Chyron 4046 (Super Scribe) Keyboard, Xwhatsit USB

[OldIsNew]

I love big old boards, and this qualifies. It's a sibling of the Chyron 4044 as reviewed by Chyros. The 4044 has three additional keys to the left of the alphas. The PCB in this board has the pads and traces and the PCB frame has openings for these keys, but alas, the front of the case does not. It's vintage KeyTronic F&F, which I actually really like (unlike the more recent short stem version).

orig_SM.jpg (201.8 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

back_SM.jpg (263.56 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

rear_SM.jpg (500.85 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

rear_label_SM.jpg (155.54 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

Opened it up:

open1_SM.jpg (282.2 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

kb_module_SM.jpg (304.94 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

caps_off_SM.jpg (346.75 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

PCB:

PCB_front_SM.jpg (412.6 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

PCB_back_SM.jpg (454.35 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

It appears to be dated 7/28/88

label1_sm.jpg (80.19 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

The foil mostly looked OK, but the foam was, as typical, all degraded:

origfoil_SM.jpg (243.48 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

oldfoam_SM.jpg (322.77 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

Replaced the F&F:

newfoam1_SM.jpg (315.7 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

newfoil_SM.jpg (303.7 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

Traced out the rows and columns. It's an 8x16 matrix.

IC_labeled.jpg (340 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

Then wired up the Xwhatsit Model F:

Xwhatsit_SM.jpg (400.69 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

Closed it up and good to go:

final_front_SM.jpg (262.69 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

final_side_SM.jpg (166.12 KiB) Viewed 4602 times

Short video of typing on keyboard:

[User101]

What a cool keyboard and I like those switches too. Would love to use one as daily but my table is too small for this monstrosity lol

[John Doe]

Sharing the interest of having big keyboard, glad to see another 4044 appeared.

[Sangdrax]

Now that's how it's done. I got another keytronic in recently I need to give the same treatment to.

[vyquad]

Necropost, but could we get a better picture on how the xwhatsit is wired up?

[Muirium]

Just hook these up to your controller pins and work it out in software:



Rows and columns all separated for you. Pretty easy job with Xwhatsit’s GUI or whatever else you care to run.