DIN to mini-DIN

[moldboy]

I recently destroyed the keyboard on my 486 so I needed a new one, I purchaced a cheep keyboard, and a 6pin mini-DIN to 5 pin DIN adaptor, only after doing reasearch of corse. Now upon bringing this hardware home I was comfronted with a KB Interface error while trying to boot up. Ok, I guess the computer is too old to handle this new of KB. But now upon further inspection I went about testing the connection on my adaptor.
Before, whie doing my research I found

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/kb/const/otherConnector-c.html

which appears to check with other sites (

http://pinouts.ru/data/DinToMiniDinKeyboard_pinout.shtml)

Anyway on the second page I found out what the numbers mean, and upon mapping out my adaptor It doesn't appear to follow the tables, could someone please check the numbering I did, and see if I infact made a mistake, or if the adapor is garbage...

 

[stuuked]

what was your exact error, the pins are probly not the problem. just two standard keyboard ports, so i dont think that has anything to do with that error.

 

[moldboy]

Okay I took apart the origional keyboard, and when I put it back together the BIOS reported something like:

CMOS Battery State Low (which is normal, I just have to enter BIOs every time to fix it)
Keyboard Error Press F1 (which I can't do because the keyboard won't work!)


Now with the adaptor and such the error is quite simmilar however except after the CMOS garbage it says:
KB Interface Error


What's more I tried three KBs I have with no success, however one of the KB's is a Microsoft KB with the fancy F key Lock and such, anyway while the BIOS was sitting in KB error ecreen I presses the F Lock button but the indicator light didn't work, which made me think, no power!

So I then thought that the adaptor wasn't wired right, which took me to the above conclusion. I aggree It shouldn't be the adaptor, but it doesn't seem like it is wired right, for example everythng i've read indicate that only four wires are used on a standart keyboard (actualy all keyboards) even though the standards allow for 5 and 6 accordingly, yet the adaptor (which is dessigned for KB use) has a connection to all 5 leads and the one which isn't used on the six pin side (according to my reading) should be use for something.

Then I read more an got to thinking that the diagram for the 6 pin model should be swiched, because on the adaptor it is female, and on the diagram it is male, so I switched them around however found that #2 on the 6pin end would be connected to # 1 on the 5 pin end #2 is supose to be empty, and #1 used for clock, which leads me to believe that an absense of a clock is what is resulting in a "KB Interface Error"

But hey what do I know? Help!!

 

[moldboy]

Well It turn out I know very little, just retested the adaptor, and well it was set up properly, any help on the situation would be appreciated though

 

[stuuked]

go get another adapter, and deff get a new bat.

if its not the adapter, its the mb, try usb keyboard, if your bios can handle it.

 

[garebo]

I believe hes talking about a 486 here, so usb keyboard might be out?
I think you better get the new battery and do that first, could even solve all your problems!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[moldboy]

Yes USB is out of the question, I might try a new battery except this one is 10+ years old and corroded

 

[garebo]

Is it a round coin battery or a barrel battery?
If its a barrel is it soldered into the mobo? If so, you have to de-solder the old one off and solder a new one onto the mobo.

Either way, this is the first thing you have to do.
Seems to me that we cant really help you any further until you resolve this issue as who knows what is tied into needing this power source.
In fact, it could be that are your problems are related to this battery.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[mainegeek]

moldboy,
You can leave the old battery on. You should find a header (I believe located near the soldered one by the keyboard controller) to plug in a new battery which you can find at radio shack for a few $$. If I remember correctly those took a 3.6v

 

[SkipCox]

Some old motherboards has a keyboard controller onboard. These were usually limited to very old motherboards though...8086-80286 stuff.

Can you describe your old keyboard or provide a make and model number? Was it about 10x the weight of the new one?

Some points to make that might help:

The CMOS battery has nothing to do with this especially if you only have to reset date and time when you boot the machine.

Although they come in all shapes and sizes, all DIN to mini DIN keyboard adaptors are wired the same.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you have a motherboard that want's to see an XT keyboard connected.

I'd like to hear more about this.

Skip

http://scc.i8.com

 

[moldboy]

SkipCox:
I would guess that the controller is built in although the MB I believe is in the series of 80486, not that it matters but it has 16mb of ram and plenty of room for physical expansion,but not virutal expansion.

I can gurantee that a new battery wouldn't help this situation at all, although it might be good in the long run, Uh, when I first destroyed the KB It would boot with just a KB error, no CMOS error, but the next day there was a CMOS error because the battery can only mantain a charge for a few seconds (just a reboot)

I also have to set the HDD when the batt dies. But I can't even get far enough to boot from Flopy Disk, sooo....

Yeah the KB is quite heavy, and there are no window specific keys, ie Win Logo and right click.
Here are some pictures.
I figure the most useful information here is the FCC Code:
Full Sized Image (

http://img237.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img237&image=backsticker2ur.jpg)

Here is the main chip on the KB:

And finaly here is the KB:

 

[garebo]

What about gate20, whatever you have it set on, go with the other setting. Worth a try. Thats in bios, if your bios has it.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[SkipCox]

If worse comes to worse, I'll send you a motherboard, 486DX4-1, and memory that will work with any generic keyboard. Hell...I gotta give that stuff to someone.

Skip

http://skipcox.net

http://scc.i8.com