Posted by aramis on January 15, 2002 at 16:37:29:
In Reply to: Black rectangles on keyboard card posted by DD on January 15, 2002 at 16:15:14:
I don't know for sure, but sometimes if you very gently scrape off the black conductive coating, you will see shiny copper underneath. It all depends on what quality your keyboard is...I've seen some where the entire circuit trace was just a thin layer of the black stuff, with no copper underneath.
As far as I know, it is impossible to solder a good connection to the black stuff.
I think your best bet is to just trace the dull black traces back to the circuit board for the key you want to hack, and solder to those contacts there.
Or, you can eliminate the common keyboard problems like missing simultaneous key presses, ghosting, etc. by buying an I-PAC unit from Ultimarc.com. I think mine cost like $48 or so, shipped, and I couldn't imagine using something else...
: Hi, I am just starting to build an arcade cabinet and I want to use a keyboard hack. When I go the controller card out of the keyboard, it has one group of 13 and one group of 15 of these narrow black rectangles. Is this what I sauder my wires to? I was expecting it to be shiny and silver, but they are dull and black. If someone can clear that up for me I would really appreciate it.