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dn300 keyboard/disk

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tos...@gmail.com

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Aug 6, 2022, 2:52:32 PM8/6/22
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Looking back through some past messages, seems I'm not the only one (or only Chris!) to find myself with a dn300 sans keyboard/disk.

While I'm still looking for both (hit me up if you have any you could be persuaded to part with), I'm not an originalist - I just want to use the thing.

To that end, I'd love to find someone who:

1. Has a keyboard/disk who wouldn't mind disassembling and photographing things.
2. Has some deep, probably fading, knowledge/documentation about the signaling for the keyboard. Attempts at bit banging over an rj45 from an rpi have so far been unsuccessful.

Either way, I'd love to talk.

-chris

Jim Rees

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Aug 7, 2022, 5:30:23 PM8/7/22
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It's rs232 at 1200 bps. There is a keyboard connector pinout in the Apollo FAQ at http://web.mit.edu/kolya/www/csa-faq.html . I don't remember if this applies to the dn300.

tos...@gmail.com

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Aug 8, 2022, 9:43:06 PM8/8/22
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On Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 2:30:23 PM UTC-7, Jim Rees wrote:
> It's rs232 at 1200 bps. There is a keyboard connector pinout in the Apollo FAQ at http://web.mit.edu/kolya/www/csa-faq.html . I don't remember if this applies to the dn300.

hm, yeah dunno - the FAQ mentions pinout for the for the [345]xxx, but I'll at least check if the db9 pinout matches the rj45.

also going to just try running against sio1 :)

John Orwin

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Sep 21, 2022, 11:28:30 AM9/21/22
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Hello - just joined this group. I picked up a DN3010 and of course it is missing the keyboard/mouse. There is an old post from 1996 with pinouts and reference to some documentation (excerpt):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Apollo keyboard uses a 1200 Baud 8-e-1 TTL level serial data communications
format. (Back in the days of SR-9.* you could even examine the keyboard SIO
port parameters using "-line 0" with tea-kettle. ;)

There are 5 signals: (DIN-8 connector)

pin# Signal
1 V++ Power (+8.5V)
3,7 GND Ground
2 KBD_RESET Reset (active low)
4 KBD_RXD Receive data (to keyboard)
5 KBD_TXD Transmit data (from keyboard)

(Yes it's a full duplex device, you can send it commands as well as receive
data from it). The numbering scheme on that DIN-8 connecter is weird, it's not
consecutive but hops back and forth in a strange star patter.

The manual:
Series 10000 Technical Reference Library, 011724-A00
Volume 5 -Hardware Specifications

chapter 16 describes the keyboard hardware interface.


The manual:
Series 10000 Technical Reference Library, 011721-A00
Volume 2 -I/0 Devices

Chapter 8 gives a detailed explanation of the data formats, keyboard codes,
keyboard control commands, pointer device data codes, and keyboard programmable
features.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that the documents are not available anywhere on line. They would be a first step to recreating the keyboard or making a converter.

There seems to be minimal interest in Apollo these days. Contrast that to the AT&T 3B2 series computers. A friend at the recent VCFMW is reverse engineering some of the rare AT&T boards. This involve stripping components and delaminating the 6-layer boards to obtain the schematics. He has already done one of the mainboards, and is working on the NI (Ethernet) board. I mention this because it is a much greater effort than would be required for the Domain keyboard.

Sorry for long post but if anyone has a Keyboard 7121 and Mouse 7550 for DN3000 series, I would be interested, either for myself or as a donor for reverse engineering. That process may be destructive depending on the construction.

If someone has these or other technical documents not currently on line , I can have them posted on Bitsavers.
Series 10000 Technical Reference Library 011721-A00... etc Vols 1-5 (not sure if Series 10000 Keyboard is the same)

- John

Lothar Paltins

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Sep 22, 2022, 8:59:15 AM9/22/22
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John,

you should download this manual:

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_apollo008704000TechnicalReferenceAug87_8288958

Chapter 12 contains a very thorough description of the keyboard.

Lothar


John Orwin

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Sep 22, 2022, 3:44:30 PM9/22/22
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John Orwin

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Sep 22, 2022, 3:45:53 PM9/22/22
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Thank you! Don't know how I missed that - maybe I was at the wrong place in Bitsavers.

On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 7:59:15 AM UTC-5, Lothar Paltins wrote:
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