Victor 9000 keyboard conversion

snacksthecat · 24 Nov 2018, 23:49

@OldIsNew thanks for the tip on the space blanket. I got one today along with some leather punches. I did a trial run with a single pad and it went well but this seems like it's going to be exceptionally tedious

Now before I do the other 98 pads that I need, I'll first check and make sure this foil works with the pcb. It'd be a shame to do all these without checking that first

Edit: it works beautifully!

snacksthecat · 25 Nov 2018, 02:03

Just finished up the last of them

Here's the basic process I worked out along the way:

Remove the backing from the pad to expose the adhesive
Stick the pad to the backside of the foil (in this case, the silver side)
Put the leather punch over the pad and give it a good whack
Press down on the punch and twist ~45 degrees
Eject the finished pad and put it with the rest

Here's a video to show what I'm talking about:

This process worked pretty well for me. I was trying to be mindful of my downstairs neighbors and not make too much noise. If you hit the punch just right, it doesn't make too much noise. Once you get a rhythm going, it goes faster than you'd think.

All in all, I don't think I would recommend buying these pads from ebay. They're good quality and all, but having to do the foil myself seems like it would be a similar amount of work to punch out the foam myself too. It would also save a bit of cash I'm guessing.

snacksthecat · 25 Nov 2018, 04:25

Welp, I started putting it back together then realized that some of the switches need to be flipped. There are about a dozen or more screws that attach the PCB to the switches so that the pads make good contact. There are holes in the PCB that have to line up with the holes in the corner of the switches. Just more tedious work

Then the moment of truth, testing the converter. It mostly works but I'm getting a lot of ghosting. Sometimes even single key presses will trigger random ghosting of other keys. I'm glad it at least kind of works but I'm afraid I've got some debugging ahead of me. Here's a clip of the converter in action.

The keyboard feels great to type on, though. I'm going to change the keymap to the one requested by the gentleman on reddit that I'm doing this work for. Hopefully I'll get it working smooth, test drive it for a few days, then send it back to him.

snacksthecat · 25 Nov 2018, 07:05

It seems that when this ghosting happens, the keyboard is actually sending these extra keypresses. Here I held the '4' key and got a bunch of random other keys

So there's either some sort of grounding (?) issue or there's a problem with the material I used for foil on the pads (space blanket).

snacksthecat · 25 Nov 2018, 08:16

OldIsNew wrote: Do have to check each foil disk with the multimeter before gluing them on to the foam disk - non-conductive side to the PCB.

Derp, I did it with the conductive side touching the PCB.

I was going to post this video where I test first with my finger and then with a finished pad but I reread your comment and figured it out while the video was uploading.

I guess i have a bunch of rework planned for tomorrow

snacksthecat · 09 Dec 2018, 04:25

I can tell you one thing; that's a mistake I'll only ever make once. Such tedious work pealing all those bad pads off and replacing them. Not to mention punching out the foil pieces again. I was ready to pull my hair out.

But everything's back together (minus the case) and the converter seems to work perfectly! Fingers crossed. I'll test it out for a day or two to make sure everything registers with normal typing. Still need to change the keymap but I'm really pleased with how this has turned out thus far.

Konant · 13 Dec 2018, 05:20

When I get my hands on it again how will I go about remapping it if I so desire?

snacksthecat · 21 Dec 2018, 04:16

I finally got around to building the actual converter for this keyboard. You would think by the look of it that there would be lots of space inside the case but it's actually pretty cramped in there since the plate screws into the top case piece.

Ryan6581 · 11 May 2022, 08:10

: 20220510_192538_HDR.jpg (748.86 KiB) Viewed 2869 times

Sorry to necro an old post.
I managed to get a Victor by chance, and I'm going to try restoring it. I have a few questions.
What controller did you use? How did you wire it up? What foam did you use for the pads? Has anyone here tried the pads from Texelec?
Thanks

MathematicalJ · 11 May 2022, 20:32

I love the look of these Victor keyboards. I've been on the lookout for one on the cheap. I have a feeling I'll be waiting a long time.

Has anyone here tried the pads from Texelec?

Every mention of them I've seen anywhere has testified that they are excellent. I personally haven't used them, but there certainly seems to be a very strong consensus. Some people like to go the DIY route and make their own, and if you do a search of the forums you will find all the right links you need to do it. Honestly, for a board this nice I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Texelec. They've extensively debugged their product, and it's a bargain when you factor in your time and energy.

Because of the capacitive switches, your best bet is to take the output from the original hardware and use a modern microcontroller as a "translator", so to speak. This is actually the easiest way of doing USB conversion.

This very thread documents the pinout and protocol the keyboard speaks. If you have a bit of experience with microcontrollers, then you're golden. But I am sure someone has posted their code somewhere.

invalid mr_a500 · 05 Jul 2022, 19:09

MathematicalJ wrote: 11 May 2022, 20:32 I love the look of these Victor keyboards. I've been on the lookout for one on the cheap. I have a feeling I'll be waiting a long time.

Has anyone here tried the pads from Texelec?
Every mention of them I've seen anywhere has testified that they are excellent. I personally haven't used them, but there certainly seems to be a very strong consensus. Some people like to go the DIY route and make their own, and if you do a search of the forums you will find all the right links you need to do it. Honestly, for a board this nice I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Texelec. They've extensively debugged their product, and it's a bargain when you factor in your time and energy.

Because of the capacitive switches, your best bet is to take the output from the original hardware and use a modern microcontroller as a "translator", so to speak. This is actually the easiest way of doing USB conversion.

This very thread documents the pinout and protocol the keyboard speaks. If you have a bit of experience with microcontrollers, then you're golden. But I am sure someone has posted their code somewhere.

You used to be able to get these keyboards pretty cheap - without bidding wars because most people here hated foam & foil. I saw one for $20 once, buy it now (and I didn't get it because I already had 2). They're definitely more rare now.

I'm using a Victor 9000 keyboard to type this, with snacksthecat's converter (pictured above) and Texelec replacement pads.

Of the two Victor 9000 keyboards I have, one is an early 1982 version with white background "Victor" and no sun logo, made in Chicago. The other is from 1983, with white background "Victor" with sun, made in California. Both are the squared version with no wrist rest.

Beauty shot:

Victor 9000.JPG