Commodore 64 Vic-20 Keyboard Connector

thingiverse

I'm working on a mechanic keyboard for the commodore 64. I need to have a keyboard connector cable. I decided to use a dupont male to male ribbon cable. I didn't want to have to deal with 19 individual wires on each side, so I created this to hold them all together in order, and to mimic the original connector as much as possible. I needed a connector on both ends, if you are using this to fix and existing keyboard you would only need it on one end and solder the leads to the keyboard motherboard. What you will need: Single or double sided dupont male connector cable. Select the length you need. I should have at least 20 connectors. Male header, at least 20 pins. Glue, I used JB plastic weld. Tape, clamps, or whatever to hold the connector together while drying. How to construct: Take the male header connector and snap it so one end has 20 connectors. Remove the 2nd pin from the header connector. Connect 19 of the dupont connectors to the header pins. The first dupont connector goes to header pin 1, the second skips the removed pin and connects to what was pin 3. Connect the rest of the pins in order. make sure that the cable isn't twisted and they are all connected in the proper order. Once you have connected all 19 dupont connectors separate the remaining wires. Take the bottom piece, the one that has the obvious block for pin 19. Coat the bottom generously with glue, make sure to put glue on both sides of the pin block. Clean up any glue that may have gotten on the outside of the connector. Carefully fit the connectors into the bottom piece, this should be fairly easy to do since the are connected to the header. Once properly placed into the bottom coat the top with glue. Now you can place the top onto the connector. While holding the top on the connector carefully remove the header pins. Clean up any glue, and make sure all dupont connectors are at the proper depth when you look into the connector. Tape or clamp the connector until dry. Repeat for the other side if necessary. Carefully