Introduction: Giant QWERTY Keyboard

By Big Song Entertainment
About: Dinosaur Rex's lived in Texas. And that's a great big place In the United States. Still they both seem small, 'cause if I sang about it all, I'd need a Big Song!

An educational tool for preschool and kindergarten age children to learn the alphabet, learn to read and write while playing with a computer. Video (last slide) shows giant QWERTY keyboard in action.

While corporate electronic designers were making computers smaller, I made this keyboard bigger for children to learn.

Skill required to build:

1) Basic wood working skills and basic shop tools

2) Some soldering

3) A lot of cutting with Exacto knife, sharp blades and scissors

4) Volt meter handy to check continuity and shorts

Materials:

Art board, foam core, fish aquarium filter material, 1 inch brass strips, screws, washers and nuts, surplus phone wire to connect giant keys to PC keyboard, contact cement, paint, wood, wood screws. Old computer and software.

Step 1: Built Wood Frame to Hold Attach the Material and Begin Assembly

Keyboard is older model where each key has two solder points on back of circuit board to attach/solder wire to cause short and trigger event (letter).

Sand paper letters based on Montessori method of rough/smooth, tactile senses to trace and learn alphabet

Step 2: Design and Assembly Begins

Design and assembly time took 200 hours. Conservative estimate.

Step 3: Exploded View of Each Letter Assembly

Pencil CAD

Step 4: Picture Collage, Painted and Unpainted Versions

Painted version used for trade show booth.

Step 5: Video of Giant QWERTY Keyboard in Action

Original PC used was Kaypro II with 64k of RAM and dual 5 1/4 inch floppies. Shareware named "the animated alphabet" was used on a 386 PC for the video.