Over the Color Computers' life span, a number of keyboard options were offered by Tandy / Radio Shack and third-parties.

Here is a brief “field guide” to spotting which keyboard is which on your CoCo …

The CoCo 1 originally came with 53 “chiclet” style keys on a 60% size keyboard layout usable by adults and children.

At least they are solid chiclet and not rubber nubs of nastiness like those found on competitors.

Interestingly the arrow keys are laid out with the left and right arrow in the left-hand side of the keyboard, and the up and down arrows on the right-hand side.

This layout was used to advantage in the controls of some games which become more painful to play on a CoCo 3 with its arrow keys in a diamond.

The first attempt for the CoCo 1 and 2 to get away from chiclet keys were half-height keys known as “melty” keys.

Later in production, the Color Computers finally got full-height keys.

The Dragon Data machines offered a nice full height keyboard right from the start.

These keyboards are wired slightly differently than the CoCo, so a small adapter is needed to plug Dragon keyboards into CoCos, or CoCo keyboards into Dragons.

This wiring difference also affects the key matrix decoding so that Dragon games may not play with the same keys on a CoCo or vice versa.

See my keyscn2 example code for how to decode both key matrices.

The keyboard everyone loves to hate! 48 tiny multi-function chiclet keys (suitable for children actually).

At least they are solid chiclet and not rubber nubs of nastiness like those found on competitors.

The keyboards for the MC-10 and ALICE were offered in both QWERTY and AZERTY layouts:

Some folks also swapped their SHIFT and CONTROL keys for convenience:

The Deluxe CoCo (unfortunately canceled) came with 57 keys on the keyboard, adding a CTRL, ALT, F1, and F2 key, and moving the arrow keys into a diamond formation on the right-hand side.

The bezel / surround for the Deluxe CoCo keyboard is black, not the grey found on the much more common CoCo 3 keyboard to follow.

57 keys including CTRL, ALT, F1, and F2 with the arrow keys in a diamond formation and grey bezel around the keys.

Ed “Zippster” Snider offers mechanical switch keyboard replacements with laser-engraved keycaps in a variety of styles at his ZippsterZone site: https://thezippsterzone.com/keyboards/

Rick “ricku” Ulland offers a printed circuit board (PCB) to replace the aging mylar circuits in CoCo 2 and CoCo 3 keyboards on his Computer Conect site: https://computerconect.com/

Note - these are the PCB's only - your existing keyboard keycaps, springs, frame are reused - only the mylar circuit sheet inside is replaced.

The CoCo3 PCB includes a nice switch to convert the arrow keys to CoCo1/2 layout for games.

When the keyboard is installed, the switch is accessible through the lower vent grill.

A rather severe upgrade that installs a daughterboard, ROM changes, and external keyboard:
“Eagle Keyboard and Interface”; Rainbow Magazine January 1990, p.92.

Reviewed in Rainbow Magazine October 1983.

Reviewed in Rainbow Magazine January 1985.

Reviewed in Rainbow Magazine April 1983.

Reviewed in Rainbow Magazine March 1983.

Rosen, Bob. “This will program your keys on Professional Keyboard.” Rainbow Magazine (1983, June) 80

Reviewed in Rainbow Magazine February 1984.

Dave “MrDave6x09” Veary offers an interesting CoCo keyboard which has both CoCo1/2 and CoCo3 style arrow key layouts on the board and a bewildering array of keycap options.

Contact him on the Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer Discord for details.

Reviewed in Rainbow Magazine August 1986.

An incomplete list of some keyboard related articles in Rainbow:

White, Richard A. “Let's look at keyboard input.” Rainbow Magazine (1983, March) 192

Kotcher, Darryl. “Color sketch: a keyboard graphics utility.” Rainbow Magazine (1983, October) 161

Meixsell, Dennis. “Interface a calculator keyboard to the PIA.” Rainbow Magazine (1983, December) 207

Schrag, Roger. “Multiply your efforts with this keyboard shorthand.” Rainbow Magazine (1984, February) 188

DiStefano, Tony “Adding function keys to your keyboard” Rainbow Magazine (1984, February) 117

German, J. D. “Put your keyboard on the screen.” Rainbow Magazine (1984, March) 128

PIANO Rainbow (1984. June) 19 —Music—piano keyboard

Stearman, Colin J. “Cooking with CoCo part 4.” Rainbow Magazine (1984, October) 180* —Some patches to make keyboard entry easier.

Rutter, Richard W. “Enhance your keyboard input with bulfer stuffer.” Rainbow Magazine (1985, February) 90* —A machine language program to add new commands.

