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Baby's first retro board, need help converting protocols.

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 00:19
by gondolasparde
First, I'd like to say hello to the DT forum. This is my first post on here after years of using Reddit, and I'd like to apologize if I'm breaking any rules by posting this here rather than a "stupid questions thread" or something similar.

I recently bought a BTC-5100C from eBay on the recommendation of Chyrosran22 on Youtube. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I decided to figure out just how the hell I'd connect this to my PC. It has a 6 pin DIN connector (shown below) and despite my efforts, I can't for the life of me figure out which pin is which.

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I'm going to try to use Soarer's Converter to convert it to USB, but the guides in the documentation only show 5 pin DIN, while mine comes with 6. (I'm OK at soldering, not so much at electrical engineering.)

If anyone could help me either by telling me which pin corresponds to which, or giving me some sort of methodology to determine them, that would be much appreciated. I've seen a guide that states you can use a multimeter to tell the purpose of each pin, but it was very poorly explained.

Thank you very much for your time DT.

Edit: upon further research, it appears to be the DIN-45322 standard.

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 00:52
by ag36
Could you provide a photo of the connector at the pcb side?

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 00:55
by xxhellfirexx
Soarer's adapter does have a 6 pin din version.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=64670.0

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 00:58
by ag36

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 01:14
by gondolasparde
xxhellfirexx wrote: Soarer's adapter does have a 6 pin din version.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=64670.0
Thanks! I wasn't able to find this anywhere for some reason, probably because I'm shit at google. I appreciate the quick reply!

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 01:40
by gondolasparde
ag36 wrote: Could you provide a photo of the connector at the pcb side?
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It has the daughterboard, which I believe means I can desolder that and put on a PS/2 connector.

Edit: even though I've read through the thread at least 5 times, I am still lost as to how I can replace the DIN with a PS/2. Do I cut the cable near the end, almost to where the DIN connector is, and then solder the PS/2 connector in accordance with the PS/2 diagram that robbles provided? Do I need to remove the daughterboard first? Here's what I'm thinking the process is, but please let me know if I'm in the wrong here.

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Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 02:32
by ag36
Does the daughterboard has all 6 pins connected?

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 02:40
by orihalcon
Your best bet would be to look at someone else's BTC board that has a PS/2 plug or AT plug on it and wire yours to match I think.

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 03:19
by gondolasparde
ag36 wrote: Does the daughterboard has all 6 pins connected?
Mine appears to only have 4 pins (red, yellow, white, green) with what looks like a black grounding cable connected to the "foil" part of the PCB. I'm not entirely certain, if those are the other 2 pins.

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 03:54
by gondolasparde
orihalcon wrote: Your best bet would be to look at someone else's BTC board that has a PS/2 plug or AT plug on it and wire yours to match I think.
Do you think that your converter could work with this or is it only with the IBM keyboard advertised on the eBay listing?

Posted: 04 Aug 2018, 05:11
by gondolasparde
Looking at the thread again, it's obvious to me now what I'm supposed to do, which is scary considering that if something is suddenly obvious to me that means either I'm an idiot for not getting it previously or I'm an idiot for thinking I've got it now.

From what I can tell, the process shouldn't be all that complicated, I just need to cut off the 6 pin DIN connector near the end, and attach a male PS/2 keyboard connector. From there, I desolder the daughterboard and attach the connector with the data pins to the mainboard, but upside down. Easy peasy. I've included another diagram so that hopefully someone can either verify that this will work or tell my why I'm wrong.

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