Re: reading vic20 or c64 column

Ah those were the days. http://www.6502.org/users/andre/csa/keyemu/index.html

But IIRC the setting of the keyboard matrix memory wasn't fast enough at 
all times. I got double clicks and other effects. But with a faster CPU to 
set it or some way of synchronization it may be possible

André


Am 30. Juni 2015 10:42:06 schrieb Marko Mäkelä <msmakela@gmail.com>:

> Hi Didier,
>
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 10:07:06AM +0200, Didier Derny wrote:
> >I'm working on usb/bluetooth keyboard for several machines
> >I wanted to detect when the commodore is starting to scan the keyboard
>
> I wonder if the ‘gaming keyboards’ are assigning one GPIO pin per key.
> I wouldn’t consider it unthinkable.
>
> If your goal is to connect the old keyboards to newer devices, you can’t
> of course ditch the keyboard matrix. If not, skip to the quoted text
> below.
>
> What you could do is that you could improve the keyboard scanning. Some
> 20 years ago, I made some experiments on the C128. I found that making
> the outputs to all-1 between each scan iteration would reduce the
> shadowing.
>
> Another idea that you could do is to read the matrix from ‘both
> directions’ (first driving the columns and reading the rows, then
> driving the rows and reading the columns). Remember that you have a
> dedicated CPU for the keyboard, and not just a few hundred 6502 clock
> cycles in a timer interrupt.
>
> Also, did you check the article in the C=Hacking Issue #6 about keyboard
> scanning: http://codebase64.org/doku.php?id=magazines:chacking6
>
> >1 usb keyboard or 1 windows application controlling a C64 or a tandy
> >coco 1/2/3 the same board can fit a coco 3 or a C64  or VIC 20  (just
> >different connectors) the communication is done via serial bluetooth
> >
> >a prototype works on a breadboard, I make a first PCB in a few days
>
> Hmm, this seems the opposite route: using a modern keyboard with old
> hardware. I thought that Jim Brain already has something for this
> application. AFAIU he is controlling a programmable switch matrix with a
> microcontroller.
>
> If you know which way the software is reading the keyboard matrix, you
> can theoretically replace it with something simpler, such as essentially
> a RAM that connects address lines to columns and data lines to rows, or
> vice versa. Instead of address and data lines, you might even use the
> GPIO lines of a fast enough microcontroller, and maybe implement Pin
> Change Interrupt on those lines.
>
> 	Marko
>
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