Hi Dave, (01)
Well, a lot has happened in the last several months! For starters, you
were exactly right. The keyset is indeed DC, wires and switches, with 1
common ground wire and the other 5 wires are one for each switch. (02)
It turns out that although all the keysets are built essentially the
same way, there are at least three different wiring schemes that were
used over time. With some help from an engineer friend of mine, we have
pinned out the wiring for all three types. (Actually, a fourth type also
exists, which is the keyset used for the Xerox Alto but that keyset was
never used with NLS as far as I know.) (03)
http://blueoxen.net/c/hyperscope/wiki.pl?KeysetPinouts (04)
We've built some hand-crafted cables (different cables for each type of
keyset) which converts each of the different wiring schemes into a
standard analog joystick pinout, so it can be plugged into a modern PC
analog gameport. With the help of a joystick-USB adapter bought from
Radio Shack, that allows us to plug in the keyset into the USB port, so
it will work even with a laptop (which doesn't have a gameport). Quite
nifty! (05)
Some coding work produced a Java-based AugTerm that supports TCP/IP
connections to the Augment system on Doug's machine, and it also
supports the chord keyset, so we're now able to use the Java AugTerm
with a chord keyset on a laptop (running either Linux or Windows). (06)
The Java AugTerm is still not as fully-featured as the DOS AugTerm, but
it's a good start. The Augment 1200 line protocol (VAT0) is only partly
supported at the moment. (07)
Jonathan (08)
J D Hopper wrote:
> Sure, I remember. But you're not going to like it.
>
> Unless it's a keyset I haven't seen before, it's strictly a dc
> device..no encoding of any kind, no serial interface in it, just
> wires and switches.
>
> The keyset plugged into the lineprocessor and was sampled. You
> can probably figure out all there is to know with an ohmmeter.
> I think it worked at TTL level, but that's immaterial. There's
> probably one common pin and 5 pins going to the 5 switches
> (normally open).
>
> I didn't work on a keyset for a PC. I vaguely remember
> something about someone doing it, but I can't help you beyond
> that.
>
> Dave (09)
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