IBM 6094-020 Lighted Program Function Keys

[Michael B. Brutman]

I think I found the programming specs:

http://codeninja.de/lpfk/

According to that page, it speaks 9600 N81 and the input and output 
sequences are trivial.

I have two samples ..  both are behaving the same way, which is to me 
'non-functional'.  I thought I had a cabling goof so I started with the 
multi-meter and started tracing things.

To make a long story short, I think the cabling is fine, and the units 
are just goofy.  (Although they are both goofy in the same way, so I 
suspect something else is wrong.)  I can't get any output from the units 
- not even noise.

Sridhar - what position is the switch on the backside supposed to be?  I 
think it is supposed to be set to the 'lightening bolt', and that the 
other symbol means loopback.

Is yours connected via a serial style cable, or the round DIN connector 
to a graphics input feature adapter?  If it is serial, would you mind 
connecting it to a PC comm port, setting the port to 9600 N81 (no flow 
control), and seeing if you can get some output when a key is pressed?

Glen - the HP button box you describe is amazingly similar, but the case 
is a bit different.  Those buttons don't look like they have lights ... 
  the IBM version does, and the lights are controllable from the host 
machine.


Mike