Data General 6246 Keyboard Conversion

snacksthecat · 28 Jan 2019, 03:22

A couple of guys on reddit reached out for help converting Data General boards. I finished one up last week and it turned out nicely.

But this other one that was sent to me... Is so nice!

I just have some photos for now but I'll also be posting my (probably failed) attempt to convert the protocol. Most likely this is going to be another controller replacement projects.

benredikfyfasan · 28 Jan 2019, 12:04

exciting! beautiful caps though!

Dingster · 28 Jan 2019, 15:04

Wow best of luck, very good looking board.

snacksthecat · 29 Jan 2019, 05:26

Polecat · 29 Jan 2019, 05:38

Beautiful! I had one of these back in the '90s, and it had a lovely feel and sound. I really wanted to use it, but I had no way to convert it. I actually considered hand wiring the matrix and using the controller out of an AT clone keyboard, but I never got that far. I may still have it packed away in storage, but more likely I didn't save it.

PlacaFromHell · 29 Jan 2019, 09:26

It is the clicky version of the Fujitsu leaf spring, right?

snacksthecat · 31 Jan 2019, 18:33

PlacaFromHell wrote: 29 Jan 2019, 09:26 It is the clicky version of the Fujitsu leaf spring, right?

Yep, here's a close up of what they look like in action (disassembled):

Moosewing · 31 Jan 2019, 19:33

Hey, that's my keyboard! Cool to see it getting some love on here. Super excited to get it back under my fingers because those are some absolute A+ Tier switches, to say nothing of the rest of the board.

PlacaFromHell · 01 Feb 2019, 16:30

Thanks Snacks. For how it looks, should feel like a better and maybe softer Futaba MA.

Sangdrax · 01 Feb 2019, 19:07

It's lucky that this is a 3rd Gen with the diodes so you can gut the controller and swap out. My Epson with the 2nd Gen leafsprings doesn't have that so the only hope I have is a converter. They are very lovely switches.

zigmachiz · 01 Feb 2019, 21:10

I have four of these just sitting on my table. I'll get them working some day because the switches are a dream to use.

snacksthecat · 10 Feb 2019, 02:09

I decided that I've been moving too slow on this project so I'm not going to poke around with the protocol this time around.

I got the matrix traced out and got everything wired up the other day. The majority of pins lined up nicely across two ICs. The problem is that a Teensy++ 2.0 doesn't fit nicely as a drop-in solution. For that reason, I had to tilt the pins outward on both sides. Here's what I'm talking about:

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From the top it looks pretty natural:

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And from the bottom:

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And here's the whole thing soldered in place with the additional wires as well:

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