Keyboards - Links

The following link list was found at http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/html/serialportdocs.html#keyboard.

• Craig Peacock http://www.beyondlogic.org/keyboard/keybrd.htm has lots of information on the wires in the plug, the keyboard scan codes. Includes a simple circuit and software for a 68HC705. You plug any standard keyboard into this 68HC705, and it translates the scan codes to normal ASCII and transmits it on a RS-232 output. It catches CTRL-ALT-Delete and pulls down an output line (designed to be hooked to another CPU reset line). It also has some digital inputs that cause it to transmit commands to the keyboard to turn on numlock and other LEDs. [FIXME: mirror this information ? ]
• Fils's PC Keyboard FAQ http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/LINK/PORTS/F_Keyboard_FAQ.html | mirror (V1.00) http://www.arne.si/~mauricio/Kbdfaq.htm has detailed information on the serial protocol, scancodes, commands the computer sends *to* the keyboard, etc.
• Connecting A PC Keyboard To The I2C-Bus http://www-us.semiconductors.philips.com/acrobat/applicationnotes/AN434.pdf
• PC Keyboard Encoders http://www.vetra.com/Encoder2.htm chips and boards that plug into your PC's keyboard port and then you plug a bunch of contact switches into them.
• John Voth http://nyquist.ee.ualberta.ca/~jdv/ has a picture of a 8042 Keyboard Controller Schematic.
• http://www.it.kth.se/~pme/sunkbd.html hardware design with 68HC11
• Interfacing the PC http://www.senet.com.au/~cpeacock/ Lots of useful interface tips. Points to Interfacing the PC's Keyboard http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/8302/keybrd.htm which has all the information you need to interface your device to a standard PC's keyboard plug, or to interface a standard PC keyboard to your device. It has a in-depth example of how to interface a standard PC keyboard to a 68HC705J1A single chip microcontroller.
• http://www.usar.com/ supposedly has some nice chips designed to be embedded in a PC keyboard (presumably one could use them to interface all kinds of things to plug into a PC's keyboard plug).