You said it, I've found that there are so many spares you can get out of old
computer parts, sockets, IC's etc etc and you can get the boards from
computes markets dirt cheap. The only problem I have found is getting the
data sheets for some of these things, but if you can get these you can get
some wizz bang chips for next to nothing.
Stuart

Wagner Lipnharski wrote:

> Just to make some people think about it;
>
> Inside of most PC Keyboard (surplus ones), you can find a single 40 pins
> (DIP) custom chip. This chip contains everything it needs to scan all
> the rows and columns of the keyboard and talk to the external world via
> few wires, using +5V as power.  It can also lit 3 leds (used as NumLock,
> CapsLock and ScrollLock). It doesn't need any crystal or ressonator, it
> is ready to scan your custom keyboard and supply the info in serial way.
>
> Yeah, ok, it is an ugly 40 pins big chip, but it should be of some use
> for someone in this list looking for some answer like that. I just
> wanted to make "that" person knows it, since sometimes you can get those
> surplus bad keyboards (missing keys, keys not working, case cracked,
> very dirty...) for free.
>
> Wagner.