Keyboard wire help

[Carnage]

So I dug up this old generic alps clones keyboard my buddy gave me a long time ago when he broke it. So i decided to take it apart and realized how he broke it but I cannot figure out how to get it back together. If anybody good help or give advice of what I should do it would be much appreciated.


Yeah that could a problem right there not connected!







This is a spare cable i found


So anybody know what colors go where? I hope its just that the cords where ripped out and unplugged and that there Isn't a serious problem with the board.

I think it says Vdd D+ D- and the rest I cannot read I also couldn't find any schematics online of what the colors go where.

[BlueBär]

The other two look like GND and AGND to me - AGND is analogue ground, GND just ground. The color specs seem to fit USB - red should be VDD, white D- and green D+, but I can't say of AGND is grey and GND black or the other way around.

[metalliqaz]

Looks like USB to me.  The first four are USB connections (VDD, D+, D-, GND) and the AGND is for the shielding in the USB cable.

[Carnage]

Thanks yeah both of the cables I have the original one ((which is mounted into the casing what a pain)) and the spare are usb so i guess ill just have to rip them up and try to figure out the grey and black well it would be grey and brown or black and black for me. Thanks for the help if anybody has any more information or tips on helping me fix this it would be much appreciated.

I still have no idea how I'm going to get the wires to properly connect.

[Carnage]

Bump~

Since today is the day I'm going to have the most free time to work on this anybody have any other pointers / advice for me? I still have no idea how I'm going to reconnect the wires.

[rowdy]

If the USB plug is just a plug and doesn't have any electronics of its own inside, you should be able to use a multimeter to find out which wire corresponds to which pin in the plug.

You could either buy a new plug to solder on to the ends of the wire, or find an existing keyboard cable with a similar plug (e.g. the one you illustrated, unless you need that in a different keyboard) and sacrifice it - snip the plug off the end with enough wire to comfortably solder the ends of the wires together.

I did something similar for a Model M I was resurrecting, although that was PS/2 and fairly well documented.

[Carnage]

If the USB plug is just a plug and doesn't have any electronics of its own inside, you should be able to use a multimeter to find out which wire corresponds to which pin in the plug.

You could either buy a new plug to solder on to the ends of the wire, or find an existing keyboard cable with a similar plug (e.g. the one you illustrated, unless you need that in a different keyboard) and sacrifice it - snip the plug off the end with enough wire to comfortably solder the ends of the wires together.

I did something similar for a Model M I was resurrecting, although that was PS/2 and fairly well documented.

Ugh! I figured it would come down to me having to buy a soldering iron. I really wanted to avoid doing such just encase there's something actually wrong with the board itself. If so i would already have the soldering Iron but i have no idea how to transplant switches or where i would even get a donor board.

Yeah that other cable I bought just to use for this board so cutting it up is no problem.

[gigibecali]

That's easy.

Just look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_connector#Plugs_physical_appearance and crosscheck with your board (keyboard).
Use a multimeter to be sure the wires go where they should.
Solder them and be happy.
(Colors may not necessarily be the same. All you really need is wires)

[rowdy]

You could get screw terminals - much bulkier but there might be space inside the keyboard for them - and no soldering required.

[gigibecali]

If the USB plug is just a plug and doesn't have any electronics of its own inside, you should be able to use a multimeter to find out which wire corresponds to which pin in the plug.

You could either buy a new plug to solder on to the ends of the wire, or find an existing keyboard cable with a similar plug (e.g. the one you illustrated, unless you need that in a different keyboard) and sacrifice it - snip the plug off the end with enough wire to comfortably solder the ends of the wires together.

I did something similar for a Model M I was resurrecting, although that was PS/2 and fairly well documented.

Ugh! I figured it would come down to me having to buy a soldering iron. I really wanted to avoid doing such just encase there's something actually wrong with the board itself. If so i would already have the soldering Iron but i have no idea how to transplant switches or where i would even get a donor board.

Yeah that other cable I bought just to use for this board so cutting it up is no problem.

