Re: Possible to adapt a //e keyboard to PC?

[nbu90@hotmail.com (Prodos)]

et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black) wrote in message news:<br0tje$4me$1@freenet9.carleton.ca>...
> Scott Alfter (salfter@salfter.dyndns.org) writes:
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> > In article <3FD34F5D.67BCCCDA@swbell.net>,
> > Rubywand  <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
> >>Bill writes ...
> >>> 
> >>> Anyone know of any schematics to adapt a //e keyboard to a regular PC
> >>> keyboard plug? Thanks!
> >>
> >>
> >>     This could be first time I've heard that idea suggested. (Usually, users
> >>are looking for ways to connect PC keyboards to Apple II's.)
> > 
> > Speaking of which, do you know of anything that would adapt a PS/2 keyboard
> > to a II+?  Searching Google for parallel ASCII keyboards (what the II+ uses)
> > didn't turn up much, and the keyboard in mine is flaky.
> > 
> A messy workaround would be to connect the printer port of some computer
> to where the keyboard of the II connects, and then run a simple program
> on the computer to output the needed byte as each key is pressed.
> 
> I was once given a Apple II clone that had a serial keyboard; there was
> a simple serial to parallel board plugged in where the usual keyboard
> would go.  Interestingly, the keyboard was an actual IBM PC type keyboard.
> In that particular case, the code for the keyboard was in a ROM, and
> someone had written code so the keyboard actually put out ASCII just
> like a parallel keyboard (except of course it output in serial), so
> nothing had to be done in the Apple.  There was even the original ROM
> that could be put back to get the IBM PC type keyboard.
> 
> But considering how integration gets greater as time passes, you'd
> have to look for old keyboards in order to find one that used a separate
> ROM.  And by the time you figured out what was needed, and code it,
> you probably wouldn't find another similar keyboard.
> 
> That seems a better choice, generating the right ASCII code in the first
> place, than what has to be used otherwise, ie an adaptor between the
> two that is an actual processor to do the conversion.  Create one, and
> it works in all cases.
> 
>   Michael

The possibly simpelst solution would be in fact the use of a
Microcontroller like The Atmel series. The AVR ATmega8.. has a build
in Flash ram with more than 8 kb and a UART for serial input. They are
really cheap and you can just program them via an lpt port.