VOGONS


First post, by keenerb

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http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/products/ke18atxt.html

Connects in line from your PS/2 keyboard to the target computer's XT keyboard port.
Powered from the computer's keyboard port, no external power required
Translates the PS/2 keystrokes into their XT keystroke equivalents
Allows use of PS/2 style keyboards with XT type PCs and other XT based computers such as CNC machines
Includes a 5 pin DIN to 6 pin miniDIN adapter and cable to attach to the computer's keyboard port
Uses standard drivers, no special drivers needed

I know there's a hobby board available for an AT to XT adapter you can put together for about half the price but this looks pretty convenient.

Reply 1 of 8, by mrau

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isnt that a little bit expensive? 😮 you can have decent GPU for that

Reply 2 of 8, by keenerb

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Yeah it's pricey. I'm putting together one of the hobby boards right now, but the parts for it + shipping are still somewhere in the neighborhood of $20, and that's not taking into account my lack of a ROM programming tool.

Reply 3 of 8, by mrau

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are you sure this cannot be done with some very basic microcontroller testboard by using its gpio pins? im no pro, but thats how i understand those things

Reply 4 of 8, by keenerb

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It certainly can be done with a basic microcontroller.

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?159 … board-Converter

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?445 … to-XT-converter

I'm working on the first now, but realistically it's not THAT much cheaper. It's around $25 for the components shipped from Mouser, and it'll be an extra charge for a pre-programmed chip since I don't have a rom programming thingy. The board itself is another $7 shipped unless I want to just free-solder all the parts together.

The second option requires an Arduino Uno, which is not really a cheap option to begin with.

Reply 5 of 8, by mrau

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i see 😒 the problem is they take the popular approach i guess; would you happen to know what the real difference is between at and xt keyboard? maybe thats the easiest way out? i mean noone is going to reinvent the wheel without getting money out of it

Reply 7 of 8, by mrau

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sadly it does 😮 i lack knowledge

Reply 8 of 8, by keenerb

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For the record, the protocol converter I linked in the original post seems to work just fine. I occasionally get a missed/skipped key if I REALLY open up on it (>120wpm) but I can't say for certain if that's not simply a problem with the system speed/keyboard interrupt handling...