I had a spare PET 2001 motherboard that was given to me, and a spare PET 2001 transformer/power supply that I purchased some time before. I also had purchased a PET composite video adaptor when I was fixing my Japanese Pet 2001. As part of the testing and fixing process I had to turn the machine on and off literally hundreds of times, and I didn't want to add anymore wear to the old PET monitor by turning it on and off so often. I decided this adaptor would be the perfect solution to that problem and it worked very well using a composite monitor. So I realized that I basically had all the parts to build a new PET, and all I was missing was a keyboard. I decided I would make a portable PET 2001 similar to how I built my portable Apple 1. I asked around on the VCF forums and Anders was kind enough to send my a keyboard form a later model European PET. He also offered me a nice Commodore 64 keyboard, but I turned that down as I figured it would need a lot more rewiring to get it to work. When the keyboard arrived I quickly build an adaptor from one of the 36 pin connector and small board that I usually use for making arcade game to MAME adaptors. The size and pitch was perfect. On the other end I wired to a standard connector that plugged into the motherboard. It was a lot of wires and soldering, and in general I hate making cables for this exact reason, but in the end I was happy with my solution.

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Unfortunately once I plugged in the keyboard it soon became apparent that it needed a clean as only about half the keys were working. I pulled the keyboard apart and gave the internals a good scrub. After assembly the keyboard worked much better, although some keys still needed a little bit of pressure to get them to operate correctly.

Then it was a simple matter of purchasing a big enough suitcase, measuring everything up, drilling holes, purchasing mounting nuts, bolts and stand-off, and assemble.

I was very happy with the final product, One unforeseen yet small issue is that I had mounted the heavy transformer on one side of the case, and this makes carrying it a little awkward as it is somewhat unbalanced. I  have since added a PETdisk to the system for easy access to programs. Anticipating that I would want to access the connectors on the motherboard, I had mounted the motherboard off centre leaving space on the connector side. As I still have plenty of space, I want to mount a small 7” LCD monitor internally so it can be a true portable solution, but that will be a project for some other time.