exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hi Forum,
new to the ST scene. I recently acquired an Atari 1040STE and and 520ST which broken and missing keys.

I notices that the keyboard connectors where the keys plug into, look different on the 1040STE and this new 520ST compared to the 520ST I was just cleaning that keyboard recently.

Pic 1 is old 520ST
Pic 2 is newly bought 520ST
Pic 3 is newly bought 1040STE

Is it safe to say that Atari, same as when Tramiel owned commodore had various keyboard suppliers and where can I find spare keys and the plastic connectors that make contact with the plastic dome that makes contact with the PCB contact. At least this is my understanding how ST keyboards work (not megaST of course).

Ebay or donors but with donors not sure which of the variants are used to have a suitable pool of parts.

Thanks for your insight

I am certainly not the authority on the subject but I think pic 2 is the odd one out.

It was my understanding that for the majority of the Atari ST's life the ST's keyboard switches and keycaps were interchangeable between models (ST, STf, STfm, STe, Falcon030).

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Atari_ST

I wonder if that is a 3rd party replacement keyboard? Any more pictures?

I've certainly seen 1&3 but not 2, and the posts for Megas are different again.

Are the original STM keyboards the same keys and plastics etc ? :shrug:

I believe 1st and 3rd are the same, but differently broken. Only the 2nd one is different, possibly some early unit. For sure all STf and STe had the same keycaps (but there were at least 2 slightly different keyboards there).

I've seen 1 & 3 as well, but not #2 over the 30 or so I've worked on. I would say most of the ST's I've worked on are the older variants of the 520ST and 1040STF from the US. I have worked on a few STe's and the only difference I've noticed in the keyboards between the 1040STF and 1040STe is the longer connection cord to from the keyboard to the motherboard (those 1040STF's have a crazy short connector)

Regarding keycap materials, I did run into one European STe keyboard that had a different keycap material...lighter, seemed cheaper than what I was used to...but the stems and rubber domes seemed identical.

Cheers

Hi Guys,

thank you for the inout and happy that some seems interchangeable.

@exxos I am also very suspicious re the too white/off color keys on the 520ST, as they seem just wrong and at least 20 other keys are also in this wrong color. So as my 520 ST keyboard is different can, I just put in a keyboard from a 520ST donor machine with the more common keyboard? I have not opened it up/cleaned it or even booted. Sorry!

Happy Easter everyone.

mathias_matschke wrote: 29 Mar 2024 09:57 Hi Guys,

thank you for the inout and happy that some seems interchangeable.

@exxos I am also very suspicious re the too white/off color keys on the 520ST, as they seem just wrong and at least 20 other keys are also in this wrong color. So as my 520 ST keyboard is different can, I just put in a keyboard from a 520ST donor machine with the more common keyboard? I have not opened it up/cleaned it or even booted. Sorry!

Happy Easter everyone.

If you're referring to a 520ST/F/M/E when you're talking about a 520 ST, then yes, the keyboard should be interchangeable.

However the keyboard in the 520ST (External power brick & floppy model) has a different connector to the ST/F/M/E models so can't be used in the later machines. IIRC the PCB and main plastic body are different too.

You can try swapping the keycaps though as that may be OK.

Keyboards are generally interchangeable, however the STM keyboards are not compatible with the STFM/STE due to different connector etc.

exxos wrote: 29 Mar 2024 10:07 Keyboards are generally interchangeable, however the STM keyboards are not compatible with the STFM/STE due to different connector etc.

Indeed. This is due to the joystick ports being on the main board and hence these lines need to be passed back to the motherboard. Also, there's no floppy LED on the ST/STM. The electronic functionality is the same, however.