Alto II keyset connector plug identification

[Wayne S]

This place has the 2de19p connectors in their catalog.

Kinda pricey though.

https://www.onlinecomponents.com/keywordsearch.aspx?text=2de19p&pagenum=2

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 19, 2020, at 17:48, Ian Finder via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

It's actually an ITT CANON ***2DE19P***, not a DE19 as Marc indicates.

On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 1:48 AM Curious Marc via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

We had the same problem. It’s a DE-19 connector, fits in the same envelope
has a DB-9, but 3 rows instead of 2. You can see in this video right around
here: https://youtu.be/GMp5EAq-Elo?t=541  . ITT-canon used to make these.
You can look them up on eBay, which is where we found ours. Make sure you
don’t get a two row DB-19, which is a completely different animal.
Marc

On Aug 18, 2020, at 8:15 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

Would anyone be able to identify the 19 pin connector used on the Alto
II keyset?
Shown in the second photo on
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X124.82C

The Xerox engineering doc (209962B_Alto_II_Assembly_Keyset.pdf) has it
as P/N DE51218-1 if I interpret it correctly.

I've looked for a while and the closest I can find appears to be Mouser
p/n 2DEF19P
The cost of 136 USD (each!) is more than I (and perhaps everyone else)
would really like to pay, and that's only for
the male end.

Ideally I would like a datasheet on this original connector if possible,
to know the pin-pin spacing and the pressed metal
surround dimensions.

I've just ordered small trial quantities of screws, microswitches,
e-clips, nutserts, rods and so on for my keyset
lookalikes/workalikes. Also about to start the key mapping to F5-F9
using a popular small SOC board, which is small enough
to be inside a custom printed shell that the keyset plugs into.
That is, the 3-row 19-pin female connector side which goes through to
USB.

I was thinking there's no reason it shouldn't be able to work using the
original connector with a real keyset-less Alto,
should any such animal be lurking out there. Hence looking at the
feasibility of placing in a 19 pin male-female
connector arrangement rather than the fallback of straight-through to
USB.

The whole thing is still at prototype stage so even if it doesn't work
out, well I will at least have a bunch of additions
to my nuts/bolts/fasteners/switches stash.

Thanks for any help,

Steve.