VT131 needs keyboard help - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

28 Jan 2002

...
  -----Original Message-----
 From: Ethan Dicks [mailto:erd_6502@yahoo.com] 
...
  Keyboard error.  It's _possible_ the keyboard
error is in the VT131,
 but not as likely as in the keyboard.  If you have a VT100 or VT101, 
That was my thought...

...
  VT105, etc., you could test that keyboard in another
terminal; but if
 you just have the VT131 as your sole example of DEC keyboards, that's
 a bit of a problem. 
This is actually the only one I've ever met.  I have seen pictures and 
layout diagrams, though, and it _looks_ (IE the keys are the same) like 
a VT100 keyboard.  On the other hand, that other terminal _looked_ (The 
case, etc, was nearly identical) like a VT100...

...
  If the label hasn't fallen off, ISTR that there
was a paper sticker
 with the Digital logo and some numbers on the bottom. 
Fallen off, or not there in the first place. :/

...
  It's possible, if you can't find a vendor
description anywhere, that
 you picked up a keyboard for another terminal.  Lots of folks 
 used 1/4"
 jacks for keyboards in those days, even Apple (on the Lisa). 
Yes, but again, it's not the jack that makes it look the same -- it 
really does look like (at least a carbon copy of) a VT100 keyboard.  See 
my comment above about the other terminal, though.  It certainly isn't a 
Lisa keyboard.  I have both the working machine, and a not-so-working 
machine, each with the keyboard.  Anyway, the apple markings would give 
it away...

...
  If it's a DEC keyboard, it should be compatible. 
I am not aware of
 any major changes in keyboards, save VT100 vs LK201 and the like
 (different protocol, I presume; different appearance, 
 different connector,
 etc.) 
Yep. :)  That's what I thought, anyway...  So I'm assuming for now the 
keyboard is bad, or incompatible.  Perhaps I could modify it either way,
given the schematics for the keyboard...

...
  > Failing a way to positively identify the
keyboard, are there any
 > common modes of failure along these lines?   
...
  Dead chip in the keyboard, usually.  We never fixed
them when I used
 VT100s on a daily basis.  We threw them into a box in the 
 back room and
 grabbed a different (working) one from stock.  The fact that we were
 shrinking on an annual basis meant that we never had to buy a terminal
 again after we hit our peak in 1984. 
Do you know anything about the type/location on the board of this chip?

...
  Off of a good terminal?  I presume that you could find
a VT100 from a
 3rd party vendor.  Don't know what they sell for these days. 
Hmm.. VT100 keyboard schematics, anyone? :)  I'd really like to make this
into a console for my PDP-11.

Regards,

Chris

Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL

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