If you have both ends already available in some form (USB cable to kill and the connector you shown fits) then you can get away with just a knife and some isolation tape.
We won't call you a geekhacker if you do so though.

[Carnage]

If the USB plug is just a plug and doesn't have any electronics of its own inside, you should be able to use a multimeter to find out which wire corresponds to which pin in the plug.

You could either buy a new plug to solder on to the ends of the wire, or find an existing keyboard cable with a similar plug (e.g. the one you illustrated, unless you need that in a different keyboard) and sacrifice it - snip the plug off the end with enough wire to comfortably solder the ends of the wires together.

I did something similar for a Model M I was resurrecting, although that was PS/2 and fairly well documented.

Ugh! I figured it would come down to me having to buy a soldering iron. I really wanted to avoid doing such just encase there's something actually wrong with the board itself. If so i would already have the soldering Iron but i have no idea how to transplant switches or where i would even get a donor board.

Yeah that other cable I bought just to use for this board so cutting it up is no problem.

If you have both ends already available in some form (USB cable to kill and the connector you shown fits) then you can get away with just a knife and some isolation tape.
We won't call you a geekhacker if you do so though.

The plugin



The spare

The wire that came with the board.


I know splicing them is not the right way but I was planning on making a Plexiglas casing for it and such so of course id do the cord properly but. It would be good to know if the board worked before i started doing anything.

That is what i have at my disposal though at the moment so if theres a way i can check if the board works with that a quick walk through would be nice.

[rowdy]

Given that there is a plug on the PCB and not a socket, the only way you are going to get a reasonable connection for all 5 pins is to find another socket (i.e. a female connector).

Is the cable with the plug on the other end from a similar keyboard?

If so, you can check which of the wires at the keyboard end connect to which of the wires at the USB end.

Then you know what order they should be connected on the cable without a plug at the keyboard end.

Given the similar colouring of the two cables, possibly the respective manufacturers have adhered to some sort of standard and the wiring is the same.

But you should not rely on this.

[Carnage]

Given that there is a plug on the PCB and not a socket, the only way you are going to get a reasonable connection for all 5 pins is to find another socket (i.e. a female connector).

Is the cable with the plug on the other end from a similar keyboard?

If so, you can check which of the wires at the keyboard end connect to which of the wires at the USB end.

Then you know what order they should be connected on the cable without a plug at the keyboard end.

Given the similar colouring of the two cables, possibly the respective manufacturers have adhered to some sort of standard and the wiring is the same.

But you should not rely on this.

Sadly no there from two totally different keyboards. The spare cable i ripped out of a dell that i bought at goodwill as a donor. The cable that is destroyed is from the actual board which is un-marked and from Taiwan i believe.

That's the piece I disconnected the donor cable from. It was off of a dell RT7D50.

[IvanIvanovich]

Seems to follow standard USB wire colors. Take a pin and release the tab on the metal pins inside the plastic and move them so they are correct. It should be fairly straight forward.
On the controller pic in the first post you should move the wires in the connector on the spare cable so they go from top to bottom
red
green
white
black
dark grey

[Carnage]

Seems to follow standard USB wire colors. Take a pin and release the tab on the metal pins inside the plastic and move them so they are correct. It should be fairly straight forward.
On the controller pic in the first post you should move the wires in the connector on the spare cable so they go from top to bottom
red
green
white
black
dark grey

Like this right? I really hope I didn't just mess this up .
[ Specified attachment is not available ]

[IvanIvanovich]

Yes exactly, just push them out and move them into the correct order for the connection as marked on the keyboard PCB.

[Carnage]

Yes exactly, just push them out and move them into the correct order for the connection as marked on the keyboard PCB.

Thanks so much for the help I finished doing it and even tried switching them around a little to no avail. I'm guessing either the controller is broken which is why the wire's where ripped out or the actual board is. Stinks I don't know which or else Id start asking around for a donor board or find a new controller to buy. Would stink to hunt down a controller though just to find out the board is broken  ).

What the controller in there looks like disconnected.