Hi, im posting because ive taken apart a few old keyboards trying to get the button boards to work with analogue synthesizers that use 555 and 556 oscillators... im wondering if anyone has experience with this, because the wires on these boards from the old digital keyboards ive salvaged are quite confusing ! if anyone has taken apart a keyboard youll know what i mean. the rubber push button pads, and then above them on the board are usually a small bit of semiconductor on the board, then goes out to all the way across the board to a cluster of wires, and there are generally two or three groups of clusters. lets say mine has 2... how would you even began to consider hooking this up to a oscillator ? should i just scrap the idea and make my own board with a line of resistors ? and where can i buy a long long narrow peice of PCB to do this with ? lastly, if i wanted to re-use this one.. i suppose id have to sand the entire top of the pcb, then buy etching solution to get rid of the copper thats currently on the board and drill holes to put the stuff where i want on it and attempt to use thin wire to re-wire the entire thing ????

let me please hear your suggestions, ideas, and hopefully if anyone knows how to do this... maybe ill find a way. please keep in mind, the last thing i want to do is to soak the pcb to remove all the copper and rewire it.

 

Paragraphs.

I do not bother to read long texts as yours with no paragraphs.

 

Keyboards don't use "conventional" switches where they are either open or shorted electrically. They are nearly useless for what you are trying to do.

 

atferrari sorry im not good with paragraphs, i really dont care if butcher our language that is combined and butchered from other languages. i flunked english in school, just like many other subjects. i really dont care if you dont bother reading it, but you dont have to state "i dont read things without paragraphs" and other things to be rude. why bother posting ?

and thank you ernie for the input. . i know what you mean, thats midi keyboards though, this one is opened or closed switches, it seems.. and they each have different ammount of semiconductive material on the pcb above each button, its analogue, im not quite sure of the matrix on the board, and what wire does what since there are many and its confusing...

either way, if i cant use this board, do you know where i can order a long narrow piece of perf board ? it would have to be like 2 feet long ....... or even a solid pcb...

 

Paragraphs.

I do not bother to read long texts as yours with no paragraphs.

Or no CAPS at the start of each sentence. (At first thought maybe the shift key was broken, but there are some caps mixed in.

 

wow, whats this gang up on new member day ?
this is a electronics forum..
has nothing to do with paragraphs, puncutation or anything else.
maybe ill just stop using this forum i didnt think this would be like this
this is exactly why i keep to my self
if i wanted to be surrounded by snobs i would have went on the princeton university forum.

 

The ability to communicate clearly, and in accepted form, is a key feature of sharing information. Many of the members have English as a second and very limited language and make serious efforts to communicate clearly.

Now that we have each had our rant, can you post a picture of the keyboard you are working with? I scrapped an electronic organ a few years ago and it had buttons similar to what I think you describe. The keys on the organ I scrapped were velocity and pressure sensitive. A rapid strike or a soft strike produced different results in the music output. The keys were multiplexed through a diode matrix.

As for cleaning the copper pads, a standard eraser known as a Pink Pearl works pretty well at removing oxide that has formed.

 

"What we've got here is... failure to communicate."

Nope, this is not an English language forum. We assume you already know that.

However, it seems you are just too lazy to be understood.

And guess what? If you stomp off in a huff you will not be missed.

 

I don´t understand the problem here, people here are helping you just because they want to, so it is in your best interest to make that little bit of effort to try to conform to the standard of communication they ask for.

Electronics is a precise disipline, so to get good answers requires clear and inteligible questions. And without those capital letters and punctuation it really is harder to understand your post straight away, and this along with your refusing to accept it just makes fewer people want to help you, often simply beacuse they will rather spend their time helping someone whose post is easier to read.

 

i have a learning disability i did not do well in school i communicate the best i can
no diodes in this, and not velocity sensative
just on / off ill try to get a picture

 

It is very difficult to read long texts that are not broken down into paragraphs.