Trackpoint wanted - Use old 360cse keyboard?

[textmode]

Hope this is the right place to ask for help. There are several intresting threads here by other people who seem to love the trackpoint from the old Thinkpads as well. My hand and arm start to ache if I do use a normal mouse for too long, and it's a long way from the keyboard to the mouse and back. The trackpoint is much much better.

I'm also looking for a small, portable keyboard which might act as input device for a tablet or smartphone.

So, wanted: Keyboard with trackpoint. No number block. Function keys, arrow keys and pgup/down are required.

I do own an old 360cse Thinkpad. The case has seen better days - some of the smaller parts (floppy cover) broke. The machine requires external ps/2 keyboard and mouse for booting; else it reports an error. As soon as it is running, setting it asleep with "apm -s", disconnecting the external keyboard and mouse, and waking it again does work. The keyboard then works fine exept for the "#" key - which doesn't produce any reaction. Apart from that one failed key (and failing self-test), the keyboard still operates extremly well and is even better to write on than a normal desktop keyboard. Documentation about how to extract and replace the keyboard on that Thinkpad is available. It does end in a plastic strip split in 3 parts - and that's where my knowledge ends.

Is there a way to use that keyboard as an external one? I don't want to use the trackpoint alone - the whole keyboard is fine (apart from that non-working key). The keyboard has all the characteristics I want (trackpoint, good to type on, all required keys, small, lightweight, compact). The machine it's currently in isn't useful anymore - a cheap tablet would be superior in almost all aspects (ram, speed, display quality, connectivity) - except for the keyboard.

Tablets tend to come with USB otg and/or bluetooth. Thus, it would be great if it would be possible to hook the old laptop keyboard up to them. Someone integrated a Raspberry Pi plus USB hub into the case of a (normal) keyboard - that would be very impressive as well! An USB hub might be useful anyway. It could sit in a small case with the keyboard on top, which would be quite close to the original case of the 360cs, only slightly smaller.

If the 360cse's keyboard can't be used, I'd also be willing to buy a replacement Thinkpad keyboard, as long as it's good quality. The X20 I also own still has an acceptable keyboard, but it's not as good as the 360cse's. Newer models seem to have less and less good keyboards. The worst I've seen so far was admittedly with netbooks from various brands. Their keyboards felt like the surface of water - sinking in in parts, raising at others. Unusable. The deterioating quality of Thinkpad keyboards is also what's keeping me from buying a recent USB model with trackpoint. They just don't look as if they are any good.

My main desktop machine still use ps/2 for the keyboard. It's an IBM KB 9930 - nothing special but sufficient. It was bought in the hope that it'd be equally good to those found on laptops. After years of usage and several attempts of cleaning it, some keys are harder to press than others. I'm afraid it'll need a replacement in the future.

[berserkfan]

methinks you want the IBM trackpoint, but having played with it (without being a long term user) I can't say for certain.

[textmode]

methinks you want the IBM trackpoint, but having played with it (without being a long term user) I can't say for certain.

Er, yes, that's what my posting was about. Unless there's a trackpoint that can be bought seperately and integrated into existing keyboards? All I saw regarding that where intresting projects (which made me aware of this forum) with a lot of reconstruction involved and sources of trackpoints beeing rare to the extreme.

My main question is: Will the keyboard work, or will that one non-working "#"-key that is currently keeping the Thinkpad from booting without external keyboard prevent it from beeing useable as an external keyboard? And how to I connect the signal lines on that flexible plastic sheet to something I can plug into a computer or tablet? I guess that it is some form of PS/2. After all the laptop comes with an external combined PS/2 connector for keyboard and mouse. It seems likely that the internal keyboard might use the same system.

There are also cheap PS/2 to USB converters beeing sold. If I get that far, connecting such an adapter to a USB hub and plugging that one into a tablet with USB otg ought to work?

[berserkfan]

I was thinking of this, which should have no problem as an external keyboard because I last saw one being used as one with an ancient laptop:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-RT3200-Space-Saver-Rackmount-Keyboard-Trackpoint-Mouse-37L0888-PS-2-/380945569375

The price is pretty much average. No good bargain but not ridiculous.

[textmode]

That space saver keyboard certainly looks good! That might be a good replacement for my current desktop keyboard. It even has a third mouse button.

I didn't keep in mind that the english and german layouts are more diffrent than the swapping of the z/y key plus some re-arrangement of special characters. The return key won't be where I expect it. I wonder if I might get used to it or combine two keys to one.

There appear to be Lenovo keyboards with trackpoint and even usb with german layout, but they seem to come either with a kilometer wide palm rest or look like the keys are not intended for usage. The RT3200 looks far more like what I want.

I'm still intrested in learning if (and if so, how) it would be possible to re-use that old thinkpad keyboard with its trackpoint.

[janepe]

Hello fellas,
I used to have thinkpad for 2 years and i absolutely fall in love with trackpoint.
I have been looking for usb keyboard with trackpoint but it was hard for me to find interesting one.

I'm looking for similiar keyboard @textmode but in my case it could have "number block. Function keys, arrow keys and pgup/down".
I will watch this thread.

In my restless dreams
I see that keyboard

[textmode]

I have been looking for usb keyboard with trackpoint but it was hard for me to find interesting one.
I'm looking for similiar keyboard @textmode but in my case it could have "number block. Function keys, arrow keys and pgup/down".

Maybe you ought to take a look at this thread. It talks about keyboards of this type. If one isn't USB, that's usually no problem as there are adapters for ps/2 to usb. I havn't used such a setup extensively (just shortly for testing) as most of my machines still come with ps/2. Except for tablet/phone and the like.

What I was originally looking for does not seem to exist, though something similar has been done by at least one person. It's pretty rare to have an adapter for old Thinkpad keyboards, but it's theoreticly possible. Trouble is that those connectors are special, very tiny and have plenty of i/o pins - which would have to be mapped to a processor who'd then scan the keyboard and produce a scancode. I've counted 14 lines on one cable and 18 on the other. That seems to be a lot more than "normal" keyboards have. Perhaps that old thinkpad was able to distinguish more keys simultaneously than a modern cheap desktop keyboard. At least the trackpoint might be accessible through ps/2 directly, but that doesn't help much without the rest of the board. What I'd like to have for my keyboard can be found here. Sadly, the connectors are diffrent, and I do not have the ability to work on that scale. Perhaps that strange "interposter card" (Part No. 85G2403) could help - it's in my old, still working Thinkpad, has physical connectors for keyboard, pointing stick and display (of no intrest in this case - that old display's crap by today's standards), and connects to the mainboard with something which does look suspiciously like a PCI bus connector on pictures (havn't taken mine apart yet to confirm).