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Hi,
i got a A500 with a De layout. i have some parts of A500 to use, including some keys,
i was thinking in swaping the german keys by UK keys. But are the keyboads equal inside? I mean the circuit?
I could also put some Portuguese keys, but would the keyboard do my "special" characters?
I think the keyboards can be swapped over. I don't think there are differences with the motherboard. However, I don't know if the actual keyboards are wired exactly the same way, or if they are hard wired depending on region/language map.
Easy way to see is to boot into Workbench and change the keyboard layout to English or Portuguese and see if the keys map differently and match the native layouts.
The problem arises especially in the keys alone.
For example look a UK layout keyboard, it's QWERTY, and a german one is QWERTZ. Take down "Y" and "Z" keys.
Simply they aren't the same shape. If you replace the german "Z" key into the "Y" position" of a UK layout keyboard and vice versa, you'll see a slight different in touching.
That applies in all keyboards I pressume.
EDIT: Am I way off topic in that? :lol:
They ought to be the same. My A1200 keyboard is German and has the same number/position of keys as a UK board, and hence functions like a UK board when the layout is set to UK.
Phantom, I can't say I have noticed any such differences between individual keys on my A1200 and A500 keyboards.
This certainly won't apply on my PC keyboard, which is German and hence QWERTZ. Each key cap is identical except for the letter printed on it. I just changed round my Y and Z to make it into a QWERTY layout and there was no difference.
(n.b. I don't actually use the German keyboards set to the German layout. I use them set to English layout, but what is printed on the keys makes very little difference.)
Out of interest Steve... how come you had a German PC keyboard in the first place?
Back in 2008, my Dell Quiet Key (from 1999) broke after I spilled orange juice on it. I wanted to get a Unicomp Model M keyboard but couldn't order one directly from Unicomp (they needed a credit card and I don't have one). So I had a look round ebay, and there was someone in the US selling some brand new boxed Unicomp Model M 102 key keyboards, which were manufactured in 2006, but had a German layout. So I got one. I think it cost about 50 pound inc postage.
Being familiar with German keyboards and knowing the layout of an English keyboard it didn't really make any difference to me. The key caps on these boards can simply be popped off and changed, but as I don't have a full English set, I just drew on symbols such as &"()+=@ etc in pencil.
I've used it just about every day since late 2008. Who cares if my bottom left hand key says Strg instead of Ctrl? They do exactly the same thing.
Only problem at the moment, is that on my Linux system, I managed to change the keyboard layout from UK to US and am struggling to change it back.