I'm planning on making a "keyboard hack" workshop with my art students, where the goal is to take an old usb keyboard apart, remove the PCB and rewire some key to trigger actions on a computer.
E.g. as a simple alarm system: When the door opens it "hits" X, which is programmed to play an alarm sound. (I think the students are creative enough to create other fun projects. I'll introduce them to Scratch to get a little into programming and to give a wide range for possible actions).
As I don't think the students to run into big problems with disassembling the keyboard, I'm a bit scared reconnecting the PCB could cause a short circuit that will freeze and destroy the computer where the keyboard is plugged in. So I'd really appreciate some feedback, if this could happen or how to prevent this.
(Other comments, cool ideas or dangers about this "keyboard hack" workshop are welcome too!)
PS: It's also intended to be a crash course into electronics, but the time pretty limited. So is there something basic that has to be explained beside an electric circuit and soldiering?
