TransKey-II in development

[+kheller2]

select+reset : MIO

[flashjazzcat]

Ahem... also Start+Reset to enter the U1MB BIOS menu if the user configures the alt BIOS that way. And Select+Reset (again, optionally) to perform an OS reboot (an option also present in some patched operating systems, IIRC).

 

You can be pretty sure Option+Reset will be used by something as well, and/or any combination of all three console keys (Start+Select+Reset, for instance) by something somewhere.

Edited December 24, 2017 by flashjazzcat

[+mytek]

Thanks guys

 

So we'll assume any possible combination of the Console keys and Reset.

[_The Doctor__]

and shift+key control+key etc. combination can be used with a console or console keys... help with select start option, shift+ key + console(s).. don't forget MyBIOS/MyIDE key combos, or Sparta's assignable reset utility for non reset programs... plenty of 3 key or more salutes today...

Edited December 24, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[+mytek]

I'm really looking for 2 key combos that include Reset. All of the other usual SHIFT and/or CTRL combos, or Console and an alphanumeric key should work just fine as it is now sent by TK. So that probably restricts us to non-alphanumeric keys+Reset, since pressing an alpha would start printing that on screen prior to pressing Reset, not the most desirable action.

 

So that seems to limit us to: SHIFT, CONSOLE, and INVERSE (maybe INVERSE in combo with SHIFT and/or CTRL).

 

I don't believe CTRL can be detected in combination with Reset all by itself since it needs to modify a standard key to be seen, so that should rule it out.

 

Am I missing anything

[flashjazzcat]

Add HELP to the list, but I think it's implicitly included anyway (also SHIFT+HELP, CTRL+HELP, and SHIFT+CTRL+HELP) since it's used by U1MB.

 

And no: CTRL only exists as a modifier key and does not register on its own.

[Bilejoni]

Is it possible to buy this ready-made? I don't like soldering...

[+kheller2]

Is it possible to buy this ready-made? I don't like soldering...

 

https://www.bitsofthepast.com/?product=tk-ii-stereo-bundle-pre-order

[+mytek]

New TK-II Boards Coming

 

Soon there will be brand new board versions of the TK-II for both standard A8 systems as well as the XE Game System and/or 7800 XM. The existing designs will be moved into an archive section, and these new ones will be the current offering. Expect to see these new designs released and published on my website later this month, or early May of 2018. I still need to purchase some sample boards to test before commiting.

So here's the new TK-II family.

New Smaller XE Game Systems External Plug-In Board (also compatible with 7800 XM).

 

Uses Dsub15 female solder cup connector edge connected to board (needs metal shroud removed and plastic halves glued together).

 

Smaller Remake of original Pokey Piggyback Version now with integral ICSP programming connection.




Reverse Pokey Piggyback Version (better fit in XL/XE allowing more clearance under keyboard).




PS/2 Ribbon Cable Connected Interface Board for Pokey Piggyback Boards (same as previous with slight revision on silkscreen).

 

The Pokey Piggyback boards require a thinner material due to the use of 'standard' machine pin sockets top and bottom, with the stacked bottom socket providing clearance for the PIC16F1847 chip mounted on the backside (although for very low profile requirements, substituting a machine socket on the A8 motherboard with the center cross bars removed instead will allow a very low ceiling).

 

All boards now automatically support up to two simultaneous PS/2 keyboards either through the extra connector on the TK Interface board, or via a dual PS/2 keyboard cable. No mods required.

 

Note: The board renders on this post are provided through an on-line gerber viewer, and sometimes ground planes are either not shown, or produced inaccurately (missing thermal reliefs). The final product produced from the gerbers will be correct in all details.

[+mytek]

NEW Updated Boards Arrived

 

 

These have been tested and added to the following page in my website: https://ataribits.weebly.com/tk-ii.html

 

Some stuff is still in process and will be added at a later date.

 

Mounting Data for PS/2 Interface Boards

 

Dual PS/2 Jacks

 

 

Single PS/2 Jack

 

[Osgeld]

I have wondered what the functionality of 2 ps/2 keyboards are

[+mytek]

I have wondered what the functionality of 2 ps/2 keyboards are

 

It's essentially a freebie since I had two unused I/O lines, requires a diode, and just a couple of lines of extra code. However I for one can think of a very useful aspect to this. Imagine if you will that you have a separate room for all your Atari gear, but sometimes you wouldn't mind having essentially a terminal in a remote location such as your bedroom. All that would be needed is a long PS/2 male-to-female extension cable, and similar extension for whatever kind of video and audio you are running. And now days with all the CF and SD drive solutions for the Atari, you could actually accomplish some useful things in a remote fashion.

 

Back in the 90's I had a setup like this with a modified original Transkey, CSS Black Box, and a 9600 baud modem that let me hop on Genie after going to bed. It was very handy, and also appeased the wife who wanted the bulk of my equipment to stay in my room .

 

Edit: With more and more people cutting the cable TV in favor of streaming services, it would be possible to put the house's coax to good use by sending the Atari's RF into it for video distribution around your home, thus only needing to run a PS/2 line. And that last part could take advantage of the an extra pair on the phone line or ethernet cable, just requiring a PS/2 break-out board on both ends to make the transition to Mini-DIN6.

 

eBay Link

[Osgeld]

oddly enough I have ran a ps/2 keyboard over (disconnected from the world) telephone lines (just as an experiment)

Edited April 29, 2018 by Osgeld

[+mytek]

oddly enough I have ran a ps/2 keyboard over (disconnected from the world) telephone lines (just as an experiment)

 

It actually works quite well over fairly long distances, and most homes built after the late 80's have 6-conductor twisted pair running into several rooms with at least one pair not being used.

