- CTM-case.jpg (338.94 KiB) Viewed 1464 times
- CTM-back.jpg (384.01 KiB) Viewed 1464 times
The switches are vintage Cherry MX blacks. In fact, it was manufactured by Cherry. The PCB is 601-1518 Rev. 01, again the same as the ITOS.
- CTM-top.jpg (924.44 KiB) Viewed 1464 times
- CTM-bottom.jpg (1.24 MiB) Viewed 1464 times
- Ground
- 5VDC
- an input to the driver and then to P23
- another input going through the driver twice and then to RESET
- an output coming from P24 through the driver
The 6801, one of the first of what we would now call a microcontroller, has, as one of its additional subsystems beyond the 6800 microprocessor, a Serial Communications Interface, that is, a bare-bones UART. And it's probably not a coincidence that appears as Rx on P23 and Tx on P24.
So, since there are only two data lines, it's going to be some kind of bit serial protocol. And since there's a good bet that the SCI is doing it, it's going to be standard serial, but with the normal NRZ inverted.
With just power applied, nothing shows up on the output line when keys are pressed. And the serial input line is pulled up high. It's probably expecting to be low (inverted NRZ idle high). Doing that yields a single 9600 baud byte.
Since it looks like it's going to be 9600 baud with inverted polarity, I got out the last of the Teensy 3.2s. (Fortunately, there are more on order from Adafruit, whose prices are even better than PRJC's own.) And, indeed, just enabling the serial port is enough to make the one byte show up.
- CTM-converter.jpg (412.18 KiB) Viewed 1464 times
The scan codes are assigned more or less in order, top-to-bottom, left-to-right.
But what about CTRL and SHIFT? Try as I might, I can't seem to get the scan code to change.
Finally, after figuring out how to turn on the LED under the top-right key and a few other status-like to-keyboard commands, I had the presence of mind to try the right SHIFT key instead of the left. And, indeed, that changes the code.
The key switches themselves are all working. A couple had dirty contacts, but these were "cleaned" using the tried-and-true method of banging on the key hard and fast a few hundred times.
But the PCB has issues. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some people reading along here already noticed that in the photo above, in the lower right around the Cherry sticker. It looks like somewhere along the line coffee or maybe cola was spilled into the keyboard and there's a patch where it's corroded through.
The traces are a little thin for a conductive pen, which seem to me not to be a very precise tool. So, instead, I added some old-school patches with 30 AWG wire-wrap wire. The fourth trace up was actually good enough to get continuity, but I did it anyway while I had all the tools out.
- CTM-repair.jpg (459.95 KiB) Viewed 1464 times
The exact details of the shift change are interesting:
- Keys are divided into three sections: the main typewriter keys, the space bar, and the rest (function keys).
- Within each section, codes are just assigned top-to-bottom, left-to-right.
- The overall order is function (1 - 53), space (54), main (55 - 103).
- Then come the shifted versions, but in the order main (104 - 152, shifting 55 - 103), space (153 shifting 54), function (154 - 206, shifting 1 - 53).
