Ripping appart a PC keyboard

Anybody doing this? I have already made it work with MT but I need some pointers on how to make it a solid build so that all my solder points dont fall off.
and maybe if anyone knows the configuration of the circuitboard on your typical generic PC keyboard (USB)...that would help a lot

Thanks

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26542659@N02/2489431601/

Hey man, I've been making a cotroller for photoshop using a usb keyboard PCB. It was a nightmare because if i did manage to solder wire onto the pcb cotacts, were were mostly ripped off later on. I manage to do it by drilling holes on the edges if the contacts, poking the wire through the holes then put loads of epoxy resin on the side opposite to the contacts. The contacts are coated in some black stuff that seems impossible to solder to are so i sanded it off to reveal the foil cotacts.

Once it was glued in place it was easier to solder to the cotacts. When i had fiished i covered it in loads of epoxy resin again, and it pretty solid now.

Hope that was some help

Good luck to you guys... I've never been one for soldering work...

A bud of mine had an interesting idea a while back... He took a standalone USB numeric keypad and modified it to control Ableton Live...



Also, I saw this one from A4Tech that looked interesting;

Or you could do a search for POS keyboards...

Tuur wrote:Or you could do a search for POS keyboards...

Exactly....

Many POS (point-of-sale) keyboards are very customizable and usually quite robust and would be good in a club environment.

I always thought the wrist-strap wearable keyboards were kinda cool, in a sorta dorky way...

joesapo wrote:I always thought the wrist-strap wearable keyboards were kinda cool, in a sorta Kraftwerk way...

Fixed.

I have used a POS keyboard before.

Easy to program.

A cheap way to get some extra controls.