COMPUTER HARDWARE

AND
MAINTENANCE

UNIT 4

INPUT AND OUTPUT DEVICES

II - DCE
 CONTENTS

STUDY OF KEYBOARD
 TYPES OF KEYSWITCHES
 CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF PC-KEYBOARD
MOUSE
SCANNER
MODEM
PRINTER
 DOT MATRIX
 INK JET
 LASER
 STUDY OF KEYBOARD

TYPES OF KEYSWITCHES:
Capacitive Keyswitch
Hall Effect Keyswitch
Opto-electronic Keyswitch
Membrane Keyswitch
Mechanical Keyswitch
 Capacitive Keyswitch

It has two small metal plates on the PCB and another
metal plate on the bottom of a piece of foam.
When you press the key, the movable plate is pushed
closer to the fixed plate.
This changes the capacitance between the fixed
plates. Sense amplifier circuitry detects this change
in capacitance and produces a logic level signal that
indicates a key has been pressed.
They have a related lifetime of about 20 million
keystrokes.
 Hall Effect Keyswitch

A reference current is passed through a semi-conductor

crystal between two opposing faces.
When a key is pressed, the crystal is moved through a
magnetic field which has its flux lines perpendicular to
the direction of the current flow in the crystal.
Moving the crystal through the magnetic field causes a
small voltage to be developed between two of the other
opposing faces of the crystal.
This voltage is amplified and used to indicate that a key is
pressed.
They have the lifetime of 100 million or more keystrokes.
 Opto-electronic Keyswitch

When the key is not pressed, the light from LED falls onto
the photo-transistor.
This makes the current to flow through the photo-transistor
and produces a very low voltage at the output V out.
When the key is depressed, the light emitted from the LED
is blocked.
This will stop the current flow through the phototransistor
and forces the photo-transistor to a cut-off condition.
These two V out values are interpreted by the keyboard
circuit as two different logical conditions key being open
and key being close.
 Membrane Keyswitch

The top layer has a conductive line of silver ink

running under each row of keys.
The middle layer has a hole under each key position.
The bottom layer has a conductive line of silver ink
running under each column of keys.
When you press a key you push the top ink line
through the hole to contact the bottom ink line.
 MODEM

It is a circuit that converts digital data signal into

analog data signal and converts analog data signal
into digital data signal during reception.
INTERNAL MODEM
EXTERNAL MODEM
 PRINTERS

It is an output device.

Types:
 Impact Printer
 Non-Impact Printer
Interfacing of Printer:
 Serial Interface: 2 Types
 1. Synchronous Communication
 2. Asynchronous Communication
Dot Matrix Printer
 Dot Matrix Printer

 It is the most popular printer used with PCs.

 It has a print head that is pulled horizontally across the paper from
left to right and back again by using rubber belt and an electric
motor.
 Dot matrix printer doesn’t print a whole character but the character
is generated from an array or matrix of dots which is usually 7 by 5.
 Working Principle:
 The print head consists of pins which are arranged in a vertical
column.
 The pins are operated electromagnetically and the character to be
printed has dots in certain position of the matrix and the printer
head moves column by column in the matrix.
 The required dots for a column are formed by striking appropriate
pins then the printer head moves to the next column.
 Example: HP-2635A, Centronics-702
 Dot Matrix Printer

Advantages:
 It is very cheap
 They can print alphabets other than English.
 They are impact devices so they can use multi-part stationery.
Disadvantages:
 These are light duty printers.
 Quality is not so good.
 Servicing a dot matrix printer usually costs more than buying a
new one.