29 Apr
2020
29 Apr
'20
5:51 p.m.
Title says it.
It saddens me that in this day and age I have to call this out but:
? This is for use with an actual real PERQ 1, not a Raspberry Pi running an emulator, nor
something I?m looking for because I like to collect only the steering wheels off vintage
Porsches because they ?feel nice? or ?look cool? or will ?make me a better programmer.?
Actually perhaps a better analogy involves elephants and ivory... but I?m now off topic.
Anyway- cruelty free, no-poach, free-range use intended.
Thanks in advance for any leads or on-topic discussion of the keyboard protocol to tide me
over in the meantime...
With all the time on my hands from the shutdown it?d be great to make this system whole
and start down the long path toward restoration.
29 Apr
29 Apr
10:40 p.m.
Thanks in advance for any leads or on-topic discussion
of the keyboard protocol to tide me over in the meantime...
I'll see what I can find, I am sure I have some notes on it somewhere.
From what I remember, the keyboard interface is 8 bits
+ a strobe
line. Bottom 7 bits are essentially the ASCII code of the key, the MSB
is the Ctrl key (which does not affect the bottom 7 bits).
The reset button is also on the keyboard case (at the back of it) on a
PERQ 1, it just grounds a line on the connector.
There's also the DDS (diagnostic display). This is a 3 digit decimal
counter + 7 segment displays. Cleared to zero by the reset button,
incremented by a signal on the connector. The machine will run without
it, but it's very helpful to know what the microcode thinks is wrong
when the PERQ won't boot.
-tony
30 Apr
30 Apr
5:42 a.m.
On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 6:40 AM Tony Duell <ard.p850ug1 at gmail.com> wrote:
Digging around, I have found :
A hand-drawn schematic that I reverse-engineered of the keyboard PCB instelf
A .tar.gz file of PERQ PROMs/PALs. Most relate to the PREQ2 machines
(there's even a dump of the AMUX24 PROM for the 24 bit T4 CPU board).
But the PERQ1 keyboard mapping PROM is there.
I couldn't find a diagram of the keyboard cable so I took my PERQ1
keyboard apart and traced it out.
I am happy to provide copies of the above to anyone who wants them.
You'd be welcome to distribute them further. As I have a limited data
quota each month, in fact I'd rather send them out once and let
somebody else pass them around.
I do not recommend trying to copy the original keyboard though. I
susepct the encoder IC is totally unobtainable now. Note that some
PERQ backplane ('MOM') diagrams have an error on the keyboard
connector pinout, the signal to increment the DDS (diagnostic display)
doesn't appear there. My cable diagram shows it though. The DDS
diagram should be on bitsavers.
-tony
Thanks in advance for any leads or on-topic
discussion of the keyboard protocol to tide me over in the meantime...
I'll see what I can find, I am sure I have some notes on it somewhere. 
2:44 a.m.
what does it look like?
On 4/30/2020 3:19 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 4/29/20 5:51 PM, null via cctalk wrote:
? This is for use with an actual real PERQ 1
I'm hoping CZ finds some spares.
I have a PERQ 1 w/o kb or monitor. I've been searching for replacements
for over two decades. You can see my requests back in the comp.sys.perq
archives.
8:11 a.m.
On 4/30/20 2:44 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
what does it look like?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ
8:15 a.m.
On 4/30/20 8:11 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 4/30/20 2:44 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
or http://www.vintagecomputerexpo.com/2014/09/a-perq-in-time-saves-1.html
or http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~pmaydell/PERQ/
what does it look like?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ
from the closeup, the keyboard was made by keytronic,
probably foam and foil keyswitches
2:55 p.m.
On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 2:53 PM Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 4/30/20 8:11 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
It is, I refoamed mine for VCFPNW last year. I can take internal pictures
if it'd help anyone out.
- Josh
On 4/30/20 2:44 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
or http://www.vintagecomputerexpo.com/2014/09/a-perq-in-time-saves-1.html
or http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~pmaydell/PERQ/
from the closeup, the keyboard was made by keytronic, probably foam and
foil keyswitches
what does it look like?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ
1 May
1 May
12:10 a.m.
On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 2:18 AM Al Kossow via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 4/30/20 2:55 PM, Josh Dersch wrote:
The PERQ 1 keyboard uses a semi-custom encoder IC labelled AY-3-4592.
I suspect there is a mask ROM inside that gives the key mapping and
that it was used in other keyboards as there's a PROM (74S477) between
the outputs of that encoder and the PERQ. I have a dump of that PROM,
it's in the archive of PROMs/PALs that I sent to somebody yesterday.
The PERQ 2 keyboard is a standard-ish Keytronics thing with a serial
output. That does have a ROMless microcontoller (8035?) in it, again
I've dumped the firmware ROM.
-tony
It is, I refoamed mine for VCFPNW last year. I
can take internal pictures if it'd help anyone out.
- Josh
can you dump the firmware? or was that already done for the PERQ emulator?
it should be some flavor of 8048
1466
days inactive
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participants (5)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
ard.p850ug1＠gmail.com -
cz＠alembic.crystel.com -
derschjo＠gmail.com -
ian.finder＠gmail.com