Phil, (01)
Randall gave me a quick tour last night, and we counted the chord
keysets that the CHM has. (02)
There appear to be a total of 5 keysets:
* 4 Xerox Alto keysets (3 shown in the museum and 1 back in the
archival area)
* 1 hand-crafted keyset patterned after the Alto (donated by an
individual)
* Surprisingly, there are no SRI vintage keysets (03)
We were not able to look at the cable ending for all of the keysets, but
it seems likely that they will all have the same ending since they are
all Alto keysets. We did look at the ending of one of them, and I think
it is a 20 pin female connector: (04)
X O O O O O O
O X X X X X
O O O O O O O (05)
The O represent normal open holes for the female connector, and the X
represents areas where the holes are filled in. (06)
It is definitely a completely different connector than any of the 3
keysets that we have seen from the SRI vintage keysets.
http://blueoxen.net/c/hyperscope/wiki.pl?KeysetPinouts (07)
None of our adapters will work with those keysets, and we would need to
investigate more carefully to get the exact pinout for these keysets. (08)
I did a quick search on the Net but was unable to locate any images or
pinout information for Alto keysets. Unfortunately, the photos that are
entered in the CHM catalog are not closeups of the keyset connector and
are not high enough resolution to see any details. (09)
I didn't have my notebook with me when Randall took me around, so I had
to write this up from memory. Perhaps we can do a more detailed
investigation next time to make sure that my connector diagram above is
correct. (010)
Jonathan (011)
Philip Gust wrote:
> Allison,
>
> Testing them is definitely non-destructive. We plug the connector
> on the keyset into the matching 15 pin connector of either the "A" or
> "B" cable, then plug the cable into the laptop USB using a commercial
> game port adapter. Then we run an application that reads the keyset
> as though it was a joystick as we press the keys. If the "A" cable
> doesn't work, it causes no harm to the keyset. We simply try the
> same thing with the "B" cable.
>
> The benefit to the museum is that you will have valuable information
> about the keysets in your collection, as they relate to the keysets
> on loan to us from Doug Engelbart. For any SRI vintage keysets, you
> will know the exact pinout configuration for that keyset, and how to
> connect it to a standard computer. The schematics for both "A" and
> "B" pin configurations are on the NLS Restoration project WIKI. We
> don't expect to see a third type at this point, but you never know.
>
> For any Xerox vintage keysets, you will know whether they are the
> same or different from the ones from SRI, as far as their interfaces
> are concerned. The Xerox keysets were built by people who left SRI,
> so I would expect them to be the same, but again you never know. If
> the Xerox keysets are neither "A" nor "B", then determining the
> pinout information would help relate the SRI and Xerox models.A
> qualified electrical engineer from Sun did the work of determining
> the pinouts for us, and he is now very familiar with the issue of
> working with vintage keysets.
>
> As a starting point, it would be good to create an inventory of all
> SRI and Xerox vintge keysets in the collection. Is that something
> that is possible to do on-line, or does it require going to the shelves?
>
> Thanks for your quick response, and I apologize for seemingly trying
> to rush things. I understand your concern and appreciate your
> willingness to consider our request. (012)
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