Posted by ArcadeNut on 7, 2001 at 4:42 PM:
I'm in the middle of a keyboard hack and I had this idea (it may not be an original)...
If I can get 16 keys without ghosting/blocking problem from one keyboard and use Stephan Han's splitter and add another keyboard hack to that set up, do I get 32 keys without ghosting/blocking (providing that I use 16 different keys on the 2nd keyboard) ?
But then I read this from Stephan Han's page...
(How it works:
The pc remains able to communicate with the keyboard 1 by pulling down its data line (pin 2 of the DIN connector) using diode D1. When one of the keyboards
communicates with the pc, the data line is pulled to low (with the start bit) by the corresponding keyboard. This is detected by T1 and T3. Via T2 and T4 the
cmos switch 4053 is triggered and pulls the clock line (pin 1 of the DIN connector) of the other keyboard to low. So the other keyboard buffers its data until the
clock goes high again, this time depends on the combination of C1/R2 and C2/R4 and must be long enough for that the first keyboard is ready with sending its
data.)
Although I'm not an electronic buff, it appears to me that the transmission of data to pc switches between the 2 keyboards. Will this interfere with gameplay?
What do you folks think? Your wisdom will be greatly appreciated.