Keyboard

This is more of a question than a post
I own an Acorn A7000+
the keyboard I used as been damaged
Is there another type of USB that I could use, the prevoius was a USB
The prices to buy PS/2 are ridiculess

Please Advice

What do you consider a ridiculous price?
This is fifteen quid – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LWSHDL1/

Your A7000+ has a USB podule? The instructions ought to talk about what sort of keyboard is best, but generally for RISC OS, the simpler and more basic, the better.

Ebay and Risc OS Stores are talking £45.00
£15.00 very good
anyawy thanks for the other info on USB podule, will investigate

Thanks

Risc OS Stores are talking £45.00

Really? Who, what, where?

I ask because a couple of minutes at CJE found me this:
http://cjemicros.co.uk/micros/individual/newprodpages/prodinfo.php?prodcode=VAR-RPCKB

Standard PS/2 style keyboard, and since it is CJE you know it’ll work with your Acorn machine. Nineteen quid.

My god, a refurbished original Acorn keyboard costs less than 45!

http://cjemicros.co.uk/micros/individual/newprodpages/prodinfo.php?prodcode=ACO-RPCKBDREF
(£39, by the way)

I Got hold of a HP PS/2 keyboard
When I power up then A7000+
the three KB light flash as normal
but when it as booted up KB not working
Please help

PS Rick it was 12.60 on ebay

Rick, I can safely say that I wouldn’t charge that much for an Acorn keyboard! I get the feeling there’s a bit of a racket going on in Acorn spares on ebay, to be honest. I know I don’t advertise them, but sometimes it is worth dropping me an email for that kind of thing – I have a loft full of stuff that could do with good homes. Shipping is always the issue on keyboards, though – they tend to be fairly bulky/heavy, and not envelope-sized.

Andrew I am having issues with a Keyboard
I damaged my original KB and a refurbished KB is £39.00
bought a HP for a PC tried that didn’t work
although it lights up, also it let me do a R-Key Power on
to clear Cmos
but nothing else

Ernest, apart from being quite nice (mechanical, IIRC) PS2 keyboards, the Acorn ones aren’t actually any different to standard PS2 keyboards. Indeed, the A7000 was designed specifically to use PS2 for both keyboard and mice, for cheaper connectivity. As such, that HP should really work. You mention r-power-on, I’d also try a del-power-on (more comprehensive than r-power-on) just in case, although probably as last resort.

Does the mouse appear to move, and can you click on things with it? The reason I ask is that if something is failing in !Boot, you could end up with a lockup, which would manifest as keyboard not working. Another test is to see if capslock/numlock turn on the appropriate LEDs on the keyboard (unless it doesn’t have them).

Shift-power-on is a useful test – it’ll bypass any disc !Boot that is present. It should dump you in a plain, 640×480 desktop. From there, keypresses like F12 for command line (or ctrl-F12 for task window) should work.

If none of that works, perhaps get in touch privately at usual address and we can see if there’s a way to test further.

Andrew since i did a r-boot it boots to supervisor
it did work previously then the replacemt monitor was
out of range

part from being quite nice (mechanical, IIRC) PS2 keyboards

They were membrane, I think. A bit clicky, but I’m fairly sure they weren’t mechanical.

the Acorn ones aren’t actually any different to standard PS2 keyboards.

Indeed. The RiscPC one that I still have was made by a different division of a former employer of mine, and very likely came from the same factory production lines as the keyboards badged by a number of well-known brands in far higher volumes.

but I’m fairly sure they weren’t mechanical.

I don’t think Acorn has made mechanical keyboards since the 6502 range.

The Archimedes, for example, was little bits of tin foil attached to a piece of foam. The foam…didn’t wear well…

The Archimedes, for example, was little bits of tin foil attached to a piece of foam. The foam…didn’t wear well…

The foam from that era didn’t age well either and crumbling to dust would be quite likely after this length of time.

They were membrane, I think. A bit clicky, but I’m fairly sure they weren’t mechanical.

It’s a long time since I did a biscuit crumb rescue but from memory the RPC is a sort of variant with clicky keys up top connecting mechanically to the membrane setup below.

Out of interest has anyone got an ARMbook and done a list of the keys (and combinations) with the resultant wimpkey codes? (StrongKey helps there)

It’s a long time since I did a biscuit crumb rescue but from memory the RPC is a sort of variant with clicky keys up top connecting mechanically to the membrane setup below.

I still use that keyboard. From time to time, I open the keyboard and remove the keys (except for space bar, return and a few other keys which use another mechanism) to perform a good cleanup.

Out of interest has anyone got an ARMbook and done a list of the keys (and combinations) with the resultant wimpkey codes?

