Siemens: mechanical or not?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Wait...someone other than you did something on the wiki deserving of praise? I thought you were done with the wiki anyway? I'm sure I've read that about 12 times in the last few weeks...

I am done with it, but since I went to all the trouble of making a gold star, I may as well issue more if the need arises. Besides, this switch has been an intellectual thorn in my side for ages — I'm glad it's finally identified.

I am confused as to why you figure that a gold star should go to everyone who does anything right. You'd have every Olympian win gold, right? ;-)

It sounds like you've missed the point about everything I've ever said, which figures.

[002]

I am confused as to why you figure that a gold star should go to everyone who does anything right. You'd have every Olympian win gold, right?

I don't think I suggested anything of the sort. Your gold star is worth as much to me as a ClickClack keycap is to you, anyway. Your work on the wiki is excellent, no doubt about that. I just wish you weren't such a drama queen about it all the time...and yes I realise the irony of me actually starting drama by initiating this little exchange, especially when something productive is actually going on here. Good stuff OleVoip by the way, you get my own personal platinum star of approval.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

OK, so when I actually tried to do something encouraging, you just want to eject the contents of your bowels all over it?

You've still missed the point of everything I've ever said. I'm not going to bother explaining it all over again.

[bester42]

Yesterday I got a Siemens mechanical Keyborad on a flea marked for only 3€:

siemens-tastatur.jpg (218.34 KiB) Viewed 1703 times

It has the same switches as shown before, tactile version, PCB mounted. Heavy keybord.

It seems to be for a "SX64"-style PC, as there are some connectors to mechanicaly fix it on a computer housing - does anyboby know more about it?

The Cable connector ist 7-pol DIN, I didnt have tested yet (I am on holyday).

The keyswitches, as formerly shown in this thread, where sold seperatly end of the 80s on pollin.de; I had bought about 100 in that time and used them for different electronic projects. Some I have in orgiginal condition, so if a key in this keybord get broken, I can replace it

[OleVoip]

Seems to be from a Siemens PG750 field programmer.

[bester42]

Thanks for that information. The PG 750 seems to be a nice housing for a RasPi I found one (without HD) on ebay and bought it now. Enough space for a "Pi-Laptop" with active USB-Hub and everything needed inside the case. I hope, the monitor supports composite.
A Pi-Laptop with mechanical keybord, that sounds fun.

[OleVoip]

Maybe "laptop" is not the proper term for a 16 kg device.
I've searched through my collection of Siemens documents but couldn't find a detailled hardware manual for the PG 750; however, I wouldn't expect the built-in colour monitor to support composite video - the built-in video card is VGA, so you'll need R, G, B, HSync and VSync.
The keyboard is described in the PG 750 user manual, where you'll also find the pinout of the 7-pin connector - except for pins 6 and 7, which should be TxD and RxD, respectively, of the serial mouse interface.
It would be nice if you could make some pictures for our wiki.
And I forgot to say: congratulations! This board seems to be very well in shape for such a low price.

[bester42]

Maybe the german compositum "Schlepptop" will fit more as description
Converting to VGA shouldnt be a problem, I have an old converter (for watching tv on an old computer monitor).
I will document the whole process of converting the PG 750 to a RasPi-Schlepptop. May take some time...

Thanks for all the information