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You think this is ASCII based?

T

Tincanalley

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I'd love to use it, but I don't know if it is compatible with PCs. I believe it is a terminal keyboard from around '78. I know I'll never get the function keys working, and that doesn't matter, but if I could get it working as a standard keyboard, it would be cool. Right now it's just on display.
 

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Certainly ASCII (not EBCDIC), mostly easy to tell with the special characters and their pairing with numerals. (i.e. "1' = 0x31, "!'=0x21; "2"=0x32, '"' = 0x22 and so on) Looks like a nice unit.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Certainly ASCII (not EBCDIC), mostly easy to tell with the special characters and their pairing with numerals. (i.e. "1' = 0x31, "!'=0x21; "2"=0x32, '"' = 0x22 and so on) Looks like a nice unit.
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Ah, makes sense. Somewhere, I can't remember where, I have the technical manual for it. I bought it from Jameco Electronics back in '84 for 20 bucks. I then contacted Burroughs and they were nice enough to send me the manual. Then it got put away for 2 decades. When it came out, I put it on display, but couldn't find the manual. I know it in a box somewhere.
 
I don't think it matters what the code base is. These days with an Arduino or PIC Chip or perhaps even an FPGA its possible to interface almost anything to anything....
 
Chuck(G) said:
In any case, if you want to use it with a PC as a PS/2 or USB keyboard, it's going to take an MCU to do the code translation to scan codes.
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Not too familiar with such a device. Is it something already made that you program? If I were to find the manual and post some of the necessary info, could you determine if it is worth doing?
 
I was reading through some sales brochures on the terminal that comes with the TP130. The keyboard itself provides auto-repeat which means it is not transmitting scan codes, it's sending ASCII (or equivalent). This makes sense for the time period but isn't how modern computers work.

Translating from ASCII (or similar) to up/down scan codes can work, sort of but will not be quite the same as a new keyboard.

For example, shift-a on this keyboard would transmit 'A'. on a PC keyboard the controller sees shift down, a down, a up, shift up, then translates that into A. All good for typing, not so good for hotkey combinations.
 
On the other hand, I have a PC XT-clone keyboard that's been modified (different firmware) to produce ASCII, rather than key-up/down codes.

Which reminds me, Goldmine Electronics has the IBM iPoint IR keyboards for $3.95 each, NIB. I use those on a couple of systems where I don't want to be bothered with cords.
 
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