Searching for a connector board

[lypoluz]

HI!

I want to reuse a keyboard from an old laptop but I can't find a suitable connector board for it. The keyboard has 34 pins and a pitch of .75mm (or so). The ultimate goal is to use this keyboard wireless via Bluetooth, usb would also be fine. Part number of the keyboard: 6037b0026914

Although I searched for quite some time now, I was not successful so far. And even if I manage to find something that would do the job, I'd need a way to extract the information and convert it to... something.

In addition, I don't really know what I have to look for, since I am fairly new to all of this.

To establish the Bluetooth connection I'd use an ESP8266 as it can be used for some other tasks too. I haven't tested if it works though therefore the usb-backup-plan.

Any help would be much appreciated

 

[Martaine2005]

Do you have the donor laptop?
You could (painfully) use the original connector and make your own breakout board.
Failing that, you'd be better off scraping the ribbon/flat cable and soldering to it.
A real PITA.

Martin

 

[lypoluz]

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I still have the laptop but I don't fancy making a breakout board, mostly because I don't know how to do that. But I'll keep this in the back of my head, just in case...

Soldering is an option, not super clean but nobody is going to see it anyway.
(Actually I soldered for the first time today, it was horrible. Something I'll need to learn before touching the keyboard again )

Anyway, thanks for giving me options to consider but I'll keep looking for for that connector.

Dominik

 

[Martaine2005]

but I'll keep looking for for that connector

That connector will be the same pitch as the flat cable no matter where you get one, if you can find one.
A breakout board makes terminations simpler by having larger connections, but it still needs the original connections.
Learning to solder on flat/ribbon cable is counter productive. Experience is IMHO definitely required.

Martin

 

[dave9]

Keyboards from laptops aren't really stand-alone, you intend to build an entire housing to put it in?

The project makes no sense to me, I'd just buy a bluetooth keyboard. That's probably going to end up cheaper (not even counting the value of your labor) by the time you add housing, battery, USB BMS charge/protection circuit (and/or separate charger), misc hardware like a power switch, fasteners, bluetooth board, connector, etc, etc.

If I really really really (really!!) wanted to DIY build something out of a keyboard I already had, it would be a full desktop keyboard with room in its casing for everything it needed, like an old IBM PS/2 Model M.