Has anyone mapped a Fadal keyboard?? And LCD monitors..

I really like my Fadal's, but I'm sick of buying fricken keyboards... $300 each, for a keyboard, and then they die after a few years....

The plan, since both my keyboards are on the fritz...AGAIN!! We're going to make them, with easily replaceable switches that
I can get down at radio shack. The connector to the control board is just a 16pin something something that I can get on E-bay, but
sadly not at Radio Shack...

I'm just hoping somebody has already sat down and traced all the wires to figure out what combination is what button... And would
be kind enough to share. I really don't want to do it.

And then the damn monitor on one machine... Its been going for a while, it got to the point you couldn't even see the top half of the
screen.. Plugged into an old Apple monitor and the top was still a little flaky, but you could read it.. Then my business partner
went down to Radio Shack again and bought a $6 adaptor and plugged into his kids portable DVD player, and it was crystal clear.

So... 11" screen designed for a car... RCA input...(you need the $6 adaptor) Put another computer power supply in the pendant and hooked that to the 110v for
the original monitor... That way it works with the monitor on/off switch also. $150 and it works like a champ, just need to make a bezel to hold it...

$800 for the LCD upgrade kit.. I don't think so.

Best part, that is the one machine you can't see the TV from, and the monitor is dual input, so I'm going to split the satellite wire so
I can watch a ball game on my Fadal.

Nice! OK...What name and model number is the 11" screen that was designed for a car? RCA input which one? Just a standard low voltage PS to the screen? And what about pictures? You know half of us here can barely read and need the pictures.

Come on details, details...or are you going to be making your own little kit and be selling them Bob?

Any new progress on the keyboard?
...

TView TRP1177 11" Raw Flat Panel
TView TRP1177 11" Raw Flat Panel LCD Screen Car Video Monitor w VGA | eBay

You could use anything that would fit, or you could make fit. My business partner is the one that did the digging on the monitor, and we could have
gotten out of it for $50 with a 9 inch monitor.

Then this adaptor.
BNC female to RCA male.
DNT 5 BNC Female to RCA Male Coax Cable Converter Adapter Connector | eBay

Throw 12 volts at it, and done.

The monitor is in, and working... The finishing touches... not yet..

And yes its dirty, and yes I write all over my machines...



Hopefully I can get around to the keyboards next week, my typing finger is getting bruised on the end..

And if anybody is wondering... The wiring in a standard keyboard is not the same, I checked.

IIRC the Fadal keyboards were made by Cherry during those unfortunate years I worked for a Fadal distributor. Maybe some help from someone there?

CHERRY Keyboards

Vancbiker...

If I had to guess based on what I've seen from old and the new keyboards that CNCpros or FadalCNC or Sequoia CNC or whatever they are calling themselves today...
They are the same thing... I may bark up that tree, but that would take all the fun out of it... Thanx for the info...

So I'm ripping into this thing, because working does not sound like fun on a Friday afternoon, and I'm just waiting for the Fed Ex guy....

Anyways, the contacts and all that, conductors, connectors, the little wires inside the plastic.. Its a metalic paint or an ink, comes right off
with acetone.. And after a while it just burns up.. If they could sell me just the stupid little printed piece of plastic in the back for $40 or
something I wouldn't complain too much, but they sell you the whole keyboard... For $300.

I recall a time when a tech could buy this nifty little marker that was filled with ink which contained within it silver particles. I used to have one and some kid thought he needed it more than I and lifted it from my tool case while I was on a service call. They were good for repairs on those plastic circuit carriers in keyboards as well as the plastic connectors. Radio Shack used to carry a version of it, but since they've become a cell phone company I have my doubts. I haven't set foot in a RS store in many years, therefore, I can't attest to what they've got. Surely between the two keyboards you've got you can map the keys. If nothing else crack one open and trace them out.

ITS has new keyboards for $250.00 Keypads | FadalDepot.com they were the OE on the Fadal control so it should be a original quality replacement. I am actually surprised you are having keyboard problems we have not replaced one in 15 years on the 10 Fadals in the shop.

Here is the map, immortalized, mainly for myself because I WILL lose this piece of paper.

#s are the ribbon, 1-16, 1 on the bottom, 16 on the top... From the ribbon I think it goes to an IDC 16 pin male.

