Seeking information on Cherry B80 keyboard + Controller

[tergav17]

Hello,

As this is my first post on this forum, I should start by saying that I am not an expert on keyboard related stuff. This is something I want to change. I have a lot of hardware that I would like to return to working order. I mainly collect retro computers, which has resulted in many interesting keyboards finding their way into my possession over the years.

One of these keyboards is a Cherry B80-02AC keyboard. It came to me as part of lot from an old Sperry/Univac employee. It was strewn among other miscellaneous parts for a computer kit this guy had been building. From the date codes on the ICs, it looks to be from around the later 70s to the early 80s. From what I can tell, it may have been bought to interface with the Ferguson Big Board computers that he had built, but the keyboard looks like it had never been used. I found it sitting loose inside a similarly sized metal container.

Anyways, I cannot find any information online about this particular keyboard. The closest thing that appears is a B80-16AC that somebody posted about on this forum a few years back, thought even information on that is scarce. I am mainly trying to figure out what type of interface protocol this thing may be using. I recently acquired a pair of very old S100 computers, and I would very much like to use this thing as a keyboard for them. I tried to find what type of controller chip this thing uses, but was also unsuccessful.

I will attach some images below

Thank You

[zrrion]

can you get a good picture of the cherry sticker on the left? some of the info there might be useful for identification

[tergav17]

I unfortunately don't have the keyboard on-hand at the moment (I am at college rn). This is the best picture that I have of the sticker on me right now. A little blurry but everything can be made out.

PART NO. B80-02AC
SERIAL NO. 845275
CUSTOMER PART NO. 51917737 REV D.

Cherry
Waukegan, ILL USA

There are no other stickers on the backside of the board IIRC.

[tergav17]

Well, I finally got around to reverse engineering this keyboard with my newfound spare time. I couldn't find any documentation on my SMC 3603 encoder chip, so I just assumed it was a KR3600 and went from there. After a few hours of mapping traces, pinning out ICs, and probing around with the oscilloscope. I am happy to report that I have been able to create a mostly complete pinout of this thing. It is indeed an parallel ASCII keyboard, with the function keys generating codes >127. If anyone else ever finds another one of these keyboards and needs a reference, well, here you go:

Code: Select all

Pin 01: Control Key
Pin 02: ??? (Always Low)
Pin 03: Strobe (Active Low)
Pin 04: Data 7
Pin 05: Data 6
Pin 06: Data 5
Pin 07: Data 4
Pin 08: Data 3
Pin 09: Data 2
Pin 10: Data 1
Pin 11: Data 0
Pin 12: Mystery Input 1
Pin 13: DIP Switch 2
Pin 14: DIP Switch 3
Pin 15: DIP Switch 4
Pin 16: DIP Switch 5
Pin 17: DIP Switch 6
Pin 18: DIP Switch 7
Pin 19: DIP Switch 8
Pin 20: Mystery Keyboard Matrix Function (???)
Pin 21: Most likely the "CO" indicator LED
Pin 22: Local Key
Pin 23: Block Key
Pin 24: +5V Rail
Pin 25: GND
Pin 26: -12V Rail

[TheHawkNY-notgmail]

Hi All,

This is my first post on the forum as well. I recently got my hands on the same board, a Cherry B80-02AC. It came from the seller as untested. As you can see in the picture, mine came in a very nice metal housing. (Apologies for my terrible photography)

20230108_202035.jpeg (3.42 MiB) Viewed 1318 times

I'd like to be able to hook this up to a modern computer, but I have no clue what I am doing. I have two primary issues. The first is that I can't remove the PCB from the case. The plate is held in place by screws which go into wood that is glued to the metal case. I can unscrew the plate, but I can't slide the PCB out, because the switches on the bottom row get stuck on the wood.

20230108_203541.jpeg (3.66 MiB) Viewed 1318 times

Removing the wood on one side makes a lot more sense to me than de-soldering the switches. Unfortunately, I can't just brute force it without risking damaging the PCB, so my first question is, what is the best recommended method for removing this glued-in wood from the case?

Of course, if I could just plug it in and it worked, removing the PCB might be entirely unnecessary. Unfortunately, this isn't a connector that I'm familiar with - is this connector the correct item to be able to be able to plug this in to a modern pc? If not, is there a different cable I will need? How can I test if this works at all?

s-l1600a.jpeg (221.81 KiB) Viewed 1318 times

Thanks!