Hi there! Been lurking around and googling a lot, but I can't seem to find some good answers to this.
I'd like to make an alphasmart (
http://www.neo-direct.com/) -like devise with a mechanical keyboard (preferably model M, but I'm not picky)
I own two alphasmart neo's, and I love their simple lcd screens, autosave, manner of transferring to the computer, etc. Ideally, I'd like to convert one to a more desktop-like version, keeping the screen, memory, motherboard but replacing the keyboard and case. After taking one of my alphasmarts apart, I found that both the screen and keyboard attach to the motherboard using zif connectors (25 pin/wire for the keyboard).
I googled extensivly, but couldn't come up with anyone who'd done anything like this with one of their alphasmarts. I'm pretty sure there isn't a way to convert usb/ps2 to 25 pin zif, but I'm a noobie at this.
If you can think of a way that I could do this, please let me know. Alternately, I'd be open to using some kind of micro computer like a Raspberry Pi and a mechanical keyboard. That said, I really like the simple, monochrome, text based screen of the alphasmart. I've found a few 4x40 lcd screens, which are still a teensy bit smaller than mine. Do you know of a Pi compatible monochrome lcd screen? Could I somehow rig the screen of the alphasmart into a Pi?
Thanks.
