NEC Multispeed Alps Keyboard Conversion to USB

[tastybeverage]

Total keyboard newb here who has searched the forums up and down. I scored an old NEC Multispeed Laptop with this Alps keyboard. It has a five pin connector that I'd suspect *may* work with a PS2 to USB adapter, but I have no idea how to proceed. Does anyone know how I can ultimately make this a modern usb connection for use with raspberry pi or other computers?

[zrrion]

From my understanding it is an XT keyboard but I don't know which pins do what

[TNT]

Yes, I can confirm it is XT. Here's a picture of the pinout:

Clipboard01_Easy-Resize.com.jpg (243.25 KiB) Viewed 16650 times

[TNT]

I just realized the way I positioned the three could lead to misunderstandings. The leftmost pin is unused

[tastybeverage]

Dude, @TNT! You just saved me a lot of time and tinkering! Thank you! Do you have an XT to USB converter you'd recommend? Something like this maybe?

https://www.amazon.com/XTPTFABS-Soarers ... B0C3LZX3PF

Thanks again!

[TNT]

Glad I could help!

For converters, I always recommend Hasu's, cause the customizability and compatibility is better. If you go for a Soarer's, I suggest you buy from Orihalcon.You should be able to find his listing on eBay.

[tastybeverage]

Hasu's look cool. Wonder if he could even put the horizontal style connector on it so I don't have to exercise my garbage soldering skills.

[TNT]

Anyways, what are your plans for a case for this thing? Mine is also still only a loose unity which is a shame because those switches are really great.

[tastybeverage]

Anyways, what are your plans for a case for this thing? Mine is also still only a loose unity which is a shame because those switches are really great.

Finally got around to working on this. I have the original laptop case to I'm going to stick it in there. Do you happen to have the hasu firmware for this? I got the adapter and wired up an xt connection, but I can't get the keyboard working. LEDs light up, but no output. Thanks!

[TNT]

Glad to hear you still have the case! Are you just taking it as is or are you changing anything?

I'm not sure what the problem is, the firmware should be this one.

If you are sure that your setup is correct and not to blame then it might be worth to contact Hasu about this. Tho everything works fine with my board

[sliceoflemon]

I realise I am necroing this thread but I thought a bit more info might fill out what is in here and help anyone else who is looking into this as well.

I've got the same keyboard, except for some reason the motherboard on mine is green and the shape of the board is a little different :

nec_multispeed1.jpg (858.74 KiB) Viewed 2171 times

The key switches are Alps SKFL :

nec_multispeed2.jpg (588.78 KiB) Viewed 2171 times

The keyboard does indeed using an XT protocol and I was able to get mine working over USB with Hasu's TMK IBM PC keyboard converter, the same as TNT used (I'm actually typing this article with it now).

I managed to dig up the manufacturer's manual for it and can confirm that TNT's wiring is correct. In my case, I also wired up pin 3 (Reset). I don't know for sure if it is needed but I ended up doing that while troubleshooting issues I had getting it to work (which were actually my own fault) during a prototyping phase and left it in when I actually soldered up the converter anyway.

There are 2 non-standard keys on it and these are the mappings for them :

Pop up - maps as Japanese Yen key (JIS Yen)
Help key - maps as numpad comma (P,)

I had to use the XT/AT Terminal Full key version of the firmware, because that was the only one that supported these two extra keys.

Note : I authorise the use of these pictures which I took for use in the wiki or if the information on this post needs to be moved or backed up to another site to preserve the information here. I do NOT authorise the use of this information for AI use in any manner.