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geekhack Community => Input Devices => Topic started by: The Prototyper on Sat, 04 July 2020, 15:58:19

Title: Help debugging broken Datahand.
Post by: The Prototyper on Sat, 04 July 2020, 15:58:19

I purchased a used Datahand a few years ago and am just now getting a chance to work with it. Below are pictures of everything that came with it. The animated gif is what the lights do when the USB/PS2 adapter is plugged in. No output comes from the Datahand and the blinking lights keep doing their thing infinitely. Obviously I will be tearing these down to clean them. There is a wire disconnected as you can see in one of the pictures. It looks like the firmware is probably fried? Have not tried using the extra PROM that was included. Has anyone seen the light pattern before? Looking forward to someone responding. Thanks.  - TP

Title: Re: Help debugging broken Datahand.
Post by: Lanrefni on Sat, 04 July 2020, 19:49:10

Second to last picture has what looks like a broken black wire,that may be the issue.

Title: Re: Help debugging broken Datahand.
Post by: suicidal_orange on Sun, 05 July 2020, 03:42:00

First thought was these are quite old, maybe like other old keyboards they need more power than some modern PS/2 ports and adaptors supply.  Is the adaptor known good?

Then you mention a broken wire - not sure where it goes but reconnecting that would be a good start before assuming there's any firmware problem.

Nice find by the way, I hope you get them working.