The original Shift Lock key uses a latching/locking type switch. They looked really good and a lot better than what I expected! As evident from the images, the two 20 pin headers have been marked with the motherboard revisions that they will fit the best вЂ“ we want to keep things nice and tidy, right? Six days after placing the order, I recieved the printed circuit boards. The PCB prototype was ordered from a company in China that makes prototypes in small quantities. Thus, I opted for the PCB mounted solution even though it may be a little less sturdy than the plate mounted version. My goal is to make everything as accessible and repairable as possible. However, maintenance, modifications and/or repairs of this approach is quite difficult because all switches have to be un-soldered in order to fix whatever needs fixing. This is what a guy on Deskthority has done previously when he made a replacement USB keyboard to fit inside a C64 breadbox, the MeC64 ( link). The former calls for a frame that the keys snap into and the PCB is then attached underneath the frame. In this context, Cherry mx switches come in two variations plate mounted and PCB mounted. I wanted to use Cherry mx red microswitches as these resemble the feel of the original c64 keyboard. This is how the keyboard layout looks like as well as the copper traces and the first PCB prototype drawing. The older long boards have the connection on the left side while all short boards and the C64 Reloaded/Ultimate 64 have the connection further to the right.В This way a short 15-20 cm ribbon cable can be used for connecting the keyboard to the C64 motherboard. Two 20 pin headers were placed at two different locations on the board. For this task I usedВ Sprint Layout ( link) as it allows a JPEG image to be placed underneath the circuit, hereby making it easier to align everything correctly. Next up was making the PCB and align all the components perfectly. Then I scanned the original C64 keyboard PCB and colorized each of the copper traces to see what was connected to what. I started out by measuring the physical locations of the keys to ensure that everything would line up nicely and fit in both types of Commodore 64 cases (breadboxes and the newer C64C cases). This is how the first protoype was created! So quite a few components went into the project along with a looong list of parts and ideas that were eventually discarded before final decisions were made. The keyboard consists of a PCB, plastic spacers, a 20 pin ribbon cable, custom made keyboard stabilizers, Costar stabs,В 3D printed keycap adapters, some resistors, a few capacitors, two ICвЂ™s, a heap of microswitches and a black acrylic board for mounting everything. The keyboard is a drop-in replacement for the original keyboard and it should therefore work on all Commodore 64вЂ™s, including the C64 Reloaded ( link) and the upcoming Ultimate 64 ( link).

I have now realized that making new keyboards is by far the biggest Commodore 64 project that I have ever gotten myself intoвЂ¦ I completely underestimated the amount of time that I had to put into the project before the first working prototype was made. It has been almost two years since I boldly announced that I would make new keyboards ( link) for my C64 Reloaded boards ( link).

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