Close, but no cigar..

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I can give you a screen shot of each layer on the Aurora PCB, if that would help, I will update later on.

I was entering the schematic gif file into Kicad 7 eeschem and import the parts into the PCB file. With the correct 3D shapes, the Kicad PCB program has a nice 3D viewer..

Here is the unpopulated PCB:

[attachment=0]Aurora2_PCB.png[/attachment]

[Pr0f]

So an update on this

I aquired another Aurora board, and was able to get a Minerva boot logo, but nothing else on the screen. Progress at last...

After some more checking - I spotted the issue - SuperHermes was one pin overhanging in the 40 pin IPC socket. I powered everything down, took all the cards out, unscrewed the Aurora, carefully seated the SuperHermes back on the Aurora board, and then did a quick test before bolting it all up again - I now get an F1/F2 etc prompt as well.

However...

It appears that SuperHermes will not work with any keyboard I posses, and certainly not the Belkin KVM that everything else is working off. I did some hunting around and found some cryptic comments in the documentation for SuperHermes:

IBM KEYBOARD Currently Acer, BTK, Chicony work well, and all
branded (ICL/AST/IBM etc) keyboards we have tried. Some old
keyboards (circa 1988) don't work. Our driver relies on a
keyboard being able to use what is called MF3 mode. Some
keyboards will not do this, and we don't (at present) support
them. Some people, I know, don't like the capitalisation of ä ö
ü with capslock on

What is MF3 mode?!?! I searched tinterweb high and low but find nothing - I've got some extensive notes about PS/2 from another project - and I can only assume that what's being referenced is Scan Code set 3 - now that would be a problem! A lot of modern keyboards don't support that - the default for almost anything these days is Scan Code set 2

Electrically and protocol wise - AT and PS/2 are virtually the same, so using PS/2 6 pin mini din connector if it's wired right should not be a problem. But as none of my keyboards seem to play along, unless I can build some kind of converter - I will need to find a keyboard that will work. Trawling through the old messages on here - it seems a compact Cherry keyboard with 5 pin Din connector should work - found one on eBay for £25 - so that's ordered

If that works - then I think at some stage a later project will be a scan code converter to allow modern PS/2 Keyboards to play along with SuperHermes(& the lite variant).

Anyway - more progess updates soon and some pics...

[BSJR]

...
What is MF3 mode?!?! I searched tinterweb high and low but find nothing - I've got some extensive notes about PS/2 from another project - and I can only assume that what's being referenced is Scan Code set 3 - now that would be a problem! A lot of modern keyboards don't support that - the default for almost anything these days is Scan Code set 2

At one time I wanted to connect a compact din keyboard to my SuperHermes.
As it didn't work I asked Tony Firshman to test it and his conclusion was that it did not generate an end-of-keypress signal and that was why it failed. Could that have been the MF3 mode issue?

Other PS/2 keyboards I have do work with S'Hermes.

The old compact now even works on a more modern PC via din-to-PS/2 & PS/2-to-usb IF-cables.

BSJR

[Pr0f]

The oldest PC keyboards - for the XT only sent a make scan code - no break scan code on release of a key. Also, the inteface was uni directional - nothing was sent to the keyboard itself.

With the AT specifcation we got 3 different sets of scan codes - but not all keyboards produce all the scan codes - and some can be commanded to change the scan code set.

Most PS/2 keyboards and modern USB / PS2 switchable keyboards produce Scan Code 2 set, very few do the Scan Code 3. It's the "Betamax" of scan codes I guess - at one time it was the improved specification, but it's fallen out of favour and use.

At the time the SuperHermes was designed - chosing Scan Code 3 would have made sense.

[Pr0f]

Well - it's now booting and loading a keyboard driver - and the compact AT keyboard that I saw recommended is working a treat.

Now to format some mass storage and get things moving along a little - I will take some pics later today. I also want to try a ZIP drive.

I think I've placed my 40 pin header the wrong way around - so without an adapter the DOM module interface isn't going to work, and SD Card interface - I think I need to force that into PIO Mode 3, 2 or 1 if I can.

[Pr0f]

Front and rear shots:

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Pictures look great, well done.

You might have problems with the aa IDE ZIP drive as the QUBide will register the ZIP drive and list any partitions, but unless there changes in QubATA driver, then the ZIP Cartridge will not be hot swap-able.

20 odd years ago, I had a LS120 drive on a Qubide, which works well, but there was no Disk Change routine.

[Pr0f]

The partitions on the zip can be unlinked / unmounted, and the 'disk' in the zip drive changed, so not hot swappable, but "luke warm". It was more as a backup strategy that I included it, and as a possible means to transfer large numbers of files, as I have an XP computer that I have a zip drive attached to that I should be able to move files to and from.