deskthority

You can use a much more common and much cheaper Sun Type-4/Type-5 keyboard cable ($5 seems to be an ordinary price), but you'll have to shave the plastic corners off of one of the cable ends for it to fit into the LPFK (it took me a few seconds with a pair of diagonal cutters). It's just a straight ...

I will have no issues finding 5v for testing purposes, I suspect I can use a 7805 and some Li-Ion cells (of which I have far too many), for a more permanent installation.
This thing draws 500mA when all the LEDs are on. I think your coin cells will be drained rather quickly.

I'd recommend either ...

Doing a web search for "IBM LPFK classiccmp" brings up a few results. The guys on the classiccmp mailing list have tried this in the past.

Yes. I'm part of that thread.

This here has a linux driver and some slight information on connecting it to a computer (if you follow the link):
http://www ...

Having found your other thread, I see your original goal was just to get the LPFK working with a laptop. The MAX232 in the LPFK should work with any USB-serial dongle (I've seen issues with older 1488/1489 circuits not working with modern serial dongles, but the MAX232 is far more forgiving).

You ...

I saw your post about using the LPFK with an Arduino and I know a little bit about it.

Inside the LPFK is an 8031 MCU (MCS/51 with ROM), a MAX232 for serial, one 74LS00 that's used for the loopback function (the switch on the bottom) and reset, and four 74LS373 latches. I haven't completely reverse ...