orc@pell.uucp (david parsons) (09/23/89)
On 21 Sep 89 12:39:37 GMT, george_seto@brains.UUCP (George Seto) wrote: > Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a Keyboard Extension Cable >available for the Mega keyboard? Yes. Find a 6-wire telephone cord with modular jacks at each end. *poof* - instant cable. (for extentions, you need to find a gender bender 6-wire socket-socket, but it's easier to get, oh, about 20 feet of telephone cord and a pair of strong magnifying glasses :-) -david parsons -orc@pell.citadel -sitting at the end of a 90-foot extention cable.... -I'm not making this up. Really. Would I lie to you?
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (09/26/89)
orc@pell.uucp (david parsons) writes: >On 21 Sep 89 12:39:37 GMT, george_seto@brains.UUCP (George Seto) wrote: >Find a 6-wire telephone cord with modular jacks at each end. >*poof* - instant cable. If that works, I'm really surprised. The Megas I know of need a slightly different cable. You have to turn one connector of a standard phone cable upside-down. I know because I had to make my own once and I couldn't use a phone cable out of the box. Maybe new Megas or old ones are the way you describe... Normal phone cable: ------ ------ 1 |---------------|6 2 |---------------|5 3 |---------------|4 4 |---------------|3 5 |---------------|2 6 |---------------|1 ------ ------ Mega Keyboard cable: ------ ------ 1 |---------------|1 2 |---------------|2 3 |---------------|3 4 |---------------|4 5 |---------------|5 6 |---------------|6 ------ ------ If you buy the cable without the ends, you can make the Mega keyboard kind easily. If you don't, it's hard: the ends aren't made to be taken off & rearranged, they're made to crimp on once & stay forever. (TPC sure knows how to build to last: they didn't want to have to go back and do it again, back when they handled all repairs and we were just renting.) ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
walkerb@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Brian Walker) (09/27/89)
In article <1709@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes: >If that works, I'm really surprised. The Megas I know of need a >slightly different cable. You have to turn one connector of a standard >phone cable upside-down. I know because I had to make my own once and >I couldn't use a phone cable out of the box. Maybe new Megas or old >ones are the way you describe... [...Useful diagrams...] >If you buy the cable without the ends, you can make the Mega keyboard >kind easily. If you don't, it's hard: the ends aren't made to be taken >off & rearranged, they're made to crimp on once & stay forever. (TPC >sure knows how to build to last: they didn't want to have to go back >and do it again, back when they handled all repairs and we were just >renting.) The problem isn't too much of a task. I have seen kits for the crimp on modular plugs for telephone cables at my local Radio Shack. Using a standard telephone extension cable, Just cut off the end, peel, strip the wires and crimp on a new piece. That should take care of it. In just a few minutes, you would have a an extension for your keyboard. And if you should ever get bored with it, you still have a perfectly usable telephone extension cord. -- Brian Walker, University of Colorado at Boulder walkerb@tramp.colorado.edu ...!{ncar,nbires}!boulder!tramp!walkerb lim ENGINEERING = BUSINESS lim BUSINESS = ARTS AND SCIENCE GPA->0 GPA->0
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (09/28/89)
walkerb@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Brian Walker) writes: >The problem isn't too much of a task. I have seen kits for the crimp on >modular plugs for telephone cables at my local Radio Shack. Using a >standard telephone extension cable, Just cut off the end, peel, strip the >wires and crimp on a new piece. That should take care of it. In just a >few minutes, you would have a an extension for your keyboard. And >if you should ever get bored with it, you still have a perfectly usable >telephone extension cord. I didn't say it was hard, I said it was nontrivial. But the whole point is you DON'T have a telephone extension cord! You can't use a Mega keyboard cable as a phone cord, because the wires are all swapped around. (As it turns out, it DOES work, a little: I just tried using a phone with a Mega keyboard cable, and I got a dial tone. However, I couldn't dial using a Touch-Tone (tm) phone. I expect a rotary phone would work. I didn't test to see if the phone would ring.) ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
dav@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (William David Haas) (09/28/89)
The latest issue of STart has an add for a keyboard cable extender.