Comments on: Typewriter question

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:48:32 +0000

Hey! Good luck with that. Make sure you come back and show me pictures. This is exactly what I wanted to do, but decided that I didn’t have the skills.

By: Mathew Clayson

Mathew Clayson — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:43:46 +0000

Or you can disasemble a cheap usb keyboard. ($10) The mini keyboards have a small circuit board with a chip apoxied on. You should be able to trace out the wires on the board to determine the X and Y scan lines of the return key. Run these 2 wires to a contact switch and you’re set. You can even cut the circuit board down to a much smaller area if you’re good a soldering to small traces.

I’m doing something like this to build a keyboard out of a vintage typewriter. only in my case I’m having to trace and wire up 81 keys!

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:10:59 +0000

Thanks, Mike. I’ll check into that.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:57:13 +0000

>Ah, but see, I can just salvage a carriage return off a parts machine.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:14:34 +0000

Ah, that’s what you’re after. Then google ‘usb brando’. They make novelty usb items (including the infamous usb-powered pole dancer, i believe) which include mechanical actuators. Once you rewire one of those it is only a matter of finding someone who can write some code to interpret the signal as a carriage return. You might also want to add a bell sound. C++ programmers tend to be the best at working with the hardware/software interface.

Since brando also makes novelty usb items to order, you might get them o help out.

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:35:27 +0000

Ah, but see, I can just salvage a carriage return off a parts machine. The thing I don’t know how to do is how to make it actually work. I’d want it to actually be able to enter a line break.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:26:04 +0000

Hi Mary

For your USB carriage return, you need something light and chrome-looking, that can be bent. How about finding one of those long, pseudo chrome-plated throwaway forks or spoons and hacking the spooned end off? Use some low heat to bend it into the shape of a carriage return arm, then glue it onto the USB stick and make it look good. Or, use a USB stick with a removable outer shell and attach the handle to that instead.

The PNY Attache 1Gig sticks have a removable shell. http://reviews.cnet.com/sc/31157133-2-200-0.gif