Here are the plain keys and shifted keys, in CSV format.

A key code of ? indicates that StrongKey did not detect the keypress.

Key,Low-level,Internal,Plain,+Shift
Esc,0,&70,&1B,&1B
F1,1,&71,&181,&191
F2,2,&72,&182,&192
F3,3,&73,&183,&193
F4,4,&14,&184,&194
F5,5,&74,&185,&195
F6,6,&75,&186,&196
F7,7,&16,&187,&197
F8,8,&76,&188,&198
F9,9,&77,&189,&199
F10,&A,&1E,&1CA,&1DA
F11,&B,&1C,&1CB,&1DB
F12,&C,&1D,&1CC,&1DC
Delete,&34,&59,&7F
`,&10,&2D,&60,&7E
1,&11,&30,&31,&21
2,&12,&31,&32,&40
3,&13,&11,&33,&23
4,&14,&12,&34,&44
5,&15,&13,&35,&25
6,&16,&18,&36,&5E
7,&17,&24,&37,&26
8,&18,&15,&38,&2A
9,&19,&26,&39,&28
0,&1A,&27,&30,&29
-,&1B,&17,&2D,&5F
=,&1C,&5D,&3D,&2B
BS,&1E,&2F,8,8
Tab,&26,&60,&18A,&19A
q,&27,&10,&71,&51
w,&28,&21,&77,&57
e,&29,&22,&65,&45
r,&2A,&33,&72,&52
t,&2B,&23,&74,&54
y,&2C,&44,&79,&59
u,&2D,&35,&75,&55
i,&2E,&25,&69,&49
o,&2F,&36,&6F,&4F
p,&30,&37,&70,&50
[,&31,&38,&5B,&7B
],&32,&58,&5D,&7D
CapLck,?,?,?,?
a,&3C,&41,&61,&41
s,&3D,&51,&73,&53
d,&3E,&32,&64,&44
f,&3F,&43,&66,&46
g,&40,&53,&67,&47
h,&41,&54,&68,&48
j,&42,&45,&6A,&4A
k,&43,&46,&6B,&4B
l,&44,&56,&6C,&4C
;,&45,&48,&3B,&3A
Enter,&47,&49,&D,&D
Lshift,?,?,?,?
\,&33,&78,&5C,&7C
z,&4E,&61,&7A,&5A
x,&4F,&42,&78,&58
c,&50,&52,&63,&43
v,&51,&63,&76,&56
b,&52,&64,&62,&42
n,&53,&55,&6E,&4E
m,&54,&65,&6D,&4D
comma,&55,&66,&2C,3C
.,&56,&67,&2E,3E
/,&57,&68,&2F,3F
Up,&59,&39,&18F,&19F
Rshift,?,?,?,?
LCtrl,?,?,?,?
Fn,?,?,?,?
Menu,(1),(1),(1),(1)
LAlt,?,?,?,?
Space,&5F,&62,&20,&20
RAlt,&1D(2),&2E(2),&A3(2),&A4(2)
RCtrl,?,?,?,?
Left,&62,&19,&18C,&19C
Down,&63,&29,&18E,&19E
Right,&64,&79,&18D,&19D

(1) The Menu key was remapped to Mouse Menu
(2) The right Alt key was remapped to £

The Fn key only modifies certain keys, as follows:

Key,Low-level,Internal,+Fn,Name
F9,&F,&2C,&1B,Break
F10,&1F,&3D,&1CD,Insert
F11,&D,&20,&180,Print
F12,?,?,?,NumLock
7,&37,&1B,&1E,Kp7
8,&38,&2A,&18F,Kp8
9,&39,&2B,&19F,Kp9
0,&23,&4A,&2F,KpDiv
-,&46,&4F,&27,'
=,&33,&78,&5C,\
U,&48,&7A,&18C,Kp4
I,?,?,?,Kp5
O,&4A,&1A,&18D,Kp6
P,&24,&5B,&2A,KpMul
M,&65,&6A,&1CD,Kp0
.,&66,&4C,&7F,KpDot
/,&4B,&3A,&2B,KpPlus
Up,&21,&3F,&19F,PgUp
Left,&20,&3E,&1E,Home
Down,&36,&4E,&19E,PgDown
Right,&35,&69,&18B,End

I hope that’s enough to be getting on with.

I can’t help feeling it slightly odd that r-boot results in supervisor not a more complete boot. My recollection was that default cmos for RiscPC onwards was “boot” (ie. boot off disc) and language 4? (desktop module).

Assuming you’re disc is connected via ADFS, and is :4, it should boot that, I think, unless shift is held down.

