Use a NEO stick on a PC through the Keyboard!

Inside each PC keyboard is a small PCB controlling the different key inputs and reporting the keypresses to the computer. What I've done here is replaced the actual keyboard with a NEO-spec joystick port. So now it uses a stick instead of keys.

The biggest obstacle to overcome is that a PC keyboard is divided into 'clusters' of keys, and there can be up to nine or more 'common' wires for one keyboard. What you'll want to do is locate one 'cluster' or group of keys which all use the same common line. On my keyboard the entire numeric keygroup used the same common, so I used those keys.

I stuffed the whole thing into a SNES cartridge (It was a pitfighter, if you must know!) and the PCB fit like it was MADE for it. The controller plug uses the NEO GEO pinout which also conforms to my custom sticks.

The biggest problem here is that you lose all the keyboard amenities. There's no ESC, there's no RET, you can't run any commandline arguments... In hindsight I think it would have been wiser to add a port to an existing keyboard. That's for my next project - but if you've got a dead PC keyboard lying around, this is a fun thing to attempt. I'll be adding a couple of buttons to this cart, like the above mentioned ESC and RET keys, as well as a select few others if I think of them.

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