deskthority

Hey all, I have this old Tandy keyboard and cannot for the life of me figure out of what kind of plug this is. All I want to do is be able to convert it to USB or PS/2. If anyone can help me out, that would be great.

Veggies wrote: Hey all, I have this old Tandy keyboard and cannot for the life of me figure out of what kind of plug this is. All I want to do is be able to convert it to USB or PS/2. If anyone can help me out, that would be great.

If you're looking for a socket to build a converter look for an 8 pin standard (not mini) DIN connector. Not common on keyboards; used by Tandy and a few Wyse terminals.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pcs-8-Pin-Di ... SwLj9Zei1q

If you're looking for a converter already built I believe it would have to be specific to the Tandy.

I could not find any info on a usable converter for this board so I ended up going the Teensy route to get mine working:

keyboards-f2/tandy-1000-keyboard-t17994.html


Does anyone know if a converter has been written?

I don't know of any, but if all else fails, you can tap into the matrix itself. Lots of projects out there if you go that route.

Yeah. Pretty sure you'll need to tap the matrix.

Have you tried posting on atariage.com ? I think someone there would know

On LGR on Youtube yesterday: Tandy 1000 PC + CM-11 Monitor! Unboxing & Setup, Clint said "I believe this is a proprietary Tandy connector that also worked on the TRS-80s".
I don't know if that is true, but it could be a lead.

If it does use the XT or AT protocol (PS/2 is the same as AT) then there should be four leads, plus maybe a shield.
You might be able to figure out from the circuit board layout which leads are +5V and GND. Then you would have 50% chance of getting the two data cables right.