideally in a number of colors)
quick setting epoxy (from your local Radioshack or Home Depot)
a razor blade
a soldering iron
So, here is what you do. Count the number of pins you need to attach wires to. Once this is done, prepare all of the wires you're going to need. They need to be stripped on both ends about a quarter of an inch and should be about five to six inches in length. Try to use many different colors of wire so you can tell them apart later. On one end, bend the stripped part of the wire so that it can hold itself to the board (see picture).
Wrap the wire around the board so that the stripped part is touching one and only one of the pins that it needs to be connected to. Make sure none of the wires are touching. When all of the wires are in place (touching the pins and not touching each other), you're going to need to glue.
Prepare some epoxy and cover the back side of the board in epoxy so that the wires are glued in place on the side opposite from the conductive pins. Leave it for how ever many hours the epoxy says it needs to sit for for maximum strength.
Sixteen to twenty hours later or so, you're going to need to solder. So, solder the wire to the pin. If the solder won't stick to the pin, scratch the pin with a razor blade a couple of times and try again. If the pin is coated with something, scrape off the coating with a razor blade and then solder to it.
If you have a lot of money, just glue the wire to the pin with conductive epoxy very, very, carefully.
When everything is dry and in place, test the keyboard. If it works, then you're more less done.
Put it in a nice case or put it in a radioshack case. It doesn't matter.
But wait!
Before you can connect things to the board, you need to connect wires to the board!
Sigh...
You're going to need:
wire (ideally in a number of colors)
quick setting epoxy (from your local Radioshack or Home Depot)
a razor blade
a soldering iron
So, here is what you do. Count the number of pins you need to attach wires to. Once this is done, prepare all of the wires you're going to need. They need to be stripped on both ends about a quarter of an inch and should be about five to six inches in length. Try to use many different colors of wire so you can tell them apart later. On one end, bend the stripped part of the wire so that it can hold itself to the board (see picture).
Wrap the wire around the board so that the stripped part is touching one and only one of the pins that it needs to be connected to. Make sure none of the wires are touching. When all of the wires are in place (touching the pins and not touching each other), you're going to need to glue.
Prepare some epoxy and cover the back side of the board in epoxy so that the wires are glued in place on the side opposite from the conductive pins. Leave it for how ever many hours the epoxy says it needs to sit for for maximum strength.
Sixteen to twenty hours later or so, you're going to need to solder. So, solder the wire to the pin. If the solder won't stick to the pin, scratch the pin with a razor blade a couple of times and try again. If the pin is coated with something, scrape off the coating with a razor blade and then solder to it.
If you have a lot of money, just glue the wire to the pin with conductive epoxy very, very, carefully.
When everything is dry and in place, test the keyboard. If it works, then you're more less done.
Put it in a nice case or put it in a radioshack case. It doesn't matter.
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Also, I'm trying to build one with one simple function...I want to make a big "Easy" button, or something like an "Easy" button send a space bar input. Would I follow the steps in this instructable, connect the "free" side of the wires from the modded keyboard controller to a prototype breadboard, and connect the leads of the Easy button to the breadboard where the wires from the keyboard connect?
So basically keyboard controller -> Prototype breadboard <-Easy button...?
Thanks so much!
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