[HN Gopher] Reverse engineering the 1988 NeXT keyboard protocol
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Reverse engineering the 1988 NeXT keyboard protocol
Author : spenczar5
Score : 98 points
Date : 2022-01-24 19:28 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (journal.spencerwnelson.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (journal.spencerwnelson.com)
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| Never did electronics, so when I've read of logic analyzers in a
| book, it sounded like something between an oscilloscope and a
| complex gadget out of a story from Isaac Asimov. It's surprising
| they're so simple, cheap and effective.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| Benchtop logic analyzers used to be more complicated. They are
| still technically superior with better probe termination,
| higher sample rates, and sophisticated hardware triggering.
| danhor wrote:
| The big down side is of course the limited sample memory.
| Many (especially the very popular, because cheap, fx2la) pc-
| based ones simply stream the data, which enables the use of
| all PC RAM and essentially infinite capture times.
| MayeulC wrote:
| Last time I tried a cheap ($8) saleae fx2la clone using
| pulseview/sigrok (open source combo for visualization, with
| open source fx2lafw), I didn't find a continuous option,
| but that might have been a GUI issue, thanks for the tip!
| danhor wrote:
| You can just set the sample count really high (up to 1
| trillion). The samples are not compressed in RAM, so the
| maximal capture time is determined by the size. For 8 GiG
| and 24 MHz this means you can capture for ~6 minutes.
|
| I tend to simply set the sample count higher than needed
| and stop the capture prematurely.
| thought_alarm wrote:
| I like to think that there's an alternate universe where the
| entire industry adopted NeXT's idea of replacing the dedicated
| Caps Lock key with a Command+Shift key combination, because it's
| such a smart and obviously correct thing to do.
|
| Sadly, I'll never live in that universe.
| andrewshadura wrote:
| I understand it was quite popular in the MSX world.
| yndoendo wrote:
| That world does exist with programmable keyboards. Fn +
| Capslock = Capslock On / Off toggle. Capslock = Esc. Makes
| coding in VI / VIM quicker on the touch and lighter on the
| fingers. Just wish laptop manufacturers would include
| programmable keyboards so multi-boot allows retention instead
| of having to run a service to override the OS input device.
| Bud wrote:
| Had one of these with my original NeXT Cube that I bought new
| while in grad school.
|
| Still one of my favorite keyboards ever. And the Cube itself was
| so far ahead of everything else out there at the time that it
| felt like pure magic.
| technothrasher wrote:
| > And the Cube itself was so far ahead of everything else out
| there at the time that it felt like pure magic.
|
| Ah, the good old days, when I used to argue with my buddy that
| my SGI Indigo was more magical than his NeXTcube. It was even
| more fun than the old Mac/PC arguments. The Android/iOS fights
| today just don't have the same lustre.
| smm11 wrote:
| ADB? This means I can use an old Mac keyboard on NeXT, or vice-
| versa?
| jandrese wrote:
| He says it is DIN of the "non-ADB" flavor, so probably not.
| Bud wrote:
| I used to use an Apple Extended Keyboard II on my NeXTStation
| Turbo Color. The later NeXT models had full ADB support. The
| early Cubes did not.
|
| I also sometimes used an ADB NeXT keyboard with various Macs in
| the 1990s.
| itomato wrote:
| On models with ROM v74 or above. On NeXT hardware, you can also
| go the other way.
|
| Pretty good thread:
| http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=3428.0
| kragen wrote:
| Nelson seems to have been using a Rigol benchtop scope and some
| proprietary software that came with his generic logic analyzer.
| But from long experience I'm wary of investing my time in
| proprietary vendor tools.
|
| Does anyone have a good overview of the free-software signal-
| analyzer-software/oscilloscope-software landscape? I've played
| with sigrok a little bit, enough to get it to decode some PS/2
| signals I captured on an Arduino. OpenHantek looks pretty great
| over in oscilloscope-land. What else is out there, and what's
| better or worse, or why?
| satya71 wrote:
| Haven't used them ever, but Red Pitaya[1] had a compelling
| pitch.
|
| [1] https://redpitaya.com/
| erwincoumans wrote:
| Check out this DSO:
| https://www.tindie.com/products/earth_people_technology/open...
|
| btw, some people tried to reverse engineer and rewrite the
| firmware for this Rigol
| https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/rigol-ds10xxz-firmwar...
| corysama wrote:
| Hey spenczar5, https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseEngineering/ would
| like this a lot :)
| spenczar5 wrote:
| Good idea, I've just posted it there :)
| AutumnMeowMeow wrote:
| What a lovely tale! These are just the best. :)
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