19 Aug
2008
19 Aug
'08
7:04 p.m.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 07:48:24PM -0600, Michael B. Brutman wrote:
IBM LPFK 6094-020 victims ..
Yes?!?
It's been a year, but I finally found what I was
looking for. Which is
good because I was about to go mideval on an AIX 4.3 box to get the data
that I needed. ;-) Somebody deep inside the Blue Wall had the docs on a
CD-ROM.
Nicely done!
Here is the quick summary:
Protocol: 9600,O,8,1 with no handshaking...
.
.
.
All of this is also written up at
http://brutman.com/IBM_LPFK/IBM_LPFK.html for the good of the greater
public.
Thanks for the writeup. I look forward to trying this out on my LPFKs
when I get home.
The protocol you describe is radically different from the one that
codeninja describes at http://codeninja.de/lpfk/ My first guess
is that there are two versions of the firmware running around, but is
there any way to confirm that? Minor variations in IBM part numbers or
what the keyboards were intended to attach to?
In terms of usage, were there overlay cards for different applications, or
how did you tell what keys meant what? Were the LEDs used in practice
to light up to confirm keypress, or were they used to indicate which
functions were enabled, or what?
I've used dialboxes with graphic workstations in the past, but I've never
worked with a keypad like this. I'm just trying to get a handle on how
it was used. I have my own ideas about what to use one for (LCDproc, an
open source project I work on, for example), but I'm just curious why
this keypad has the features it does and how it was originally used.
Thanks!
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 20-Aug-2008 at 01:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -92.7 F (-69.3 C) Windchill -135.4 F (-93.0 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 11.2 kts Grid 78 Barometer 666.8 mb (11130 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html