However, I may be mis-remembering. It’s a very long time since I last del-powered on an A7000, and I almost never did R-poweron.

I think a significant question is – do the capslock/numlock keys have the desired effect (ie. changing LEDs on keyboard). This was always a telltale sign of a freeze. Also, does the cursor (if there is one) flash on/off?

Essentially we need to know if the keyboard is faulty, or if the machine has locked. However, I repeat that I’d prefer to help via email, rather than forum as there are questions I’d like to ask that you might not want to answer on a public forum (eg. geographical info, for sending you stuff etc).

Andrew It is interminnent
when I power up I get the double flash
and the kb responds to caps lock and number lock
then nothing
then after another reboot nothing

I hope that’s enough to be getting on with

Thank e kindly sir.

These are below are modifiers and even StrongKey will only show the modifier code when “normal” key is also pressed

CapLck,?,?,?,?
Lshift,?,?,?,?
Rshift,?,?,?,?
LCtrl,?,?,?,?
Fn,?,?,?,?
LAlt,?,?,?,?
RCtrl,?,?,?,?

Is this one (Menu,(1)) actually “menu” as recognised by StrongKey or an interestingly marked logo (often Windows) key?
Windows key original value(s) &1C0,&1D0,&1E0

The remapping raises the possibility of using a keymap function for stuff I’m playing with.

Thanks once again.

Is this one (Menu,(1)) actually “menu” as recognised by StrongKey or an interestingly marked logo (often Windows) key?

The key is marked with a “menu” logo. When performing KeyMapper mappings, it’s key 106 (Menu). With KeyMapper mappings removed, StrongKey detects the Menu key as “modifier key &100” but always generates Wimp keycode &1C1.

The key is marked with a “menu” logo. When performing KeyMapper mappings, it’s key 106 (Menu). With KeyMapper mappings removed, StrongKey detects the Menu key as “modifier key &100” but always generates Wimp keycode &1C1.

Ta, I think I know what I’m going to do now.

BTW. I think StrongKey is wrong to classify Menu as a modifier, the online documentation lists the generated keycodes as
Menu=&1C1, Menu+Shift=&1D1, Menu+Ctl=&1E1, Menu+Shift+Ctl=&1F1
i.e. It is a modifiable key not a modifier

There seem to be some misunderstandings. StrongKey doesn’t detect keys nor does it classify the Menu key as a modifier. It simply displays the additional keypress information as returned by the DeepKeys module.

This means that keys which do not generate a keypressed event (modifiers keys) are not seen by StrongKey. The Menu key does generate a keypressed event but is also flagged by DeepKeys as a modifier key.

There seem to be some misunderstandings.

Possibly.

StrongKey doesn’t detect keys nor does it classify the Menu key as a modifier.

Speaking for myself, the viewpoint is generated by the layout of the StrongKey window.
There are a group of icons for left and right shift, control and alt, beneath them are logo left, logo right and menu with an implied association as modifiers.
Perhaps there should be a distinction.

Below I’m checking as I go on an RPCEmu instance on a laptop with no “menu” and only a left-logo:

It simply displays the additional keypress information as returned by the DeepKeys module.

I can see the origin, I think, as DeepKeys 2.08 gave the keyname for the left-logo key as “Select”, while DeepKeys 2.10 gives a keyname of L Logo (Nemo clearly amended that)

The Menu key does generate a keypressed event but is also flagged by DeepKeys as a modifier key.

Hmmm, checking on the net for combinations I note that Logo(left & right) and menu have clear and independent key actions and obviously aren’t simply modifiers, but Logo(left or right) can also be used as a modifier/combiner with other keys. Similarly with the menu key.

DeepKeys is reflecting that dual status, perhaps a separation is required between the pure modifiers and the logo/menu icons in the StrongKey window to reflect the dual status?

For a while there I was thinking DeepKeys was wrong, but that would mean Nemo was wrong…

Below I’m checking as I go on an RPCEmu instance on a laptop with no “menu” and only a left-logo:

Hmmm, plugged in a Chicony KU-2971 USB keyboard and with or without DeepKeys loaded the whole setup behaves as though the mouse menu button is pressed when the Menu key with any modifier (or none) is pressed. StrongKey in this instance doesn’t show anything.
That seems to be a “feature” of RPEmu that the Menu key is appearing as mouse middle button (as far as I can tell)

That’s how I run my Wandboard that has a two-button trackball in RISC OS. There’s something I set up in PreDesktop that maps the menu key to be the mouse menu button. The trackball and keyboard are shared with three other computers on three other operating systems (Win10, WinServer 2016, Zorin OS Linux). The addition to PreDesktop is: -

Set Key$Blue MenuClick