[NTLK] Frankenkeyboard

[Bryan N Iotti]

... or, how I converted a German MP keyboard to a US one, although with some peculiarities.


Here are the pictures to follow along 
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3971211/1//Newton?h=b1f586

So, it goes like this. I bought the keyboard via eBay from an Austrian seller, claiming it was new, unused. The moment after I pressed the "buy it now" button, I had a BFO: "But Apple made a German version of the keyboard, too... maybe this isn't US?"

Still, I waited for it to come in.

Sure enough, when it got here I realized that not only was it a German one, it had also been tampered with to put a Palm III connector on it (I always thought it was us trying to steal the stowaway keyboards, not the other way around).

Luckily I found an auction from Maple Ridge Sales for a set of US keys and a connector cable. Bought both and waited.

Today they were at my door, neatly packed. I set out to assemble the darn thing, hoping deep down that the layouts would be compatible. Turns out that they mostly are, except for the fact that there is an extra key if you convert a German keyboard to US: the top left key, in the picture carrying the ^ and °, is actually a § and±.

I had to use the German return key, using one and a half keys vertically instead of one and a half horizontally. That also moved the \ and | key down and left one slot.

The German left shift, running on a single key instead of the double key US one, freed a space that holds what used to be the traditional top left key,  ` and ~.

Just in case someone had a keyboard lying there, and was considering a layout switch.

Bryan