Deko Avid Video Editing Keyboard $36

[nubbinator]

It should have MX Blacks or Clears and dyesub SP caps.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Deko-Avid-Video-Editing-Keyboard-7020-03588-01-ADASS703070-Untested-NO-ADAPTER-/131258486705

Not a bad deal for caps and switches if you get it cheap.

[dorkvader]

Not a bad deal for caps and switches if you get it cheap.

I have one of these: the keycaps are pad print not dyesub.

This is one of the best-constructed cherry MX keyboards ever made. Please don't strip it for parts if you get it. I am working on capturing all the scancodes it sends for all the extra keys so it can be converted with a PS/2 adapter. It should come with MX blacks. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to send properly-formed upcodes to my soarer, but all the "normal" keys will work with a commercial PS/2 converter.

If you do harvest it for parts consider selling the rest to me, or, better yet, have it shipped to me, and I'll harvest the switches (and caps if you want them for whatever reason) and mail them to whoever. These things are wonderful: please don't scrap all the useful / important bits.

You can see some pictures of it in my flickr, here

[jdcarpe]

Not falling in the eBay trap again!

[nubbinator]

That looks pretty awesome internally.  The only other post I could find on the board said it was dyesubs and said nothing about build quality.  So scrap what I said and get it to maybe hopefully use one day.

[SpAmRaY]

This would be a great 'battlestation' board if dv's project gets all the keys working!

[orihalcon]

Looks nice! Any idea why the scan codes won't work with Soarer's converter?  Are they just codes that aren't assigned a value or something?  I would assume you still get some sort of output with HID listen?

[dorkvader]

Looks nice! Any idea why the scan codes won't work with Soarer's converter?  Are they just codes that aren't assigned a value or something?  I would assume you still get some sort of output with HID listen?

It wasn't sending properly-formed up and downcodes to the soarer device. I was looking at them with hid_listen. I only got a "real" make and release if I'd just pressed a different key, and then only every other time. It was very annoying because the state could get stuck down, and all that. This could be if soarer's converter is sending some sort of info to the KB to get it stuck in a mode that it shouldn't normally be in or something like that (like how we get "usable' info from a 122-key model F). As to why this is the case, I cannot say. My plan was to try tmk_firmware next.


If you're interested I can make a post with all the info. I had been planning on doing this at some point anyway.

[IvanIvanovich]

Man... but this keyboard is just NOT BIG ENOUGH. Maybe an Accom instead?

There is some software for these Deko keyboards. As far as I could tell it is needed for the extra keys and the screen to do anything useful with the DEKO software only. From what I could find out about it, all that is controlled by the option rom chip. So perhaps if you just yank that out (it's the removable one in the dip socket) it could make it easier to get it working with some other controller?
I couldn't find anywhere to download it from and Avid didn't seem to interested in giving me a download link or anything since I didn't own the full system. It seems the keyboard driver stuff is bundled up with the program suite so I suppose that's understandable. But I didn't have a power supply either so I just parted mine and chucked the other stuff. I got mine for dirt cheap so I wasn't really too fussed about it.

[dorkvader]

Man... but this keyboard is just NOT BIG ENOUGH. Maybe an Accom instead?

There is some software for these Deko keyboards. As far as I could tell it is needed for the extra keys and the screen to do anything useful with the DEKO software only. From what I could find out about it, all that is controlled by the option rom chip. So perhaps if you just yank that out (it's the removable one in the dip socket) it could make it easier to get it working with some other controller?
I couldn't find anywhere to download it from and Avid didn't seem to interested in giving me a download link or anything since I didn't own the full system. It seems the keyboard driver stuff is bundled up with the program suite so I suppose that's understandable. But I didn't have a power supply either so I just parted mine and chucked the other stuff. I got mine for dirt cheap so I wasn't really too fussed about it.

I have the software (see the flickr gallery) but it's only for windows 2000. According to the user manual I have, you just install the driver and go.

Anyway, all the keys output scancodes, so they are (in theory) capturable by a PS/2 to USB converter (I can see them all in HID_listen_ when using soarer's converter code) and then you can do what you want with it, but for some reason it doesn't sent the full scancode its' supposed to (compared with several "normal" PS/2 keyboards, but for some reason it works (well 104 of the keys do plus 2-17 of the "special" ones) well enough on a commercial PS/2 converter.

I can't believe you chucked it! The obvious quality is well worth using! It's one of the best-quality cherry MX boards you can get. Why spend $$$ on a korean metal KB when you can have this instead?

If you look at the PCB, the PSU just outputs 12V over a DIN connector.

[IvanIvanovich]

No one was interested in paying the high shipping cost for it's carcass at the time. Even though it was nicely made, I don't really care to use big boards either. For the price I paid for it, making out with enough switch for 2 60% was a good deal to me. I think I paid something like $15 shipped for it, and the shipping cost the poor seller more than that alone )