Blingboard64 - New keyboard for the Commodore 64

[Marcio D.]

If you're in the market to replace your old, broken C64 keyboard, check out this campaign:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-for-your-commodore-computer#


The campaign originally ended May 31, 2024, but has been re-opened for a limited time due to overwhelming demand from Commodore fans worldwide.

In addition to the Blingboard64 keyboard replacement, also check out the BlingBox on the same page, which is a standalone keyboard that can be attached to SX-64, C128D, Amiga, PC, MiSTer, BMC64, etc.

 

[Marcio D.]

The printing cost for the keycaps ended up being more than double of what was budgeted during the campaign. To offset the difference in printing costs without paying more out of pocket, the project manager is offering a pre-order of 60 additional Blingboard64 units at the campaign price. That means you can pre-order and pay the same price as folks who backed the crowdfunding campaign last year. After these 60 units are gone, the product will be sold at a higher price.


Kit: https://www.cbmstuff.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_87&product_id=163


Fully assembled: https://www.cbmstuff.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_87&product_id=164

 

[Marcio D.]

A couple of months ago, Jim Drew offered a pre-order of 60 additional Blingboard64 units at the campaign price to offset the increase in printing costs. Now in July 2025 and heading into August 2025, he's offering you another chance at pre-ordering a Blingboard64.

As you know, the upcoming Commodore 64 Ultimate (https://www.commodore.net) will use the basic Blingboard technology developed by Jim. However, Jim refers to the C64 Ultimate keyboard as "Blingboard64 Lite Edition". In other words, that keyboard in the C64 Ultimate will be less powerful than the keyboard offered in the crowdfunding campaign and recent pre-orders. Jim explains it this way:

The Lite Edition is really a VERY stripped down version of the keyboard from this campaign. It has basically none of the advanced features. You can think of the Lite Edition as just a very nice keyboard with LEDs and a 4 pin connector that plugs into Gideon's U64 board. The U64 itself provides the features.

The Blingboard64 in this campaign is very different because it has support for USB and Bluetooth BLE, a dual core CPU, expansion port, wireless programming, macros (recording and playback), 2MB of RAM fully accessible from the C64 side, ability to off-load calculations to the keyboard's CPU, and much, much, more!

See the prior posts for the links.

 

[qz3fwd]

He cannot stock keycaps for the life of him, but is able to stock keyboard kits including keycaps?

 

[Marcio D.]

He cannot stock keycaps for the life of him, but is able to stock keyboard kits including keycaps?

You're misunderstanding something here. Those kits you see on the website are pre-orders - i.e. not yet in stock.

The new keycaps haven't been manufactured yet.