Syntauri keyboard question

Toinet

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Nov 2, 2009, 1:20:30 PM11/2/09

to

Hello There,

A Parisian eBay "colleague" is selling a Syntauri keyboard with no
warranty nor disk nor expansion card and I am interested in buying it.

I know, it is like having a car with no engine (or replace with a more
adequate image) but I was wondering whether having a such a card is:
- difficult to find and buy (because it is rare ;-)
- difficult to copy (because of specific ICs)
- easy to clone (thanks to Carte Blanche)

Thank you for your answers,

antoine

Michael J. Mahon

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Nov 3, 2009, 3:02:41 PM11/3/09

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It's not a particularly complex card (I don't have one, but I've seen
one), since it is basically a multiplexer keyboard scanner.

There are a couple of models of the keyboard--one velocity-sensing and
one not. The timing requirements for scanning the velocity-sensing
one are pretty tight, since time from "break upper contact" to "make
lower contact" is in the millisecond range, and is used to determine
velocity.

I'm sure someone has good scans of the card.

-michael

NadaNet 3.0 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

Toinet

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Nov 12, 2009, 5:56:02 PM11/12/09

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Thank you, Michael,

I am now the proud owner of an Alpha Syntauri keyboard (s/n A003356)
with one pedal and no interface card. See http://www.brutal-deluxe/public/
in the Alpha Syntauri folder - Disk images collected from
garberstreet.com.

How do I determine the kind of keyboard I have? Just uncover it?

Antoine

Garberstreet Electronics

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Nov 12, 2009, 6:06:03 PM11/12/09

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"Toinet" <antoine...@laposte.net> wrote in message
news:969442a7-ba80-4333...@e23g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...

You forgot the '.fr', so I fix it for you. :-)

http://www.brutal-deluxe.fr/public/

Bill Garber of Garberstreet Electronics
http://www.garberstreet.com

Michael J. Mahon

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Nov 16, 2009, 2:35:46 PM11/16/09

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Toinet wrote:
> On 3 nov, 21:02, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>>Toinet wrote:
>>
>>>Hello There,
>>
>>>A Parisian eBay "colleague" is selling a Syntauri keyboard with no
>>>warranty nor disk nor expansion card and I am interested in buying it.
>>
>>>I know, it is like having a car with no engine (or replace with a more
>>>adequate image) but I was wondering whether having a such a card is:
>>>- difficult to find and buy (because it is rare ;-)
>>>- difficult to copy (because of specific ICs)
>>>- easy to clone (thanks to Carte Blanche)
>>
>>It's not a particularly complex card (I don't have one, but I've seen
>>one), since it is basically a multiplexer keyboard scanner.
>>
>>There are a couple of models of the keyboard--one velocity-sensing and
>>one not. The timing requirements for scanning the velocity-sensing
>>one are pretty tight, since time from "break upper contact" to "make
>>lower contact" is in the millisecond range, and is used to determine
>>velocity.
>>
>>I'm sure someone has good scans of the card.
>>
>>-michael
>
>

> Thank you, Michael,
>
> I am now the proud owner of an Alpha Syntauri keyboard (s/n A003356)
> with one pedal and no interface card. See http://www.brutal-deluxe/public/
> in the Alpha Syntauri folder - Disk images collected from
> garberstreet.com.
>
> How do I determine the kind of keyboard I have? Just uncover it?

I got myself connected with suitable bandwidth and looked at
your photos. You have a velocity-sensing keyboard.

Note the two "rails" that each keyswitch wire passes between.
The velocity is sensed as the time difference between the "break"
on the normally closed rail and the "make" on the normally open
rail.

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon