Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!psuvax1!vu-vlsi!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A2000 Keyboard on an A1000?
Message-ID: <3198@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jan 88 19:31:06 GMT
References: <4418@garfield.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 32

in article <4418@garfield.UUCP>, joseph@garfield.UUCP (Joseph Dawson) says:

>    I love the A2000 keyboard but don't have the money to buy an A2000
> for that reason.  Can you buy A2000 keyboards and can you then plug
> them into your A1000?  (If I had an A500 I would think that I would
> want to be able to plug in an A2000 keyboard as well.  Just try and lay
> an A500 on your lap with MODEM, PRINTER, ETC, pluged in!)

>     Joseph Dawson

I very much doubt that A2000 keyboards are available separately as yet, they're
using every one made for new A2000s.  I expect that they will eventually be
available as a normal replacement part from CBM Service. 

Connecting an A2000 keyboard to an A1000 is simply a matter of building 
yourself a 5 PIN DIN to Phone Jack adaptor; the electrical signals are
identical.

It's possible you could hook up an A2000 keyboard to the A500s parallel
port, though this would at the very least require some driver software.
The parallel port has a synchronous serial connection available that's very
similar to what's reading your keyboard normally.  You wouldn't be getting
a C-A-A response, though, since that's done in hardware.  The only real
difficult part would be if the part of the Parallel Port CIA chip that
controls the parallel port's serial shift register is being used by any
other software in the system.  If it is, you may be in trouble, if not,
the driver program would be pretty simple.

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The B2000 Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"