Hello managers,
This is more a hardware question:
I'm in the process of replacing an old Personal DecStation 5000/33
by a new Alpha Box (Aspen "Alpine" motherboard). The old DecStation
will be converted to a server with a serial console and I hate the
idea of throwing away its keyboard and mouse as I just don't like
these PC style keyboards on an Alpha workstation. The DecStation's
keyboard is a LK501 with the mouse directly connected to the keyboard.
So my quesion: Is it, by any means, possible to connect this keyboard
to the new Alpha Box which has a standard PC style keyboard connector?
The old DecStation docs say, that the keyboard has an EIA423 interface.
The pinout lists CLOCK, DATA, GND and +12V. This seems to be in contrast
to the PC connector which only delivers +5V. Though, this wouldn't be a
problem as our electronics department could easily hack together a +5V to
+12V converter for me.
The only questions left are:
1.) Is the serial protocol compatible in any way?
2.) Is this undertaking worthwhile? Or are new LK4xx keyboards
with PC style connectors so cheap that I better buy a new one?
3.) Is there anyone who did this before?
Thanks a lot -- Tom
--
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T o m L e i t n e r Dept. of Communications
Graz University of Technology,
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Received on Thu Nov 28 1996 - 08:52:57 NZDT