Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!um-math!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: In the same vain: keyboards
Message-ID: <563@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 29 Jan 89 00:24:44 GMT
References: <1611@accelerator.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu
Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
Lines: 26
UUCP-Path: {mailrus,umix}!um-math!hyc

In article <1611@accelerator.eng.ohio-state.edu> DAVISM@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Michael T. Davis) writes:
>
>	What are the possibilities of attaching a keyboard other than the
>one supplied to a Mega?  What kind of signals are on the keyboard port
>(or is it <gasp> hard-wired)?
>
>							Thanks,
>							 Mike

The Mega keyboard is connected by a 6 conductor rs-232 cable. Replacing it
with an off-the-shelf keyboard would be an interesting exercise. The keyboard
is much more than just a lot of switches and a decoder, it's really a micro-
computer in its own right. If you never planned to use your Mega keyboard
ever again, you could rip the electronics out of it and try to attach another
keyboard, but it would probably take some effort to match the scancodes up
properly. (You'd probably want access to an EPROM burner so you can generate
a new scan table...)

Note the same applies to a regular 520/1040 keyboard, just that it's all in
one case instead of at the end of a cable.
--
  /
 /_ , ,_.                      Howard Chu
/ /(_/(__                University of Michigan
    /           Computing Center          College of LS&A
   '              Unix Project          Information Systems