geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: JulienC on Fri, 04 July 2008, 12:50:58
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I recently found an old computer my father had when I was a toddler. It's an old IBM PC clone. The keyboard is a OEMMAX SCK-101 and looks like the IBM Model M. The keys feel good, and I would like to use it on my main computer. On the back there is a switch, labeled 8088/80286, which I presume correspond to the Intel processor model numbers the keyboard could be used with.
Now my question is, could I use this keyboard on a modern PC (with USB), with some kind of adapter from this big connector to PS/2, combined with a adapter from PS/2 to USB ?
I took some pictures of it with a cheap camera.
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Absolutely. You need an AT<>PS/2 adapter and then, obviously, a PS/2<>USB adapter.
The AT<>PS/2 adapters are available and cheap (http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F2N017-Keyboard-Adapter-MiniDin6/dp/B00000J1UB/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1215194130&sr=8-3).
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Wow, thanks for the quick reply. "AT" is the name I was missing. I will order this adapter soon. Also, I guess I will have to put the keyboard in 80286 mode.
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Yup - 80286 mode would be AT protocol.
(Side note: There's nothing about the 8088 and 80286 that would make them use different keyboard protocols, and I believe there were some 8088 machines that did use the AT keyboard protocol instead of the "XT" (which is really the original PC) protocol.)
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Do AT and XT use the same plug?
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Yes, they do.
Same plug, same wiring, different protocol.
PS/2 uses a different plug, different wiring, and the same protocol as AT (although, IIRC, they're supposed to use a different code page for something. Nobody did that. Not even IBM, who said that they were supposed to. (Otherwise, a pre-PS/2 Model M wouldn't work properly on a newer machine, nor would a PS/2 Model M work properly on an AT.))
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I found both adapters in a local computer store, I am currently typing this message on my brand old keyboard. It is by far superior to the one I was using before (some 10$ BenQ board). The only downside is it does not have small markings on the F and J keys, and I am used to find the home row using them.
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I hate that old Apple boards have the tits on the D & K keys as opposed to EVERYONE else's keyboards which have them on the F & J keys.
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Indeed.
And I've never heard them called tits.
So what does that make a TrackPoint keyboard? :eek:
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So what does that make a TrackPoint keyboard? :eek:
Outy belly buttons, duh!
I call everythign like that tits. It's fun.
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I hate that old Apple boards have the tits on the D & K keys as opposed to EVERYONE else's keyboards which have them on the F & J keys.
Being a long-time Mac user, I figured you'd have "grown up" on those and, perhaps, even prefer them to being on the F and J keys.
I find that it doesn't matter to me. I can feel how far apart my hands should be from each other...as long as I identify a bump on the same corresponding fingers (index or middle) I'm good.
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I grew up on Apple IIs. But, I started transitioning to PCs in 1994, and used them almost exclusively from 1998 or so on, with the exception of firing up the ol' //c for playing some old games, or the IIGS that I got to play around with, until this year, when I got my iBook.
And, I learned touch typing on PCs, that's for sure, because the //c's keyboard was totally messed up. Debouncing what? (It had none. Whatsoever. It happened after the computer got wet while it was running.)
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I typed most of my early stuff on a Model M at school because we didn't have a computer at home. When I bought my first computer, a Mac, it was used so it came with an after market crappy keyboard I used for years and years and years on several machines. Then I found out about better keyboards one day when a friend gave me a box of old Mac stuff and in it was an old school IIGS keyboard and an iMate. This was my first experience with Apple's lopsided tits and with the fabled Alps key switch (it had pink sliders). The rest is history.