XEGS keyboard on a 400

[Fox-1 / mnx]

It's a 260ST (520ST) case and a 130XE case, but combined. The right side is XE, the left is ST. The keyboard is from the ST, which doesn't use mylar but a PCB in stead, and the center part is replaced with that from an XE. This way I can use the original XE keys where all the extra keys are the ST ones, which look the same from the outside.

 

The top-right part on the keyboard is for the Start/Select/Option/Reset buttons (a Help key is already available on the ST part of the keyboard), which leaves the original F1->F10 free for other things. F1 -> F4 will be mapped to the 1200XL-style F keys and F5 -> F10 will be mapped to the 6 keys that are unused on the XL/XE raster.

 

Yellow: XE keys (and key caps)

White: ST key caps

Green: ST key caps (for custom hardware usage)

 

 

[Rybags]

Does the ST keyboard scan like an A8 one except just more rows to the matrix or is it totally different with external translation required?

[Fox-1 / mnx]

Apart from a few matching lines on coincidence it's totally different. It's also a serial keyboard so I removed all the electronic parts and started to cut traces to make a new raster with wires. I'm still in that phase :-)

 

Also need to figure out a good way to emulate double key presses, like, the arrow keys need the control key to be pressed too and the CLR Home key should emulate a shift-Clear key press. Some of those functions can already be done with the 1200XL O.S. routines but this may fail when using a non-standard O.S. so I want to do all of that with the hardware.

[JoSch]

Almost forgot

 

If you do add the optional console switch connections to the D-Sub 15 Jack (see previous post), then it will be necessary to make a quick no-solder mod to the XEGS keyboard. Basically you need to open it up and cut two wires as shown below.

 

 

 

This doesn't harm the XEGS keyboard in any way, but simply allows the connection points where those wires go to be used for two of the console switch connections. They are a second set of redundant +5V and GND wires. And just so you know, this keyboard will still work perfectly alright on a stock XEGS after the modification.

 

- Michael

 

 

EDIT: If you check out that photo you'll see something rather interesting in the upper right corner. Yes that's right you're seeing where the console switches were originally planned to go, but in the end never did, which is unfortunate.

Very interesting. There is a XEGS keyboard in German Ebay, I like to get. If I got that, I will look at this extra buttons.

Definitely a explanation to the wife for buying a 3D printer

I would prefer to do a piggyback board like the Transkey one. That I think will be the route I will be going.