deskthority

Posted: **25 Jan 2014, 05:59**

Background:
The Decision Mate V was a machine introduced by NCR in the early 1980's. It uses a 100-key linear keyboard that also has a 9-pin joystick port. Unlike later machines that used Cherry-based keyboards, this appears to be their own engineering & manufacture.

Conversion:
Required items:
Teensy/Teensy++ or compatible for Soarer's Controller

Lots of wire, preferably a roll of 22ga solid core. Thin wire will not work well, even if it has a better fit.

Soldering/Desoldering: The external connector will have to be removed - as it will be bypassed to make room the USB cable. In addition, soldering may be required since a breadboard barely fits.

Clearance for perf/circuit boards:
Roughly 1.5cm length, controller-dependent width, ~1cm height(+/- up to 0.5cm)

Process (after disassembly):
1)Remove 8741 chip at U6. Go slowly and carefully since you will not be able to use the left side to create leverage.
2A)Wire up solid core wire as indicated from socket U6 to a small breadboard, prepared perfboard, or circuitboard:

: Wired up keyboard to breadboard Teensy++ for testing.; wiredup.jpg (261.57 KiB) Viewed 3117 times

Pin 40 is upper left (+5v)
Pin 20 is lower right (GND)
Pins 21-24 are across from GND (Strobe lines). These must go to D3-D0.
Pins 27-34 are between strobe and +5v (3rd pin left of leftmost strobe, 6th pin right of +5v).

2B)Align Teensy on controller board so that the connector faces leftward - so that one can take advantage of the external connector.

3) Carefully assemble board so that wires remain in place.
4) Connect USB cable and route it under the board so that it goes to the keyboard port.
5) Reassemble strain relief.
6) Reassemble all remaining parts of board (screws to case))
7) If using Soarer's controller (easiest path), load this configuration:

Code: Select all

# NCR Decision Mate V (H0150-STD1-01-17) Keyboard
# Based off of Haata's 6112884.sc
# The native 8741 chip was replaced with a Teensy++ harness 
# Not all slots will map in due to space reserved for joystick/sidecar port.  
# 
# 


matrix
	scanrate 1
	debounce 5
	debounce_method 0
	sense_delay 32
	blocking 0
	
	# disable until wired unless you want noise.
	sense_polarity 1
	# Socket Pins	24		23		22		21
	#		D3		D2		D1		D0
	muxstrobe_port PD3:0

	# Socket Pin	34		33		32		31		30		29		28		27
	sense 		PF7		PF6		PF5		PF4		PF3		PF2		PF1		PF0

	# muxstrobe lines 7,11,15 are unassigned
	# muxstrobe lines 12 and 14 have the "hole" in the middle two columns 
	muxstrobe 0	RCTRL		F		V		PAD_7		PAD_9		4		R			F5
	muxstrobe 1	PAD_MINUS	H		N		PAD_5		PAD_ASTERIX	6		Y			F7
	muxstrobe 2	LSHIFT		S		X		PAD_1		PAD_ENTER	2		W			F3
	muxstrobe 3	LALT		K		COMMA		F20		RIGHT		8		I			F9
	muxstrobe 4	NUM_LOCK	D		C		PAD_8		PAD_SLASH	3		E			F4
	muxstrobe 5	BACKSPACE	J		M		F19		DOWN		7		U			F8
	muxstrobe 6	TAB		L		PERIOD		F		G		9		O			F10
	muxstrobe 7	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED		UNASSIGNED
	
	muxstrobe 8	PAD_0		CAPS_LOCK	BACKSLASH	EUROPE_2	PAD_PERIOD	ESC		LCTRL			F1
	muxstrobe 9	F16		SEMICOLON	SLASH		F18		UP		0		P			F11
	muxstrobe 10	PAD_PLUS	A		Z		PAD_2		PAD_3		1		Q			F2
	muxstrobe 11	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED		UNASSIGNED
	
	muxstrobe 12	SPACE		G		B		PAD_4		PAD_6		5		T			F6     
	muxstrobe 13	F15		QUOTE		RSHIFT		F17		LEFT		MINUS		LEFT_BRACE		F12
	muxstrobe 14	F14		BACK_QUOTE	ENTER		9		0		EQUAL		RIGHT_BRACE		F13
	muxstrobe 15	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED	UNASSIGNED		UNASSIGNED


	#muxstrobe 13	1		2		3		4		5		6		7			8 
	#muxstrobe 13 	Q		W		E		R		T		Y		U			I
	#muxstrobe 14	A		S		D		F		G		H		J			K
	#muxstrobe 15	Z		X		C		V		B		N		M			L

end

# 00
macroblock
	macro EUROPE_2
		PRESS 0
		PRESS 0
	endmacro
endblock

Misc. Pictures:

: The keyboard in a more complete state, aside from missing keys.; ncr_keyboard_a.jpg (951.31 KiB) Viewed 3117 times

: Closeup of the keys and switches. The keycaps are doubleshots.; key_closeup.jpg (911.99 KiB) Viewed 3117 times

To Do:
Figure out joystick port. Right now, there are pins that go to the 4514 chip.
Figure out the effect of dip switches - since everything is calibrated to US layout.
Find an Escape keycap. Yes, they're doubleshots.

Thanks to:
Soarer, for the controller firmware and having plenty of patience to answer questions. That, and the 8048 conversion article helped as well.
Some folks offsite for finding the NCR documentation. This helped a ton towards getting things done.

Posted: **25 Jan 2014, 10:40**

Popping out an original controller and swapping for a Teensy? Smart! How hard was the chip removal? This could be a good direction to go for many classic conversions.

Posted: **25 Jan 2014, 13:57**

Muirium wrote:Popping out an original controller and swapping for a Teensy? Smart! How hard was the chip removal? This could be a good direction to go for many classic conversions.

Well, it didnt help that it was like removing 40 square pegs that were jammed into 40 round holes for at least 20 of the 30 years that it has been around.

Posted: **25 Jan 2014, 14:46**

Those switches are one of the following:

[wiki]RAFI RS 76M[/wiki] — if the travel is 4 mm
[wiki]RAFI RS 74M[/wiki] — if the travel is 2.5 mm

They do appear to be 76M.

deskthority

NCR Decision Mate V Keyboard [conversion]

NCR Decision Mate V Keyboard [conversion]