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Date   : Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:25:41 -0000
From   : C.J.Thornley@... (Chris Thornley)
Subject: Fwd: Re: Not Exactly a BBC Question But...

Hello,

You mention a "uC/Arduino/(C)PLD based solution could really help" but this
method might be considerably more expensive/complex than say using a 8051 or
PIC 16C84 or a BBC port and a few chips.

It seems you are looking for someone to do this project for you?

Are there any photos of the internal workings of a suitable keyboard?
Do you have any oscilloscope or Logic Analyser traces of the signals sent
from a working keyboard? 
Just wondering if the data is pure serial bits say from a shift register or
has stop bit and start bits embedded.
Is it definitely 10Kbps data rate or about this so might be 9.6Kbps instead?
Does the keyboard send any strings to the computer when powered up to
identify that it has been connected?
Are there any keys which when pressed in combination send out a different
codes?

The Keyboard Babel website has a lot of information on how to get keyboard
to talk to other machines and might prove useful http://www.kbdbabel.org/

Some sort of simple serial (ASCII) to keyboard interface might be initially
useful to test if things are working as expected before figuring out how to
get an AT or other keyboard to talk to the machine.

The 40bit codes seem to break down to 4 repeating nibbles :- 

0011 
0100 

1011 
1100

This should make a lookup table easier.

Chris


 

               />      Christopher J. Thornley is
c.j.thornley@...
  (           //------------------------------------------------------,
 (*)OXOXOXOXO(*>=*=C=J=T=-=-=-=*=---------                             >
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               \>       Home Page :-http://www.coolrose.fsnet.co.uk 
  

 

________________________________

From: bbc-micro-bounces+c.j.thornley=coolrose.fsnet.co.uk@...
[mailto:bbc-micro-bounces+c.j.thornley=coolrose.fsnet.co.uk@...
uk] On Behalf Of Conrad Russo
Sent: 06 January 2012 7:03 AM
To: bbc-micro@...
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Fwd: Re: Not Exactly a BBC Question But...


Yeah, what I'll try to do is to send some of the 40 bit serial code from the
userport of my master to the FM77 at the proper rate and see if it
recognizes it as keypresses. If that works, I'll move on from there. I might
go another route though because both my beebs are in a room that is
completely inaccessible right now due to renovations :(. I have two awesome
beebs (and an Archie) that I haven't been able to use for a while now, it's
upsetting! But back on topic, I have asked around on two keyboard forums to
see if anyone can help out a bit with the practical side of things. There
are so many people out there who have an FM77AV machine without a keyboard,
a uC/Arduino/(C)PLD based solution could really help some people. I thought
maybe of an Arduino Mini (the ones in a DIP formfactor) inserted into a
small board with the appropriate connectors. I know lots of boardmaking
houses offer a really good deal on small boards of a set size.


On Thu, Jan 5, 2012@... PM, Rick Murray <rick@...> wrote:


       Hi,
       
       Sorry, mental hiccup, forget the PS/2 stuff. You want *something*
that the FM77 thinks is a keyboard. You could try bit bashing on the user
port (re. my previous message, just read FM77 where I wrote PS/2...).
       
       Thing is to connect *anything* to the Japanese box is likely to
require programming (the Arduino needs to know what to do, right?). If you
can get the Beeb keyboard working, you're halfway there. If you can read a
PS/2 keyboard and output FM77 on the Beeb, you'll have all the code ready to
port over to the not-quite-C++ language the Arduino platform uses.
       
       
       
       Best wishes,
       
       Rick
       
       (sent from my mobile)


       -----Original message-----
       

               From: Conrad Russo <conrad.russo@...>
               To: Rick Murray <rick@...>
               Sent: Fri, 06 Jan 2012, 07:36:42 CET
               Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Fwd: Re: Not Exactly a BBC Question
But...
               
               

                       I think you misunderstood what I want to do, I want
to hook up a PS/2 keyboard to an FM77AV, not the other way around. Forgive
me if you already knew that, it's just that the way you described it
(keyboard to microcontroller, microcontroller to PS/2 lead) sounds like you
think I want to hook up a foreign keyboard to a PS/2 port. I think such
things as PS/2 keyboard debouncing are well known. So all that would have to
be done is read the PS/2 keyboard, convert PS/2 codes to 40-bit FM77 serial
stream, send to FM77. I think it's a little bit simpler then the other way
around.
                       
                       

               On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 10:29 PM, Rick Murray
<rick@...> wrote:
               

                       Hi,
                       
                       Arduino looks kinda cool. I might get myself one to
play with (Farnell lists the Uno for ?20, but the spec is quite low, there
is an ARM Olimex for ?24, or a Cortex-M3 with LCD, four buttons, serial,
plus a fine spec for ?35. Not a RPi, but not a bad little mcu dev board.).
                       
                       
                       But note, you still have to fiddle with hardware
(keyboard to microcontroller, microcontroller to PS/2 lead) and software
(scan keys, debounce, convert to PS/2, bitbash PS/2...) so for a quick fix
you might as well wirea PS/2 plug to the User Port and try that first. If
you can't get that going, give up on using a microcontroller, it won't be as
easy to poke as BASIC!
                       
                       As for the keys and the Beeb's lack of them, there
is always Ctrl key options.
                       
                       
                       Best wishes,
                       
                       Rick
                       
                       (sent from my mobile)


                       -----Original message-----
                       

                               From: Conrad Russo <conrad.russo@...>
                               To: "bbc-micro@..."
<bbc-micro@...>
                               Sent: Fri, 06 Jan 2012, 00:03:01 CET
                               Subject: [BBC-Micro] Fwd: Re: Not Exactly a
BBC Question But...
                               
                               
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