Retrocomputing
USB for a 1977 Keyboard
The talk will be about how I bought a retro keyboard for a VISTA80 from the Canada Science and Technology museum and reversed engineered it to convert it passively to USB. The VISTA80 was a machine built in Canada and was used to "Create pages of text for cable TV systems or to create running lines of text or titles for television displays."¹ The VISTA80 was manufactured around 1995-1997 and was "One of the first character generators to use a computer chip (Intel 8080A) as a controller"¹.
1: https://ingeniumcanada.org/ingenium/collection-research/collection-item.php?id=1992.0451.009
The history of the Vista80
A look inside of the keyboard
The Original circuitry
Prototype
Mapping the matrix
Making the circuit board
Highlights and Lessons learned
I would potentially like to collaborate with the museum to get more information on the device.
Additional information
| Type | devroom |
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