[comp.terminals] Keytronics KB 3270 Plus is a closed product

wht@n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US (Warren Tucker) (05/29/91)

I delightfully purchased a new Keytronics KB3270 Plus keyboard the
other day with a mind to adapting it for extra X11 function keys for a
process control application as well as my personal use (I am a
quadriplegic and using and mice are not my best friends).

I searched the document, noted the usual MS-DOS manipulation programs
and figured I would just call the nifty 800 number and ask for
programming instructions so I can build up a UNIX driver to initialize
after starting up.

Er, wrong.  The technician I reached at Keytronics informed me that the
information would not be available without a non- disclosure agreement.
I didn't realize I was buying a proprietary product, I said.  No, no,
it isn't proprietary at all, he responded.  We just have business
interests to protect.  So what does proprietary mean?  Well, er...

I explored a few lines of reasoning with him before determining we
would get no where and he declined to offer me any further avenue.  I
told him I would be spreading the word on this, lest anyone else think
he could buy the product and get the dope on it later.  He said,
whatever.  So here is whatever.

The KB 3270 Plus is a clever marriage between a 3270 and 101-key AT
arrangement.  I say clever, for the keyboard is clearly intended for
3270 users, yet the AT functions, where different, are marked on the
keytops in blue.  DIP switches select the power-up mode, selecting
between various 3270 emulation softwares' expectations and a native
AT-101 arrangement arrangement.  When in the AT-101 mode, the "extra"
keys (PF13-PF24, Help, Clear, etc.) are not useful, generating useless
or no scan codes or duplicates of other keys.  All is not lost, for
there is also a feature which enables one to customize the scan codes
sent by individual keys.

It is this feature I hoped to exploit under UNIX.  While the .EXE files
cannot help me under UNIX, I wrongly figured it would be a trivial
matter to obtain the necessary information and build a driver for the
old trusty UNIX box to load the keyboard at startup time.  Wrong.

I guess I have come too far from the places where device application
information is considered more a potential weapon than a sales aid and
a right of the device purchaser.  Even the Old Day IBM spilled its guts
on programming the IBM 3270 Display System.

So I scrap the multi-unit plans for my process control application and
when I have time I'll grovel with disassemblers and try to come up with
enough information for my own gimp-use and salvage my $230 investment.
Right now, it is sitting here looking sorta like Peewee Herman's
bicycle: a good and useful bicycle, but with lots of extra whistles
and doojiggers that don't really do anything.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Warren Tucker, TuckerWare   gatech!n4hgf!wht or wht@n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US
Many [Nobel physics] prizes  have been given  to people for  telling us
the universe is not as simple as we thought it was. -Stephen Hawking in
A Brief History of Time     In computing, there are no such prizes. -me