Start 4,12
Auto 4,10
Manual 4,11
Single 4,15
Jog 4,13
Spindle 4,14
STOP 7,12
Cool1 7,10
Cool2 7,11
Tool 7,15
CCW 7,13
CW 7,14
1 6,12
2 6,9
3 6,10
4 6,11
5 2,10
6 2,11
7 2,15
8 6,15
9 6,13
0 6,16
-= 6,14
Back 5,12
Q 5,9
W 5,10
E 5,11
R 1,10
T 1,11
Y 1,15
U 1,13
I 5,15
O 5,13
P 5,16
ENTER 5,14
DEL 3,12
A 3,9
S 3,10
D 3,11
F 1,12
G 1,9
H 1,16
J 1,14
K 3,15
L 3,13
:; 3,16
+ 3,14
Left shift 8,12
Z 8,9
X 8,10
C 8,11
V 2,12
B 2,9
N 2,16
M 2,14
, 8,15
. 8,13
?/ 8,16
Right shift 8,14
SPACE 2,13


16: ?/ , N , :; , H , P , zero
15: comma , K , Y , I , 8 , 7 , TOOL I/O , SINGLE BLOCK
14: M , RIGHT SHIFT , J , + , ENTER, =- , CW , SPINDLE
13: L , letter O, period , U , 9 , CCW , JOG , SPACE
12: V , LEFT SHIFT , F , DEL , BACK , 1 , STOP , START
11: C , D , T , E , 6 , 4 , COOL2 , MANUAL
10: X , S , R , W , 5 , 3 , COOL1 , AUTO
9: B , Z , G , A , Q , 2

8: ?/ , period , comma , C , X , Z , LEFT SHIFT , RIGHT SHIFT
7: CW , CCW , TOOL I/O , COOL2 , COOL1 , STOP
6: =- , zero , 9 , 8 , 4 , 3 , 2 , 1
5: ENTER , P , letter O , I , E , W , Q , BACK
4: SPINDLE , JOG , SINGLE , MANUAL , AUTO , START
3: + , :; , L , K , D , S , A , DEL
2: SPACE , M , N , B , V , 7 , 6 , 5
1: J , H , G , F , U , Y , T , R

in2glamisgirl said:

ITS has new keyboards for $250.00 Keypads | FadalDepot.com they were the OE on the Fadal control so it should be a original quality replacement. I am actually surprised you are having keyboard problems we have not replaced one in 15 years on the 10 Fadals in the shop.

Click to expand...

I don't know why either, maybe its the dry weather here? I've gone through a pile of them, and there were dead keyboards in the back of one of the machines when
we got it. I think those are the same boards that Fadal CNC sells, they have the 2 little bits of plastic on both sides of the space bar, the old ones had a longer space bar.

I recall a time when a tech could buy this nifty little marker that was filled with ink which contained within it silver particles.

Click to expand...

Same stuff to fix the old school defrost wires on your crappy old Camaro???

Its 2 pieces of plastic, with the little painted metal lines sandwiched in there. It makes a mess taking it apart, and the adhesive is the only thing
that keeps the two sides apart. I do have a plotter though.... HMMMM.

Bob you have made your Fadal ugly! You can get a larger monitor and run a BNC to RCA adaptor like that or even a signal booster. The next time we have one go out it will be a 12.1" LCD with a MP video card so we get a pretty blue screen. Or shitcan the entire pendant and get a Legacy pendant.

Bob, I may have missed your intent, but ...

Looks like you've already figured out the keyboard.
It appears to be a plain vanilla 8x8 matrix keypad, and you already know who is who.

If you want to substitute your own switches, then mount them in the order you prefer and wire them up as row/column.
For example ( from your post ) the letter"J" is in row 1 and column 14, letter "H" is row 1, column 16, "SPACE" is row 2, column 13 .. so on and so on.

Willing to bet that Fadal did not use a custom keyboard, and the old style 64 key keyboards were all 8x8 matrix.
For shits and giggles, here is one idea: Converting a C64 Keyboard to USB with Arduino | Freetronics ( good ol' Commodore )

For your 16 pin connector, it is most likely a Berg connector. Looks like the left side is row, right is column.
10 or so years ago these were available even in grocery stores let alone electronics outlets.
The fact that they do not have them speaks volumes of the uselessness of Radio Smack!

