Post by thread:AT Keyboards --- Not all equal!

<x-flowed>You may have been following my problems getting a PIC to read the scan codes from an AT keyboard over the past couple of days. Today I brought home a Gateway 2000 keyboard from the office and it works perfectly with my code. This doesn't really solve my problem, of course, in that I still need to figure out why some keyboards work and some don't. But at least I know that the code is doing what it's supposed to do. For the record the keyboards tested are as follows: 1. Cherry 84-4100. That's the board that drops the ones. 2. SIIG Minitouch. The lights keep flashing when power is applied. 3. Chicony 5161. Old - has an XT-AT switch. Lights come on solidly when power is applied. 4. Gateway 2000 (maybe made by KTC). Works! So what we have here is that all keyboards are not created equal! They all work with my PC, but they clearly aren't all doing the same thing. If anyone runs across an explanation of the differences, I'd love to hear it. If I had a digital storage scope, at least I could probably figure out the difference between the Cherry and the Gateway since they both at least do something. John Hansen </x-flowed>

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>So what we have here is that all keyboards are not created equal! They all >work with my PC, but they clearly aren't all doing the same thing. If >anyone runs across an explanation of the differences, I'd love to hear >it. If I had a digital storage scope, at least I could probably figure out >the difference between the Cherry and the Gateway since they both at least >do something. You might look into getting one of those DSO's or logic analyzers that plug into a parallel port. I got the logic analyzer from virtual tools (http://www.virtualtools.com) and for $250 it has saved my bacon countless times. Its not an HP, but its also not $15k. > >John Hansen Erik Reikes Senior Software Engineer Xsilogy, Inc. RemoveMEereikesTakeThisOuTspamxsilogy.com ph : (858) 535-5113 fax : (858) 535-5163 cell : (858) 663-1206

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At 05:49 PM 5/31/00 -0400, you wrote: I had the same problem with different keyboards as you describe. Some keyboards require the CLOCK period to within tight margins. If I remember correctly this is 40us for a full period. If the clock period is off some keyboards will not work, others will. When I got the clock right all the keyboards worked 100% -Jim {Quote hidden}>You may have been following my problems getting a PIC to read the scan >codes from an AT keyboard over the past couple of days. Today I brought >home a Gateway 2000 keyboard from the office and it works perfectly with my >code. This doesn't really solve my problem, of course, in that I still >need to figure out why some keyboards work and some don't. But at least I >know that the code is doing what it's supposed to do. For the record the >keyboards tested are as follows: > >1. Cherry 84-4100. That's the board that drops the ones. >2. SIIG Minitouch. The lights keep flashing when power is applied. >3. Chicony 5161. Old - has an XT-AT switch. Lights come on solidly when >power is applied. >4. Gateway 2000 (maybe made by KTC). Works! > >So what we have here is that all keyboards are not created equal! They all >work with my PC, but they clearly aren't all doing the same thing. If >anyone runs across an explanation of the differences, I'd love to hear >it. If I had a digital storage scope, at least I could probably figure out >the difference between the Cherry and the Gateway since they both at least >do something. > >John Hansen > Regards, Jim Robertson NEWFOUND ELECTRONICS ________________________________________ Email: RemoveMEnewfoundKILLspampipeline.com.au http://www.new-elect.com MPLAB compatible PIC programmers. ________________________________________