Behr, Gary L. “The keyboard cassette editing system.” Rainbow Magazine (1985, January) 42• —Short program to start and stop cassette.

“CoCo keyboard software.” Rainbow Magazine (1986, April) 191

Goodman, Marty. “Remote control CoCo.” Rainbow Magazine (July 1986) 71 — Make a detachable keyboard.

Goodman, Marty. “CoCo consultations.” Rainbow Magazine (October 1986) 180 — EPROMs; Keyboard problem; Reserve power; correction to August column.

COCOMOD1 Keyboard Utility also COCOMOD2-3 Rainbow Magazine (November 1986) 126

ECHO Keyboard Hardcopy Rainbow Magazine (February 1987) 126

KEY BEEP Keyboard Utility Rainbow Magazine (February 1987) 125

Esposito, Richard E. “Dr. ASCII.” Rainbow Magazine (March 1987) 164 — New keyboard; ZBUG; DOS

Devlin, Paul. “Hint.” Rainbow Magazine (June 1987) 164 — How to lock the keyboard.

Scerbo, Fred B. “Keying into CoCo's power.” Rainbow Magazine (July 1987) 112+ — Keyboard training. COCOKEYS

Schmidt, Fred. “Hint.” Rainbow Magazine (July 1987) 156 —Keyboard connection modification.

Esposito, Richard E.; and Libra, Richard W. “Doctor ASCII.” Rainbow Magazine (August 1987) 126 — Screen dump; ROM packs on disk; remote keyboard; RS-232, etc.

Goodman, Marty. “CoCo consultations.” Rainbow Magazine (October 1987) 103 — Color Scripsit; Save graphics to tape; speech/sound; Keyboard problems, etc.

Blyn, Steve. “Upgrading keyboard skills.” Rainbow Magazine (November 1987) 76 — Typing tutor. TYPING

Drennan, Allen. “Customizing your keyboard.” Rainbow Magazine (December 1987) 116 — How to redefine keys.

Goodman, Marty. “CoCo consultations.” Rainbow Magazine (December 1987) 82 — Dead keyboard; Joysticks; Lowercase, etc.

Onley, Ray. “Child-proofing the CoCo.” Rainbow Magazine (January 1988) 142 — Keyboard locking switch.

Taggart, Ned M. “Hint.” Rainbow Magazine (March 1988) 144 — Trouble shoot a locked up keyboard.

Esposito, Richard E.; and Libra, Richard W. “Doctor ASCII.” Rainbow Magazine (May 1988) 148 — Disk BASIC 1.1; Swap keyboards; Multi-Vue; Upgrades

Dowd, Roger D. “Are you missing something.” Rainbow Magazine (August 1988) 150 — Repairing keyboard problems.

Lim, Larry. “One liner contest winner.” Rainbow Magazine (October 1988) 54 — Display poke and peek values for CoCo3 keyboard.

Sweet, Michael. “Get more power from your CoCo keyboard.” Rainbow Magazine (October 1988) 72 — Add functions to various keys. KEYPOWER

Plaster, Gip Wayne. “Play your piano.” Rainbow Magazine (December 1988) 93 — Music demo. KEYBOARD

Esposito, Richard E. “Doctor ASCII.” Rainbow Magazine (February 1989) 99 — Transfer CoCo - PC; ProComm; OS9 problem; HJL keyboard etc.

Scerbo, Fred B. “Wishing well: From keyboard to keypad.” Rainbow Magazine (March 1989) 84 — Simulate a numeric keypad. QLATOR

LETRSNUM Keyboarding Rainbow Magazine (June 1990) 48

A keyboard beeper cartridge was offered in Rainbow Magazine March 1984.

Beyond the CoCo dust covers, specific keyboard covers were also made: “CoCo keyboard cover.” Rainbow Magazine (1986, March) 191

A keyboard extender cable was reviewed in Rainbow Magazine November 1987.

A keyboard tutorial game: “Keyboard commander.” Rainbow Magazine (November 1988) 135

HAWKsoft's keyboard extender was reviewed in Rainbow Magazine May 1989.

“Telewriter Keyboard Templates”; December 1989, p.95.

CoCo BASIC commands on a template: “Keyboard Template”; September 1990, p.79.

How to Read a Matrix Keypad Using Arduino - App Code Labs
CoCo Keys2USB - Kit from WynDec Systems on Tindie
HJL-57_Keyboard_Old.JPG (JPEG Image, 865 × 1150 pixels)

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