Re: DEC Keyboard Question

From: FredK (fred.nospam_at_nospam.dec.com)
Date: 01/25/05 

Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 20:44:59 GMT

"Ken Fairfield" <my.full.name@intel.com> wrote in message
news:ct67p7$anj$1@news01.intel.com...
> FredK wrote:
>
> > There are two types of KVM switches - dumb pass-thru and "smart"
switches.
> > The dumb ones simply pass the data through with little intellegence.
The
> > only thing that they need to do at least for VMS is to cause a power up
> > sequence to be generated when the KB is connected. This way we will
> > reprogram the KB automatically. The smart ones actually have a uProc
that
> > handles the KB and then emulates a KB on the other side. These
keyboards
> > need to either know about the extended codes - or at least be smart
enough
> > to pass them through. In the worst case, these KVMs handle USB as well,
and
> > then they need to know how to turn the extendd PS2 codes into the right
USB
> > codes.
>
> Thanks, Fred. There's the theory lesson for you. Now to the lab.
>
> Problem is, given the range of KVM switches in the field, only the
> "smart" ones have been shown to work (reasonably) connected to both
> a PC and a VMS system. If you know differently, PLEASE SHARE!
>
> By the way, as near as my co-worker and I have been able to figure
> out, the LK463 connected directly to the USB port of a laptop
> running Windows XP does NOT recognize the "extra" keys.
>
> Same keyboard connected to the same laptop, but using the
> USB-to-PS/2 adapter and plugged into the PS/2 port on a
> port-replicator (no PS/2 connector on the nwere laptops) works
> fine, all 108 keys.
>
> Apparently, the needed enhancements to the USB keyboard driver
> are not included in Windows XP (would be nice if HP supplied
> such a driver)...
>

Yes/No. USB is fairly well defined (as opposed to PS2). There is a huge
table of key codes - but when adding extra keys to a non-Windows keyboard
you just try to come as close as you can to how you think they *should* map.
You would imagine that the Windows drivers would just pass the USB key
through - and I *think* they do, but don't know for certain - but for
instance using PowerTerm I see something - unknown keys when using the LK463
directly.

In any case, PowerTerm knows about the LK411 keyboard, and when you plug in
a LK463 *using* a PS2 dongle - that is what it looks like. When you plug it
in directly, the keys don't map correctly in a way that the application (for
instance PowerTerm) expects.

I have shared the USB keymapping with Ericom in case they want to
incorporate support. So if you are using one of their commercial versions
(HP no longer is updating the old version that was in Pathworks) feel free
to ask them to support it as well.

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