Good (re)use of an old Palm keyboard, Jacksonharbor writes – “Palm Keyboards for the m100, III and VII models of the Palm PDA are available on the surplus market for around $20 postpaid. These keyboards are unusual in that they fold up into a compact box about the size of two Altoids tins. The Palm Keyboards also use very little power. The keyboards communicate with the Palm PDA using serial (RS-232) communication. Both their size and low power usage make them ideal for QRP ham radio applications. One obvious application is as a Morse Code keyboard. However there is one problem with these keyboards: they do not use a standard 9 or 25 pin D connector as most serial interfaces do. The Palm Keyboard interface board is an inexpensive way to try out these keyboards with your own PIC or other hardware. I’ve posted a simple PIC based Morse keyboard application using this circuit board along with a PIC and a few other parts housed in an Altoids tin…” [via] – Link.
