Ok this may sound kinda crazy, but i have an old keyboard so might as well try.
I want to make the keyboard smaller, like remove all the keys except maybe 10 of them. then put them 10 keys into a custom surround and assign them different functions, pause, play, mute etc.
I have taken they keyboard apart before (i was bored) and they have to thin bits of plastic running under each key, im assuming when u press a key these bit of plastic touch and it works out what key is pressed from that.
So does anyone have an idea how to make this smaller so i can be mounted how i want or if that isnt possible (highly likley) know of a way to get keyboard input to the PC with a custom button setup? (kinda like them Jukebox things u can rent do).
not too crazy, but it might not work with the keyboard that you have.
it is possible that the keyboard that you are considering cutting up might have a mulitlayer circuit board, meaning that there is no way to know where all the circuit traces go, so you might end up destryoing it.
usually, people will use the individual number pads--a quick googling shows that new ones are about $20:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008NG7N/...SIN=B00008NG7N
For a few current and old carputers i have used a USB/PS2 keyboard and done similar to what your thinking.
But i remove the main IC/Circuit from the keyboard and just record down the matrix mapping from the keyboard input section.. I cant remember how many pins/terminals there are on the input side but 12 to 24 or something like that. All in the end you just need to place this circuit board in a jiffy box or something and have a custom plug with all the connectors and you can just build your own keyboards with the buttons later on or some of buttons/switches from your local electronics store.
Using this method, To respond to a key press in your software. It just has to monitor for a alphanumeric value. So for the use of say the 101 standard keys, you only need to use a PS2 port which otherwise would have no device attached in most carputer setups.
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