ADDS PC+ conversion

herfalerf

09 Feb 2022, 07:26

I recently went to vintage hardware event in search of old and interesting keyboards and managed to find an ADDS PC+ with linear space invaders along with a bunch of other things including 2 working, but rough NEC blue oval boards. I am very new to the vintage keyboard hobby, but I would like to try and convert this ADDS board. The deskthority wiki article on the adds pc+ wiki/ADDS_PC%2B claims that it speaks AT using an rj11 connector, but from what I can tell AT uses a 5 pin or 6 pin(ps2) connector with 1 or 2 pins being dummies. the pinout on the pcb for the adds pc+ reads (from top to bottom) +5v, GND, CLK, CHS GND, DATA, RESET. Using this diagram as a reference, https://helloacm.com/wp-content/uploads ... nector.jpg could i really just ignore the chs gnd and wire the other 5 pints into something like a soarers converter? Is there an easier way? Any help would be appreciated.

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Muirium
µ

09 Feb 2022, 09:43

Ignore everything but these 4:
  • GND
  • VCC aka +5v (these two are power pins)
  • CLOCK
  • DATA (these two are the protocol)
If the wiki is right and it speaks AT, this is all you need. The others are unused.

You should also have a good look at Soarer’s documentation, included in his zip file. (I also copied it for easy browsing in my post over here.)

herfalerf

09 Feb 2022, 16:04

Alright cool, I will browse the soarers documentation is make a plan for how I want to approach this.

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TheInverseKey

09 Feb 2022, 17:09

I have numerous of these boards so if you have any questions please reach out.

I also have additional information as the DT wiki is no longer my place for posting information about NMB keyboards.

https://sites.google.com/view/vintkeys- ... DS_PC_PLUS

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Muirium
µ

09 Feb 2022, 17:14

I like the oldschool look of your site. It’s a bit of an island universe though. Pics of space invader switches but no mention of NMB (or what the different colours mean) on the page? Needs moar wiki!

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TheInverseKey

09 Feb 2022, 17:20

Muirium wrote:
09 Feb 2022, 17:14
I like the oldschool look of your site. It’s a bit of an island universe though. Pics of space invader switches but no mention of NMB (or what the different colours mean) on the page? Needs moar wiki!
Ahh, that is under a different section of the site: https://sites.google.com/view/vintkeys- ... B/Switches

I might add that to each page then, thanks for the idea. This is still very much a work in progress.

herfalerf

11 Feb 2022, 17:33

TheInverseKey wrote:
09 Feb 2022, 17:09
I have numerous of these boards so if you have any questions please reach out.

I also have additional information as the DT wiki is no longer my place for posting information about NMB keyboards.

https://sites.google.com/view/vintkeys- ... DS_PC_PLUS
I appreciate that, we actually have talked briefly on discord already :D

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