If the
keyboard is a seperate unit and internally encoded (that is, it
sends character codes or keycodes on a parallel or serial interface) it
may not be too hard to make another machine pretend to be that keyboard.
If it's just a matrix of switches, it mau be a little harder if you need
to be able to press several keys at once.
Microcontroler and a crosspoint switch IC such as the MT8816, is what I
Sure. That's why I said 'a little harder' not 'difficult' :-)
If you don't need multiple keypresses at once (and sane machines put the
shift and control keys outside the matrix...) you can use a couple of TTL
parts (a mux to select one of the scan lines and a decoder to
drive the input lines. That's how I kludged up a keyboard for the HP9915,
those TTL parts being in my junk box while crosspoint switches aren;t :-)
-tony