geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: In Stereo! on Thu, 17 June 2010, 08:51:01
-
Here's a weird keyboard I found.
(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8531/p6160095.th.jpg) (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/p6160095.jpg/)
(http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/7826/p6160096.th.jpg) (http://img697.imageshack.us/i/p6160096.jpg/)
(http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/5403/p6160097.th.jpg) (http://img641.imageshack.us/i/p6160097.jpg/)
It has no sticker and no model/seriel number of any kind. The only marking it has is that unreadeble logo on the top.
It has plate mounted Cherry MX Blacks and double-shot keycaps. But it seems not to be usable: when I plug it in, the 'Cursor' LED lights up and I can turn it off with the 'Help/F15' key. Other than that, it is completly dead.
-
What sort of connector does it have? The layout suggests that it was designed for some DEC VT-220 style terminal.
-
That is definitely not a PC keyboard. Terminal of some sort, layout matches a couple (notably, Wyse WY-85).
-
The interesting thing is that firstly it kind of worked -- it had a DIN-5 connector and I connected it via a DIN-5/Mini DIN-6 converter and yeah, it kind of worked. 'Kind of' because it sometimes jammed or stopped registering keystrokes for short periods of time. But the most surprising thing was that it seemed to have full NKRO (tested with the MS anti-ghosting demonstration). To sum up: plate mounted blacks, double-shots and NKRO; sounds as my ideal gaming keyboard. :D
The behavior changed dramatically when I tried to exchange the cable with a standard PS/2 and now even soldering the old cable back on, does not solve the problem.
-
That is definitely not a PC keyboard. Terminal of some sort, layout matches a couple (notably, Wyse WY-85).
Come on now Terminal Boy, it's the DEC LK201 layout -
(http://www.cosam.org/images/vt220/keyboard.jpg)
It's one of the few keyboards where just about any clone of it is going to be automatically better.
-
The behavior changed dramatically when I tried to exchange the cable with a standard PS/2 and now even soldering the old cable back on, does not solve the problem.
Soooo..... In other words, it worked until you started in on it with a soldering iron?
You done kilt it. :tsk:
-
The interesting thing is that firstly it kind of worked -- it had a DIN-5 connector and I connected it via a DIN-5/Mini DIN-6 converter and yeah, it kind of worked. 'Kind of' because it sometimes jammed or stopped registering keystrokes for short periods of time. But the most surprising thing was that it seemed to have full NKRO (tested with the MS anti-ghosting demonstration). To sum up: plate mounted blacks, double-shots and NKRO; sounds as my ideal gaming keyboard. :D
Could have been a motherboard issue.
-
Soooo..... In other words, it worked until you started in on it with a soldering iron?
You done kilt it. :tsk:
Well it actually was just as useless as it is now. Can't really type on a keyboard that registers keypresses as it wishes, can you. And I did not touch the actual controller, couse it has a removable connector and that is what I soldered.
-
At least 999 times out of a thousand, if something worked- even if it wasn't working 100%- before you start soldering on it, and it doesn't work at all after the soldering, you ****ed something up soldering on it- shorted something out, connected something wrong, zapped it with static, etc. It could be completely coincidental that you soldered a new cable on to it and it just happened to stop working at all at that moment- but it's not the way to bet. Treat it as a learning experience.
-
One in a thousand, eh.