deskthority

I just found this thing. It's definitely an input device that was attached to a larger machine.
I already searched for the serial number and found nothing useful. The company seems to make mostly alarms and sirens for police cars, but this could be part of an old product they don't make anymore?

The numbers seem to be given preference over the letters and some are marked things like "withdraw" and "no sale" so I assume it's some kind of cash register or something money related.

The keycaps have a removable clear top so they can be customized to say anything.

Anyone has any idea what this could be?

I plan to disassemble it later to see what's inside and what potential this has to be transformed into a working keyboard. It could be a good project.What you all think?

dead images

edit : that looks like a POS system, and since it's a rubber dome it kinda makes me think of Preh but there is no mention of it so I don't know

Found it!

http://cintimesys.com/solutions/parking ... d_apd.html

tatsurou wrote: Found it!

http://cintimesys.com/solutions/parking ... d_apd.html

WOW! That was fast!

How did you find it?

And a million thanks!

Googled
Not a problem man!

Myoth wrote: dead images

edit : that looks like a POS system, and since it's a rubber dome it kinda makes me think of Preh but there is no mention of it so I don't know

Thanks anyway. Rubber dome? I was expecting it would have some kind of switches inside.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do with it. I like the idea of customizing the keys.

tatsurou wrote: Googled
Not a problem man!

I googled it too, but I guess I didn't use the right terms.

Well, I put it apart. The keys are hold to an aluminum plate by rivets, so not much I can do there. And the only connection to the rest of the thing is that data ribbon. So I guess I don't have a lot of chances of turning this into anything functional.

maybe you could check the ribbon cable with a multimeter or something (or the main PCB of the machine) to get it working on a teensy? That would be neat.

green-squid wrote: maybe you could check the ribbon cable with a multimeter or something (or the main PCB of the machine) to get it working on a teensy? That would be neat.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I could try. But my knowledge of electronics is not very good. Unless I find some kind of idiot-proof kit I allows me to do it with maybe some soldering, I'll be clueless.

I'm not sure, but I guess getting one of theese: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/30-Pcs- ... 03271.html would dramatically increase the chances of being able to connect it to a teensy, at least.

snufflecat wrote: I'm not sure, but I guess getting one of theese: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/30-Pcs- ... 03271.html would dramatically increase the chances of being able to connect it to a teensy, at least.

Thanks! That looks like an interesting idea to experiment with.

Hey man just wanted to chime in and say that I noticed that the ribbon connector snufflecat linked will not work because it's for small modern SMD stuff like camera screen connectors. Hope you haven't ordered it yet!

Just desolder the one from the machine with solder wick.

green-squid wrote: Hey man just wanted to chime in and say that I noticed that the ribbon connector snufflecat linked will not work because it's for small modern SMD stuff like camera screen connectors. Hope you haven't ordered it yet!

Just desolder the one from the machine with solder wick.

Thanks for the tip.
I haven't ordered. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with this. The keys look cool but are not really good, they would not have the feeling that would justify all the effort it would take to make this a functional keyboard. I may just turn it into a non-working prop.