Great job on the lcd monitor retrofit Bob. I paid 300 a few years ago for an lcd monitor for my 3016, that came with the adapter thingy and a power supply.

Pay the 250 for a new keyboard and get back to work.

Bobw said:

Same stuff to fix the old school defrost wires on your crappy old Camaro???

Click to expand...

FYI - my old camaro was built to go fast. No room for luxury items such as A/C, rear defrost, etc.

BTW - Once I replaced the keyboard in my 4020HT VMC four years ago (was one of the first things I did after buying the machine) I haven't done anything but make chips. You may need to dig a little deeper into what's causing them to take a dump. May save you some time, aggravation, and money...

WadeC clued me in to FadalCNC having keyboards on sale for $225.. So I picked up 2 of them.....

And then it got humid here, really humid.... And my 2 crappy keyboards, that were barely functioning started working just fine...

Then no rain for a few days and some keys started crapping out... Then it would rain, and they were fine again... Very strange...
Seems where the top piece of plastic with metalic paint comes into contact with the bottom piece of metalic paint is where the
problem is.... I wonder if the crappy plastic that holds it together is nylon or something, and it dries out and then doesn't squeeze
as hard... Get some rain, the plastic swells up and we get good contact.....

(minutes pass...............)

Just opened up my new keyboards... Apparently I wasn't the only one to have an idea... The new ones are individual switches actually
soldered to a real circuit board... I'm always a day late and a dollar short on good ideas.... At least I feel my $450 on the keyboards wasn't
just pissed away.

someone

Bobw said:

WadeC clued me in to FadalCNC having keyboards on sale for $225.. So I picked up 2 of them.....

And then it got humid here, really humid.... And my 2 crappy , that were barely functioning started working just fine...

Then no rain for a few days and some keys started crapping out... Then it would rain, and they were fine again... Very strange...
Seems where the top piece of plastic with metalic paint comes into contact with the bottom piece of metalic paint is where the
problem is.... I wonder if the crappy plastic that holds it together is nylon or something, and it dries out and then doesn't squeeze
as hard... Get some rain, the plastic swells up and we get good contact.....

(minutes pass...............)

Just opened up my new keyboards... Apparently I wasn't the only one to have an idea... The new ones are individual switches actually
soldered to a real circuit board... I'm always a day late and a dollar short on good ideas.... At least I feel my $450 on the keyboards wasn't
just pissed away.

Click to expand...

someone who remains interested in this topic I have managed to connect a pc keyboard to the old fafal with an arduino-based interface

WayneC369 said:

I recall a time when a tech could buy this nifty little marker that was filled with ink which contained within it silver particles. I used to have one and some kid thought he needed it more than I and lifted it from my tool case while I was on a service call. They were good for repairs on those plastic circuit carriers in keyboards as well as the plastic connectors. Radio Shack used to carry a version of it, but since they've become a cell phone company I have my doubts. I haven't set foot in a RS store in many years, therefore, I can't attest to what they've got. Surely between the two keyboards you've got you can map the keys. If nothing else crack one open and trace them out.

Click to expand...

I think you are looking for rear window defroster repair paint it is liquid copper
Don


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Since all Fadals accept "keyboard" input from the serial port, I don't see why you couldn't make a "terminal" that takes a PS/2 keyboard input and echos the Fadal character codes to the serial port.

Assuming the extended keycodes have a serial equivalent...

Perry Harrington said:

Since all Fadals acceps "keyboard" input from the serial port, I don't see why you couldn't make a "terminal" that takes a PS/2 keyboard input and echos the Fadal character codes to the serial port.

Assuming the extended keycodes have a serial equivalent...

Click to expand...

Then you could mount the keyboard at an ergonomic angle, which would be the real victory.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

I know this original thread was years ago but I wanna see the ball game on his fadal monitor lol

ps2 keyboard on fadal

Cole2534 said:

Then you could mount the keyboard at an ergonomic angle, which would be the real victory.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

someone who remains interested in this topic I have managed to connect a pc keyboard to the old fafal with an arduino-based interface