Getting Tipro KM032E up and running

Frank308 · 19 Mar 2013, 02:17

I just picked up a SHS-KM032E-001 on ebay for what seemed like a good deal. I ordered up a PS2 double male cable at the same time and they both just arrived. The cable connector on the unit is 5 pin so I have broken the plastic piece out of the cable and bent one of the pins down so that it inserts into the keyboard. When I hook it up to my laptop with an adapter the adapter is recognized but the keys don't put out any characters. The same happened when I hooked it up to my desktop with the native PS2 (though it is a dell which I have heard can be special). I just opened the unit and it was warm and smelled warm. On the main board there are two places for the cable coming from the PS2 style adapter to connect, but switching it didn't seem to help. Am I missing some piece to get this up and running or did I just pick up some keycaps and nothing else

Thanks

kbdfr · 19 Mar 2013, 06:40

I am happy to return to you the same warm greetings extended to us in your first Deskthority post

If this is the keyboard you mean, then it is an extension unit. The only way to use it is to connect it to a master unit, in this case it will probably be this one.

Extension units are not meant to connect directly to the computer.
"Normal" extension units are connected to master units using the "Tipro bus" connector. On either side of Tipro PCBs there is a small square red socket. The short flat cable (provided with each unit) is used to internally connect 2 units, which are physically joined together via a plastic joiner.
Yours is an "external" extension unit, which means it can be connected to the master keyboard even without both units being physically joined together. In this case the master unit must be equipped with a special socket and a (probably special) cable is used to connect both keyboards.

Could you post a pic of the PCB?

Frank308 · 20 Mar 2013, 22:58

Here it is. Any thoughts on the cheapest way to get it up and running?

kbdfr · 21 Mar 2013, 12:59

Frank308 wrote:[…] Any thoughts on the cheapest way to get it up and running?

Absolutely no way.

The two red sockets are only for communication between Tipro units, and at least one of the units connected together must connect to the computer via a controller which not only is not present in your unit, but couldn't even be fitted because it requires a dedicated socket (identical to those in your unit but placed at the centre of the PCB, just above the small yellow thing - you can see the traces for it, but no socket there).

So I'm sorry, but what you have is sort of a trailer where the car is missing. It just won't work on its own.

Icarium · 21 Mar 2013, 14:11

The cheapest (monetary) way is to wire all the switches to a Teensy. But it is a days worth of work even when you know your way around the tools.

Frank308 · 22 Mar 2013, 00:04

Ohh well. On the plus side I have a nice short keycap to replace my F1 key (gotta do it for real excel work). What would yall recommend for my original goal of having about 30 keys to hold code snippets probably a good 100 keystrokes each. I would prefer to have the keystrokes held in the unit so that I could hop computer to computer and not have to worry about installing programs. I have heard that Cherry makes a programmable keypad but it seems hard to tell which ones are fully programmable rather than just the top four keys. Thanks

Icarium · 22 Mar 2013, 10:05

I Tipro can still work you just need one with a controller.

You could try buying a random other one and putting that controller in your small one....

kbdfr · 22 Mar 2013, 10:23

Icarium wrote:I Tipro can still work you just need one with a controller.
You could try buying a random other one and putting that controller in your small one....

Not applicable for two reasons:
- as already said, this unit has no socket where to connect a controller
- controllers from other units are too big for those small units.

There could be another option, though.
Frank308, I'll PM you later on.

CeeSA · 22 Mar 2013, 11:04

@Frank308 - if you would like to sell it, pls shoot me a pm, thx

kbdfr · 22 Mar 2013, 11:12

CeeSA wrote:@Frank308 - if you would like to sell it, pls shoot me a pm, thx

I was thinking around the same line - plus seller has more of them, but does not ship outside the US (and eBay even denies any communication with him from Europe). So perhaps we coud make a sort of group buy with the help of Frank308.

And besides, I have a fully functional programmable 4*8 unit he could be interested in