Is the Sun 2 Keyboard a serial keyboard?
Depends on what you mean by "Sun 2 Keyboard". There's a keyboard with
mushy feel and a case which is a largeish wedge, kind of like a type-3
only with the front brought further out and made of metal instead of
plastic.
I'd call it a type 2. It's been a while, but as I recall, they had a
coiled cable with an RJ-style plug on the host end, which plugged into
a small adapter which plugged into a DA-15 on the host. (The mouse
also plugged into this adapter.) However, it's possible that I'm
remembering using them with Sun-3 CPUs; our Sun-2s were CPU-board-swap
upgraded to Sun-3s fairly early in our use of them. This is relevant
because it could be that on the Sun-2s the keyboard and mouse cables
plugged directly into something, with the adapters existing only to
connect them to the DA15s the Sun-3s use.
I think that adapter was completely passive, being just connectors and
wiring. If so, those keyboards must have been serial, because the
Sun-3 keyboard interface is. (With suitable voltage-level shifters,
and an external +5V supply, you can use such keyboards on a
bog-standard serial port; I have a type-3 in live use that way now.)
Of course, this is all predicated on your "Sun 2 Keyboard" being what I
think of as a type-2....
If not, any ideas on where to get a serial keyboard.
Sun keyboards up through the type-5 and thereabouts - pretty much,
anything that can be used with Suns from the Sun-3 days up to the end
of the SBus era - are all serial, though that's not to say they're
compatible enough to Just Work for you; they may speak the wrong
protocol, or may need various glue, either passive adapters or
something more elaborate....
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