I asked:
> We have a few users here who have problems with "mouse arm" or
> related troubles. Therefore we would like to try special ergonomic
> keyboards, and/or keyboards with integrated touchpads or trackballs.
> There are many different brands of such keyboards on the PC market,
> but our sales rep tells us Digital doesn't have any. I have
> understood that one can hook up a "PS/2-compatible" keyboard to a
> PCI alpha and have it work. The question is whether such a keyboard
> differ more from a keyboard for a TurboChannel alpha (or DECstn, for
> that matter) (e.g. LK401) than by the shape of the connector, and if
> not, what are the relevant pinouts. Can I just change the plug?
> Also, the same question for mice.
The answer is: No, you cannot (easily) make a PC keyboard work with a
TurboChannel Alpha (or DECstn).
Thanks to:
Jim Neeland, Yizhong Zhou, Stuart Kreitman, Anders Sundqvist and Robert Kielty.
Some messages of relevance:
> From: Jim Neeland <neeland_at_madmax.hrl.hac.com>
[...]
> Ahhhhh.... Sorry I was so far off on this one :-) You have what I
> would call the 'really old style keyboard/connector', which I have
> here on a microvax II. Digging out an old manual (I try not to
> throw anything away :-) ), I found the following on the LK201
> keyboard: the cable has a 4-pin modular connector (I would call it an
> RJ11, you said RJ12; I'm not sure what the difference is), with the
> following signals: o +12 V power to keyboard o Ground to keyboard o
> Serial Out (transmit line from keyboard) o Serial In (receive line
> to keyboard)
> The data lines use RS-423, _at_ 4800 baud asynchronous.
> There's oodles of more information on the design, but unfortunately I
> can't find a pinout (a scope and/or a DVM should solve this, if you
> have such).
> (Should you need it, there's lots of stuff on the mouse interface as
> well. That happens to have pinout information as well).
> Sorry I don't know what the specs are for a PC keyboard, to compare
> with the above.
> Jim Neeland
How's this for a brutal solution:
> From: Yizhong Zhou <zhou_at_bashful.cs.usm.maine.edu>
> What we did was connecting an old PC connected the Digital alpha box
> (3000/300) through serial port. The PC runs a program called KTDOS
> which replaces the keyboard handler of DOS and takes input from the
> keyboard and sends raw scancodes to the serial port. On the digital
> box, a program called a2x takes the scancodes from the serial port
> and converts them to X keys. Both KTDOS and a2x are freely
> available. Let me know if you have any questions.
> Regards,
> --- Yizhong Zhou Department of Computer Science University of
> Southern Maine Portland, Maine 04103 U.S.A. Email: zhou_at_usm.maine.edu
> Phone: (207) 780-4515
> From: skk_at_slmedia.com (Stuart Kreitman)
> Simon, thanks for forwarding this posting to me. I'm not clear on
> the author's message, but it sounds like he's asking a question:
> "can a DS2100 keyboard (PS/2) be interchanged with a DS3000-X00
> keyboard (LK401)"
> The answer to this question is sorry, no. The LKXXX keyboard series
> was entirely specified and designed internally. It happens to be a
> 1200 baud device, but was not designed to be even an RS232 device.
> Because the rs232 levels are so broad, I was able to use it that way
> (ie plug into the aux rs232 connectors).
> The PS/2 keyboard (if its anything like the AT flavors) is a closed
> loop device that communicates with the 8742 (that was the name at AT
> time) keyboard port.
> With the PCI family, DEC wisely bought into industry standards for
> peripherals including kbds and mices.
> In talking to people solving the multi-user NT problem you'd expect
> that one of these days someone will come up with the multi-keyboard
> adapter. It may get alot easier with the emerging desktop daisy chain
> connection standards (apple bus, access bus).
> hope this helps
> Stuart Kreitman
Simon Tardell, voice +46 8 162688 fax +46 8 347817
Fysikum, Stockholms universitet simon_at_physto.se, tardell_at_particle.kth.se
Received on Mon May 06 1996 - 18:42:45 NZST