Burnett Electronics‘ keyboard beeper consists of a tiny piezoelectric disk attached to two integrated circuit chips on a little circuit board. After installation, the disk emits a soft beep whenever you depress a key. The entire apparatus fits inside a ZX80 or MicroAce case.
All you need to wire the circuit into your computer is a soldering iron and the ability to connect 12 wires. The circuit is already internally wired. As the rankest of beginners in electronic circuit building, I was elected to test the device and its written directions. I successfully installed my beeper the first time in 20 minutes with no trouble. Burnett’s directions are exceptionally clear and easy to follow, even if you don’t know a resistor from a diode.
However, the installation instructions did cause me two slight problems: first, one wire was tough to distinguish because the directions identified it only by color, and it looked just like the other white wire nearby. Second, my electronics experts had to tell me to tape over the solder side of the beeper circuit board before taping it to my ZX80 case to avoid shorting it, a precaution Burnett did not mention. (This does not matter with an unshielded MicroAce, which has no metallization inside the case.)
The circuit works perfectly and produces variable tones as long as you hold the key down. The computer case gives it enough resonance to make the sound loud enough to hear but not be annoying. If you have trouble telling when you make contact with the keys, this beeper can help you type more quickly and accurately.
Keyboard beeper, $12.00, Burnett Electronics, 908 Morris St., Cincinnati, OH, 45206.