[Osgeld]

yea 5 volts and fairly slow bitrate of the protocol it can go for a while on twisted pair. It didnt last long, in my apartment (which we moved out of like 4 years ago) I used the phone lines for serial as my retro computers were set up on the far side of one room, and my workbench was on the other side, or my main computer was in an entirely different room and I got tired of dragging crap around to move a disk image over and find out it sucked

 

anyway off topic, I just wondered

Edited April 29, 2018 by Osgeld

[+mytek]

Looking for some Feedback...

 

Down the road I'm looking at adding the ability to decide what the default NumLock action will be upon powering up the system. Currently it defaults to being ON, which works fine when using a standard 101 key keyboard with a separate number pad. However I've been playing around with a new mini Adesso keyboard that due to space constraints doubles up the functionality from some of the alpha keys to allow them to act as a number pad. In this case I would prefer that the system powers up with NumLock OFF.

 

Adesso AKB-110B

So I would love to add a non-volatile NumLock setting that the user can then decide what the default power-up action will be. However, I'm also running out of room in the TK-II's PIC chip to implement the extra code. I could do some more refactoring and make room, but it would be far easier if I simply got rid of something that hasn't been useful and/or used. So in that regard, I was thinking of getting rid of the special TK-II Caps Mode which due to the way the A8 always resets caps to ON after any reset, and that the TK-II chip has no way to know what caps is set to, has been a pain to actually use and keep the Caps LED synced to. In the beginning I thought it would be a cool feature to have, and it allowed things to work much more like a PC in that pressing shift while in caps under this special mode, would temporarily drop down into lowercase. So before I remove this code to make room for other features, I would like to know if anyone even uses it. It can be toggled ON by doing a CTRL+ALT+CAPS, and the setting is retained in non-volatile memory.

 

If this is the first time you heard about this TK-II Caps Mode, or you just don't care, then I will probably get rid of it by the next firmware iteration.

 

BTW, pressing ALT+CAPS while in Basic or some other editor screen will tell you what this mode is currently set to on your system.

[+Stephen]

I must say, I have never used that caps feature.

[+mytek]

I must say, I have never used that caps feature.

 

It was a grand experiment that ultimately kept falling on it's face due to an unpredictable Caps state following reset and/or when booting into some applications such as word processors. It's really too bad that Pokey didn't provide a Caps LED output which could have been tapped into.

[flashjazzcat]

Keyboard case is handled entirely in software on the Atari so it was going to be a big ask to try and shadow anything. I certainly never used the feature and wouldn't miss it.

[+mytek]

TK-II-PB: Installation not Requiring any New Holes In Case

 

I know a lot of people would like to minimize modifications to their A8's case (as well as I), so here's a plan of action that I tried on my 1200XL. Should work in a similar way on other A8 computers.

 

Removed RF Modulator and mounted TK-INTFC-S board in vacant spot behind RF output hole.

(required drilling two 1/8" diameter holes in motherboard)

 

Here's the detail on the mounting hardware required (male/female 4-40 standoff, flat washers, and screws).

 

Slight enlargement of existing RF output hole.

 

Lines up very nicely.

 

Inside view of mounted PS/2 interface board (I choose to use vertical header, but right angle would have been fine).

 

Fully installed.

 

Both stock and PS/2 keyboards work .

 

 

[+Stephen]

Excellent!!! I will do any mod to my Atari machines internally, but I cannot bring myself to cut into their cases.

[pjbramley]

Are they still available for the XEGS already assembled? If so, where can I purchase one and cost?

[Brentarian]

Are they still available for the XEGS already assembled? If so, where can I purchase one and cost?

Macrorie sells them.

https://ebay.com/itm/TK-II-Atari-XEGS-PS-2-Keyboard-Interface-/283124845264

 

or directly at www.thebrewingacademy.com (check the price list)

[rockdoc2010]

 

Hi Bill,

 

Yep that's what I thought as well

 

However in order to be able to have Start, Select, Option, Reset from the keyboard, it will require some jumpers be soldered internally to the D-SUB 15 connector. Minimally at least the reset capability should be added in this way, which is a very simple short distance jump. But it is not an absolute requirement, more for ease of use, since this key does tend to enter the picture often when developing code.

 

It really is too bad that these signals weren't routed out to the keyboard in the first place, since there were enough unused pins to allow for it, and the console switches do exist on the XEGS's keyboard (just no buttons). This also assumes that only one pin would have been dedicated to GND and another for +5VDC, unlike the doubling up that was done (kind of stupid considering that only two low power CMOS chips are used in the XEGS keyboard). This of course makes it more difficult to use these pins for other things, since the D-SUB 15 connector would need to be fully removed (desoldered) in order to cut the power trace connection on the top side of the motherboard. But like I said it is not a requirement that the extra signals be implemented for TransKey-II in order to work.

 

XEGS Keyboard Connector Pinout

 

Edit: Just to be clear, the TransKey-II-XEGS model will already have the connections for Start, Select, Option, Reset routed to its D-SUB 15 connector, two of which will be via on board limiting resistors, in case the XEGS has not been modified and the +5VDC and GND connections are still intact. Don't want to blow out the TransKey-II's I/O, if plugged into a friends unmodified XEGS.

 

 

 

So one is the mylar breakout of the XEGS and the other is the board for the XEGS matrix keyboard.

 

The matrix board is otherwise known as the "Keyboard Sub Pcb" atari pn C100425 Rev 2

 

It appears to have a series of 470ohm pull up resisters to deal with the cable length, but i could be wrong but the 1200XL dont have them.

 

I am very interested in adding a 1200xl keyboard to my 1088xel project using a cable.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

[rockdoc2010]

A pinout of the TK-II would really help..

 

Thank You!

 

Douglas