[Coco] Coco 2 Keyboards...

[Stephen H. Fischer]

It would be very interesting to see if: 

> Fire up Colorful SLED and while holding down CTRL press and hold the "@" key. 

Enters the Macro Processor. 

That was the only command left that I could use. 

As I said, the (00) is only generated when the CTRL "@" is held down and not released quickly and then a string of (00) is generated until the "@" key is released.

I am not trying to break your product, just trying to say that the OS-9 keyboard routine needed a complete rewrite which never did happen and will never happen.

Some people wish bad things to frozen in concrete, I am not one.

If I would dig up the research I did ~ three decades ago it could be shown that the insanity of the OS-9 keyboard was, well, insane. If you repeated that insanity, no need to continue this discussion. 

That document I expect would show differences with testing for sure, but then I am thinking back 25 - 30 years. 

As Colorful SLED had grown to such a size that I could not save or load macros without increasing the size by another 8K, it is of little value. So the (00) command may never be used and thus no need for your fine product to generate it.

I have nether a working CoCo 3 to turn on (PC computer fried the last 3.5" drive I had) or a PS/2 keyboard.

I have two keyboards that had programmable keys, but both were killed by a later WinTel change to the keyboard. I do not know what required this physical destruction of old keyboards but I found out too late. Second one died within minutes.

SHF

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Marlette" <mmarlette at frontiernet.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2015 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Coco 2 Keyboards...


> The Cloud-9 PS/2 keyboard emulates the keyboard via a hardware matrix and a microcontroller. So if the CoCo can produce the key sequence, so can the PS/2 interface.
> Regards,
> Mark Marlettehttp://www.cloud9tech.com
> mark at cloud9tech.com
> 
>      From: Stephen H. Fischer <SFischer1 at Mindspring.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com> 
> Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2015 11:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Coco 2 Keyboards...
>   
> Back before the first CoCo there was FLEX09 running on a SYM-1. 
> 
> I needed a keyboard so I opened National's databook and found the: 
> 
> "The MM57499 serial keyboard- encoder integrated circuit, which scans a 12 by 8 matrix and produces the appropriate ASCII code for each key", found a keyboard that had the keys supported from above and a unattached (Except by the pins from the keys) PC Board. 
> 
> So I unsoldered all the keys from the PC board and scraped all the traces off and then wired the keys into the matrix required by the MM57499.
> 
> It worked great after I wrote the Key Bounce eliminator code for the key presses the SY6551 saw.
> ---------------------
> Two points, 
> 
> 1) Before building a keyboard from scratch, see if you can find one with the keys supported from above like I did.
> 
> 2) We really missed the boat in not writing a more reasonable keyboard approach when NitrOS-9 was started. When I needed more command keys for Colorful SLED I wrote a utility that displayed what OS-9 programs saw when keys were pressed. Many ASCII codes were generated by several key combinations, some ASCII codes could not be generated at all and one only produced a code (00) when held down and then produced the (00) code at a fast rate until it was released.
> ---------------------
> And a third point, From the Cloud9 new opening page:
> 
> "provides all keys that the Color Computer expects in both BASIC and NitrOS-9"
> 
> In writing "Colorful Sled" I wanted all 256 ASCII codes and was dismayed that so many were missing.
> 
> Do you know that OS-9 will display many more characters than are normally used on the graphics screens? (CoCo 3) 
> 
> Fire up Colorful SLED and while holding down CTRL press and hold the "@" key.
> 
> Then press "Q" <cr> and then the key codes will be displayed.
> 
> A high resolution graphics screen is needed but holding the ALT key down and pressing the "A" key produces a character not normally seen, "B" and up to "Z". (It has been twenty file (25) years so I may not be precisely correct.)
> 
> I have a hard copy of what is "normal", "shifted", "ctrl" and "alt" combinations produced.
> 
> The OS-9 manual has the alt characters but the keys used I had to paste those onto what was shown.
> 
> SHF
> 
> (Sorry, too many memories about the poor OS-9 keyboard routine.)
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Zippster" <zippster278 at gmail.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2015 5:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Coco 2 Keyboards...
> 
> 
>> Making some keyboards with cherry switches would be somewhat expensive, but
>> I think I’d do it if I could get proper keycaps for a decent price.
>> The keyswitches are expensive enough you’d want good keycaps with the correct
>> key symbol, and custom keycaps are expensive enough to kind of kill the idea.
>> 
>> I suppose someone could possibly 3d print keycap adapters to use original caps.
>> 
>> That might be doable.
>> 
>> - Ed
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 23, 2015, at 4:55 PM, Al Hartman <alhartman6 at optonline.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Oak appears to be out of the business. To get a company to make the mylar matrices, you'd have to order quite a few.
>>> 
>>> I think it would be easier to lay out a PCB, and solder in individual Cherry key stations. But, that's pretty expensive.
>>> 
>>> Unless we can find something surplus to adapt, a Cloud-9 PS/2 adapter is the only game in town right now.
>>> 
>>> -[ Al ]-
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message----- From: Josh Harper via Coco
>>> 
>>> wonder if there is a company that can remake the mylar id buy several
>>> I have a hjl keyboard that when u press ? you get \\ ?