Where to start with an SGI 9500801?

mhw

21 Apr 2015, 17:02

Hi there; I've got an old SGI 9500801 keyboard (along with the Indigo it works with) and I'm investigating my options for bringing it back into use as the keyboard for my (Linux) desktop machine. I know it's the one with the proprietary interface: my current thinking is to interface it to a Pro Micro ATmega32U4 board and write some code to convert its signals into USB. I'm kind of surprised that no-one seems to have done something similar before though, so I'm looking for some advice before I start:
  • I've seen that old SGI keyboards are in demand to some extent: do people buy them to interface to new systems, or to strip for parts?
  • This keyboard seems to be a plain serial device: has anyone looked at connecting it's output to an ATmega23U4 and interpreting what it sends?
Cheers,

-Mark.

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scottc

21 Apr 2015, 17:06

I don't know of anyone having written a protocol converter before. Muirium was interested in the same. My perosnal preference would be to keep it attached to the Indigo 2!

You might have some luck buying a cheap Dell AT101 keyboard, disassembling both and swapping the PCB from the Dell into the SGI keyboard. The case and keycaps will be compatible, and the keyswitches will be too if you're willing to desolder them all.

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sphinx
Major Bummer

21 Apr 2015, 17:31

I'm trying to do pretty much the same thing with a nixdorf softkeys.. link

I sent an email to wincor-nixdorf in portugal to see if they could get me the specs for the keyboard interface and i'm waiting for them to reply..

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jou

21 Apr 2015, 17:37

I considered getting a non-PS2 granite and looked into what protocol it speaks and found that the protocol is described in the IRIX man pages: http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... keyboard.z

mhw

21 Apr 2015, 17:40

Hmm; well I think I'm a bit further along with the documentation: there's a pretty good IRIX manual page that describes the protocol. I'm hoping to be able to interpret the protocol because I'd like to be able to use the keyboard with the Indigo as well if necessary. At the moment I'm wondering if it'll be happy running on a 5V power supply instead of an 8V one.

-Mark.

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XMIT
[ XMIT ]

21 Apr 2015, 18:13

It sounds like you have all the information you need. Note that the man page says both +8V and -8V. Bleck. Maybe a tiny boost converter can go from 5V up to 8V. As for the protocol conversion I would look into writing a patch for TMK which already does a bunch of protocol conversion. Or harvest the internals of the keyboard. Good luck!

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