[Techtoolslist] 9100FT Programmer’s Keyboard

[Tony Jones]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 8:16 AM, Andrew Finn via Techtoolslist
<techtoolslist at flippers.com> wrote:
> No it is not connected to anything on my kb101 just a empty pin!!

I understand.

This is the pinout of the 2 cables in case it helps.  Below DIN
numbering is when viewing exposed male pins per this:
http://www.hilmanind.com/pinouts/midi.htm

fluke
din   keytronics pcb connector
1     1 red
4     5 yellow
2     2 brown
5     6 clear
3     3 orange
shell  spade

kb101
din   keytronics pcb connector
1     6 red
4     2 yellow
2     5 brown
5     1 lt grey
3     n/c
shell  spade

As expected, when the KB-101 is connected to a PC, EA (31) on the the
8031 is high so as you said, this 8031 has a built in ROM.  Why not
mark it 8051, odd.

If I plug the keyboard cable from the Fluke into the KB-101,  EA is
low with or without a ROM being installed which I was not expecting.
The keyboard was still unrecognized.   There are a lot of unfilled
positions for components on both boards.  I imagine it's like the
Cherry keyboards (as Paul documented you can convert a Quantel Cherry
to an ABI Cherry by swapping passives but the pcb version are the same
so it's simple).   I'll be curious to adapt mine when you figure it
out ;-)

I'm curious on the custom keycaps.  I know a few places make custom
cherry keycaps (no clue if keytronic are the same - I can't believe
people collect keyboards just for the sake of it) but they're quite
spendy per key and you have a lot of keys here that need relabeling.
You may have more luck removing the old legend and finding someone
with a laser etching system as you can use toner powder and a laser in
the mW range to label the caps, there's a few Youtube video's on
people doing it.

Good luck.  Hope the info helps.