PC Keyboard on a beeb or other way round?

[Charles Blackburn]

Hi

As I have a venerable BBC B with a knackered main board, and also heavily into modding, I was considering using an old beeb B case to house a mini ITX board.

Now I would really like to use the original Beeb keyboard and I understand that I would need some sort of translation hardware, but is there any technical docs on how the beeb keyboard is setup ?

I assume that it's not a clock/data type (eg PC) but a row/col switched type? so any help would be appreciated and if someone has already done such a thing I'd appreciate any help you could give too.

The Idea of this is that I go to many a gaming LAN party and I'd really like to show off my BBC machine. I can just imaging peoples faces when i show up with what looks like an 8 bit machine and then go on to win the LAN match :P

would be fun

regards
charles

[Ian Molton]

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 23:30:43 +0100
Charles Blackburn <charlesb@summerfield-technology.co.uk> wrote:
I assume that it's not a clock/data type (eg PC) but a row/col switched type? so any help would be appreciated and if someone has already done such a thing I'd appreciate any help you could give too.

its discreet switches IIRC so it shouldnt be hard to cut the tracks and rewire it to the likings of a PC keyboard controller...

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

[Jules]

Ian Molton <spyro@f2s.com> wrote in message news:<20030717021947.43484244.spyro@f2s.com>... On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 23:30:43 +0100 Charles Blackburn <charlesb@summerfield-technology.co.uk> wrote: I assume that it's not a clock/data type (eg PC) but a row/col switched type? so any help would be appreciated and if someone has already done such a thing I'd appreciate any help you could give too. its discreet switches IIRC so it shouldnt be hard to cut the tracks and rewire it to the likings of a PC keyboard controller...

yep, that sounds about right. I'm almost certain I have the schematic
for the keyboard somewhere; shout if you can't find it on the web and
I can probably dig it out and scan it.

cheers

Jules

[Charles Blackburn]

On 17 Jul 2003 09:24:44 -0700
julesrichardsonuk@yahoo.co.uk (Jules) wrote: Ian Molton <spyro@f2s.com> wrote in message news:<20030717021947.43484244.spyro@f2s.com>... On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 23:30:43 +0100 Charles Blackburn <charlesb@summerfield-technology.co.uk> wrote: I assume that it's not a clock/data type (eg PC) but a row/col switched type? so any help would be appreciated and if someone has already done such a thing I'd appreciate any help you could give too. its discreet switches IIRC so it shouldnt be hard to cut the tracks and rewire it to the likings of a PC keyboard controller... yep, that sounds about right. I'm almost certain I have the schematic for the keyboard somewhere; shout if you can't find it on the web and I can probably dig it out and scan it.

Would be appreciated. please

reagrds
charles

[Anthony J Hilton]

In article <20030717172912.57b548c7.charlesb@summerfield-technology.co.uk>,
Charles Blackburn <URL:mailto:charlesb@summerfield-technology.co.uk> wrote: On 17 Jul 2003 09:24:44 -0700 julesrichardsonuk@yahoo.co.uk (Jules) wrote: Ian Molton <spyro@f2s.com> wrote in message news:<20030717021947.43484244.spyro@f2s.com>... On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 23:30:43 +0100 Charles Blackburn <charlesb@summerfield-technology.co.uk> wrote: > I assume that it's not a clock/data type (eg PC) but a row/col > switched type? so any help would be appreciated and if someone has > already done such a thing I'd appreciate any help you could give > too. its discreet switches IIRC so it shouldnt be hard to cut the tracks and rewire it to the likings of a PC keyboard controller... yep, that sounds about right. I'm almost certain I have the schematic for the keyboard somewhere; shout if you can't find it on the web and I can probably dig it out and scan it. Would be appreciated. please

Check the thread here started by me on 29th April subject BBC keyboard
Connection
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&th=4931caf26d408e2e&seekm=ant29211506cZSTv%40risco.home
there are some interesting comments. I haven't had time yet to do anything
yet and would be interested to know how you get on.

Anthony

--
Acorn: ajh(at)tinshill.f9.co.uk
Groupwise: anthony.hilton(at)leedsth.nhs.uk

spamtrap is a valid address, but I don't take much notice of what arrives
there.

[Charles Blackburn]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 21:43:45 +0100
Anthony J Hilton <spamtrap@tinshill.f9.co.uk> wrote:
yep, that sounds about right. I'm almost certain I have the schematic for the keyboard somewhere; shout if you can't find it on the web and I can probably dig it out and scan it. Would be appreciated. please Check the thread here started by me on 29th April subject BBC keyboard Connection
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&th=4931caf26d408e2e&seekm=ant29211506cZSTv%40risco.home there are some interesting comments. I haven't had time yet to do anything yet and would be interested to know how you get on.

yea I too got the idea from the SX-64 :P i'm going to have a closer look into it when i find the schematics, now there is a slight way around it i think. ISTR that you can transfer "console" command over to the serial port on the back of the beeb that way you could have a pc keyboard on the beeb with a little bit of hacking with a PIC (translating scancodes into ascii) this could be done quite easily. as for the other way around, that seems to be the only way to go. WEll i have the advanced user guide so i'm gonig to trawl thru that. I'll let u guys know how i get on after my monthly trip to my microelectronics guru (me dad) this weekend. Maybe we'll bea ble to knock something up together.

regards
charles