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Re: Keyboard for palm pilot

From: Eric Laforest <>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 07:26:32 -0400

On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 11:42:28PM -0700, Brandon Macmillan thus spake:
> Hi all
> 
> Here is the short version (tired of Grafiti)
> 
> Untill I get my wearable working I'm using a palm lllc, I love this little guy. I need faster text entry, unwilling to spend $200 for a foldable keyboard, unwilling to buy expensive happy hacking craddle. AfAIK the palm seril port is straight rs32, question, is it feasible to make an adapter to use a normal AT or ps/2 keybord on a palm?
> 
> Thanks in advance
> Brandon

The Palm serial port is a quasi-RS232 port, meaning thay cheat by
using lower voltages, but most serial ports will accept it.

PC keyboards use a synchronous serial scheme instead so a small microcontroller
is needed to at least do the translation to asynchronous rs-232.

You can also use to uC to do the translation for the keyboard scan codes
into plain ASCII serial data, but be warned, I have yet to find a logic
behind the screamingly ugly scan code scheme. :)
You could also do it onboard the PC.

www.newmicros.com sell little embedded Forth 68HC11 chips that could do the job
quite nicely.

www.landware.com also seels a cheaper and much more rugged, albeit smaller,
non-folding keyboard (GoType).  I just bought one and so far it's ok.

Eric LaForest

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