Boards from a 3270 PC

[JohnElliott]

Are you able to open it up and see if there's a label on the keyboard microcontroller? The 3270PC keyboard MCU is part number 1385001; the AT keyboard MCU is part number 1503099.

 

[mcs_5]

This one is a 1391332.





I just found your page on the 3197 keyboard. Yours is type 1390876 - mine is a 1390880. An 3197 keyboard with Danish layout?

Can you record the scancodes sent by the keyboard using software (before being "scrambled" by the keyboard controller)? I would like to check what the dca 3270 keyboard I have does as well...

 

[g4ugm]

Try these pages...

http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/scan.htm

 

[JohnElliott]

That looks like the same controller board and MCU as my 1390876, so it probably sends the same scancodes.

Can you record the scancodes sent by the keyboard using software (before being "scrambled" by the keyboard controller)? I would like to check what the dca 3270 keyboard I have does as well...

If you download KB from http://www.seasip.info/DOS/ it allows you to display the scancodes received without translation from the keyboard controller. So if you can get your keyboard hooked up to a PC that has a PS/2 or AT keyboard port and runs DOS, you can see the scancodes it sends.

 

[mcs_5]

If you download KB from http://www.seasip.info/DOS/ it allows you to display the scancodes received without translation from the keyboard controller. So if you can get your keyboard hooked up to a PC that has a PS/2 or AT keyboard port and runs DOS, you can see the scancodes it sends.

Thanks! I thought I was going to need my 8051 development board for this

I tested the dca IRMA keyboard. It behaves almost exactly like your Key Tronic keyboard (http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/kb3270.html) in IRMA mode. The only difference being that 5B and 5D are swapped (next to the Enter key). The dca keyboard also has four extra keys - 53, 5F, 65 and 68.

But every keystroke produces three scancodes. I pressed 'A' in this case:



What's going on? F0 is returned as the "middle" scancode for all keys.

Here's the keyboard:

 

[tingo]

Could be that this keyboard sends separate press and release scan codes, so pressing the key gives "1c", releasing the key gives "f0 1c". In that case it's easy "f0" is a prefix for release.

 

[WBST]

Could be that this keyboard sends separate press and release scan codes, so pressing the key gives "1c", releasing the key gives "f0 1c". In that case it's easy "f0" is a prefix for release.

That would be consistent with real 3270 terminals, as keystrokes are sent down the coax for the controller to process and update the terminal's display buffer as necessary.

 

[JohnElliott]

Could be that this keyboard sends separate press and release scan codes, so pressing the key gives "1c", releasing the key gives "f0 1c". In that case it's easy "f0" is a prefix for release.

Yes, F0 is a key-up prefix in scancode Sets 2 and 3.