oddball (XT PC-era?) keyboard - "dejag" etc controls

tony duell ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk
Fri May 8 13:20:43 CDT 2015


>>> Jon (& Al),
>>>
>>> Quick photo of it here:
>>>
>>> http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/keyboard_small.jpg
>>>
>>
>> Ah, this picture would have ended the speculation days ago.
>
>Ok, I'll let you have that, I suppose it was ~27 hours :-)
>
>> It's
>> a keytronic keyboard compatible with VT100. I have one and will
>> pull it out to see if it has the same labels or if your keyboard
>> was intended for a special application.

FWIW, the PERQ 2 series uses a similar keyboard (Keytronics, roughly
VT100 layout) without the LEDs. It's been some time since I've been 
inside one (I can open one up if needed) but I think the PCB in the PERQ
keyboard has the traces/pads for the LEDs. 

I seem to remember various companies sold keyboards with VT100 like
layouts, things like the LEDs were optional. You could also get custom 
firmware (which defined the interface), or get the specs to write your
own firmware (I think 3 Rivers did the latter for the PERQ).

> > Yes, please check. This one has a circular DIN connector, 5 pins, 180
> > degrees, but I don't recall if that's what the vt100 has or not.

The VT100 uses a 3 conductor 1/4" jack (Phone) plug, like a full-sized 
stereo headphone plug. The PERQ used a 5 pin DIN, but this is certainly
not a PERQ keyboard. I think I have seen DE9 connectors used on such
keyboards too.

-tony


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