News
New Atari Keyboard Domes: Revision II
Posted by Nick on

The new prototype domes showed up and so far I'm really happy with them - good tactile feel and not as "stiff" as the TT Touch domes are, and a decent amount of travel unlike the first prototype which was definitely too short. I'm going to type on them for a while and see how I feel but I think this might be the final revision for mass production. Left to right: OEM Atari, TT Touch, Prototype 1, Prototype 2
First Run of Keyboard Domes
Posted by Nick on

New keyboard domes showed up - they feel great and work fine but there's a couple mm less key travel than with Atari or "TT Touch" domes - trying to decide whether to stick with these or try producing another batch. One of the changes I made here was to add a *much* larger contact pad than on the OEM domes so typing should be way more reliable as well. Guess I'll load up a full keyboard and try typing on it for a few days and see what I think.
"TT Touch" Reborn!
Posted by Nick on

Just placed an order for a big lot of custom replacement domes for our ST/Falcon keyboards that should be similar to the “TT Touch” domes and significantly improve how our keyboards feel. The “TT Touch” domes were a massive improvement and definitely worth doing, and I’m hoping these will be the same. If they come out as expected, I should have them for sale on my web shop in about a month or so. Final price TBD but they should be pretty cheap. I’m also exploring options for springs as well, the domes alone should be a huge improvement but...
Getting There!
Posted by Nick on

The new slightly-revised batch of floppy adapter boards works perfectly and makes assembly way easier. I’ve finally got a bunch of stock assembled ready to ship for new orders. I’ve worked out some more efficient assembly processes as well – think we’re finally in “full production” mode!
The First Batch
Posted by Nick on
The first batch of floppy adapters didn’t go exactly as planned but they’re all done now and will be in the mail tomorrow. I still haven’t found an easy way to put the pins into the DIN14 boards and hold them there for soldering so it’s a hugely manual process but I have a few ideas to try I also received a batch of floppy power pigtails that were a larger gauge than I ordered and had to modify things to work with the last batch of boards I ordered. It took some time to make what I had on...