garey@UT-NGP.ARPA (riggs, austen) (02/27/85)
My father is very interested in getting a hardwired Dvorak keyboard rtkey (Smartkey) to do the Dvorak in software, but there are problems using those types of programs. The Kaypro uses a serial port rather than a parallel port to connect the keyboard. What needs to be done to change the way the keyboard is decoded before it goes to the computer? Would it be a matter of a neew ROM somewhere? Can you buy a serial Dvorak keyboard somewhere that would work on the Kaypro? Any help or Info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Jim Garey garey@ut-ngp.arpa
garey@UT-NGP.ARPA (riggs, austen) (02/27/85)
I scrambled the previous message somewhat, here it is again: My father is very interested in getting a hardwired Dvorak keyboard that will work on his kaypro 10. He is currently using Smartkey to do the Dvorak in software, but has had problems with that and similar programs, especially when it comes to typing control characters. The kaypro evidently uses a serial port rather than a parallel port to connect the keyboard. What needs to be done to change the way the keyboard is decoded before it goes into the computer? Can one buy a serial Dvorak keyboard somewhere that would work on the Kaypro? He has contacted Kaypro, the keyboard manufacturer, and the Dvorak society to no avail. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Jim Garey garey@ut-ngp
cem@intelca.UUCP (Chuck McManis) (03/04/85)
If you look into the box of the Keyboard you will probably find a
microcontroller running it. If that is the case and it is an EPROM
version, (or even if it has an EPROM equivalent) You will need to
dump out its software, find the table of ascii characters it sends
(usually a serial table from 0-7FH but may be grouped differently,
eg 0-1F,40-5F,20-3F etc) The distinguishing factor is usually the
all numbers from 0-7F appear exactly once, and in a space that is
80H bytes long. Once you have this info (assuming you dumped it into
a programmer capable of programming the EPROM version of your micro
controller) You can find the ascii representations of the keys you
want to redifine in the table and replace the ascii code that a Dvorak
keyboard would return. Then program the new micro controller, (*always*
save the old one so you can go back to square 1 if you need to) install
it and voila, Dvorak in hardware.
--Chuck
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{ihnp4,fortune}!dual\ All opinions expressed herein are my
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{ucbvax,hao}!hplabs/ friends, or my avocado plant. :-}egb@burl.UUCP (egb) (03/09/85)
> > My father is very interested in getting a hardwired Dvorak keyboard > rtkey (Smartkey) to do the Dvorak in software, but there are problems using > those types of programs. The Kaypro uses a serial port rather than a > parallel port to connect the keyboard. What needs to be done to change > the way the keyboard is decoded before it goes to the computer? Would > it be a matter of a neew ROM somewhere? Can you buy a serial Dvorak > keyboard somewhere that would work on the Kaypro? Any help or Info > would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks Jim Garey garey@ut-ngp.arpa One of the ways I converted from an IBM EBCDIC keyboard to an ASCII computer input was to read the incoming eight bits from the keyboard and use them as the second byte to address a "page" of memory (256 bytes). At each individual address was the ASCII equivalent of the EBCDIC code---- worked like a charm. Should be possible to do the same thing to simulate a Dvorak keyboard---- read the ASCII keyboard, place the Dvorak equivalent at the addresses and provide that value to the computer input. Does require programming in assembly language, though. Ed Baldwin, Burlington, N.C. burl!egb