[rescue] Sun 3 and Sun 4 Keyboard adapters (was Sun-3-era-kit)

[der Mouse]

> I am wondering if you can build an inverse adapter for Sun 4 and 5
> keyboards to allow them to work on a Sun 3 kbd machine.

Yes.  The keyboards are identical in terms of signal levels and
first-level protocol (1200-baud RS232 bit trains, except using TTL
signal levels instead of RS232 signal levels).  There are differences,
but they are relatively subtle - for exmaple, the response to a
keyboard reset command can differ.

Sun even sold an adapter for using "new" (miniDIN-8) keyboards on "old"
(DA15) machines, though if you're not afraid of soldering and have a
miniDIN-8-to-miniDIN-8 cable that carries all 8 wires to cut in two, it
borders on trivial to build your own.  (I've seen the Sun adapter, but
have little use for it, since I want to use type-3 keyboards on
miniDIN-8 machines, and Sun's adapter goes the other way.)  See
ftp.rodents.montreal.qc.ca:/mouse/misc/sun-kbd-cable.txt and .ps for
more.

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