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geekhack Community => Input Devices => Topic started by: benis on Sun, 23 October 2011, 19:30:02

Title: Help getting legacy ALPS serial number pad to work with Win 7
Post by: benis on Sun, 23 October 2011, 19:30:02

Ok, so here is the link to the numpad.
 http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Numeric-Keypad-Serial-KPX-17S/dp/B002RXCP4C

And my PC has no serial port, so I bought this.
 http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-to-rs232-serial-port-adapter-transparent-green-24512

Does anyone have experience installing a serial keyboard or numpad? the drivers came on a floppy (for which I have no drive) and i have no idea how to get this thing working? When I plug it in, nothing happens, not even if I scan for new hardware. This serial **** is clearly way beyond my time.

any help would be appreciated!!

Title: Help getting legacy ALPS serial number pad to work with Win 7
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Sun, 23 October 2011, 21:47:27

I don't think you have any choice but to change out the controller to a teensy, or rewire a new matrix and use some donor controller from another usb keypad. I'm pretty sure serial input was abandoned after xp.

See this mod. (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:20898)

Title: Help getting legacy ALPS serial number pad to work with Win 7
Post by: SmallFry on Mon, 24 October 2011, 15:29:19

If you're going to replace the controller I'm recreating the Koreans' AIKON (LIKMB) (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:23146) Controller that would fit the bill for doing just that.

Title: Help getting legacy ALPS serial number pad to work with Win 7
Post by: Hak Foo on Tue, 25 October 2011, 20:06:55

Before you spend too much, you might look into those ALPS-style-switch numeric pads they sell on eBay for like 20 bucks.  Apparently they don't have stabilizers on the large keys, but they'll work out of the box on a PC made recently.