WTB Televideo ts-803 Keyboard

[Fleetingthought]

Hello!

I was recently given a Televideo TS-803 (early 80's vintage) sans keyboard. The original owner has misplaced the keyboard (but looking for it) and I would be interested in picking up a replacement. Unfortunately, ebay has not been forthcoming over the last month or so.

Thanks!
Fleetingthought

 

[Crawford]

Hi,

I don't have an extra keyboard but I'm in a similar situation - a working TS-803 without the original keyboard.

However, I do have a Televideo 924 keyboard and I got it to work (sort of). I had to replace the DART serial chip on the motherboard, but it appears that some of the Televideo keyboards are cross compatible. Certainly the 924 is and the schematics say a Televideo 970 is identical.

My 924 keyboard has some keys that are sticky, some do not work at all, some are very hard to activate. My approach (until I find a replacement) is to build a circuit that will take codes from a PC (PS/2) keyboard and translate to the Televideo codes. I can already shove characters into the TS-803 using an Arduino, so it shouldn't be too hard. I'll report progress here.

In the meantime, I think that any Televideo keyboard that uses a 6-pin 'telephone cable' input may work.

Good luck, I'll let you know how my hunt progresses.

-Crawford

 

[kyeakel]

My 924 keyboard has some keys that are sticky, some do not work at all, some are very hard to activate. My approach (until I find a replacement) is to build a circuit that will take codes from a PC (PS/2) keyboard and translate to the Televideo codes. I can already shove characters into the TS-803 using an Arduino, so it shouldn't be too hard. I'll report progress here.
-Crawford

I've also been thinking of a similar project but using it to replace TRS-80 model 2 & 12 keyboards. These keyboards have the foam contactors under the keys that deteriorate over time. There are other keyboards that use similar construction. Maybe your convertor could be made to have selectable (from the PC keyboard) output configs? I was going to do this with a pic processor as that is what I have available, but would be willing to try Arduino as well. Is there a certain Arduino or kit you're using as a base platform?
Thanks,
Kipp

 

[Crawford]

Keyboard replacement/emulation

Keyboard replacement/emulation

Kipp,

I was just going to start with the regular Arduino Decimilia, and then probably switch to a minimal (one chip) Ardweeny when it was complete. Anything that calls itself an Arduino would be compatible, but I would stick to 5 volt ones as 3.3v was not common with vintage stuff.

Arduino has a PS/2 keyboard input library, so it's just a matter of putting an oscilloscope on a working keyboard and mimicking the proper waveforms.

I guess you could do it for a series of keyboard outputs, but you'd need to cycle somehow between them and know where you were. I'm more of a fan of single-purpose devices.

-Crawford