Where to Buy Alphanumeric Keyboard Matrix?

[rwiker]

Vince Briel http://www.brielcomputers.com has (had?) a kit that included a keyboard matrix. I think there was some talk about having the keyboard available as a separate product, but I'm getting the impression that Vince is not able to supply products to his customers.

As an alternative, there are plenty of keyboards available elsewhere, including some that have fairly compact layouts. I'm pretty sure that it should be possible to find some where the controller could be removed, and attaching a VIA (or something similar) to the raw keyboard matrix.

[whartung]

I dunno, my DRUG STORE has a generic USB PC keyboard for $8 (next to the picture frames). I would have no remorse whatsoever turning that in to anything, whether with a screwdriver or a ten pound tweaking tool. There's no heritage here, it's just a commodity piece of kit with no historic value whatsoever. I wouldn't have to worry about hurting it or anything, worst case I'm out 8 bucks.

[Martin_H]

I've been able to get Daryl Rictor's library PC Keyboard library http://sbc.rictor.org/pckb6522.html to work with a full sized keyboard. But KBINIT hangs when I use an Adesso compact keyboard https://www.amazon.com/Adesso-Keyboard- ... B00024ENUC

I was able to narrow it down to the segment of code below. Specifically just after it attempts to set the LED's and check the acknowledgment. If I put an rts just after the jsr kbsend it doesn't hang, but it doesn't set the LED's properly either.

Code: Select all

kbsled:        lda   #$ED              ; Set the keybrd LED's from kbleds variable
               jsr   kbsend            ; 
               jsr   kbget             ; 
               cmp   #$FA              ; ack?
               bne   kbsled            ; resend led cmd        
               lda   special           ; 
               and   #$07              ; ensure bits 3-7 are 0
               jsr   kbsend            ; 
               rts                     ; 

I don't know enough about the PS/2 keyboard protocol to understand why setting LED's would fail for a keyboard with a different layout.