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Fatar Studio 90 MIDIBOXed


docbrown
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Well to be honest I actually planned on using QBAS's code sending keypresses to the MK. Basically it's a cheap keybed to me, but I do wish I was about to trash something less rare  :-\

Unfortunately I didn't get a cable, and haven't been able to track down so much as a pinout :( I don't know if these things are meant to be velocity sensitive or what, and I fear destroying a perfectly good velocity/aftertouch sensitive keyboard matrix decoder may be ahead of me :(

If you have any info about these things it'd be great, or if you want to swap a similar board of lesser collector's value for it, just say the word and she's yours.

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Hi Stryd

I dug out the Keyboard IO card and did a rough pin check. This might be enough for a start.  The cable seems to be a 25 pin straight through as far as I can see, so far.

I finally weakened and unearthed the keyboard tonight, (hence the edit). You'll need to open yours over a sheet of newspaper or something - it's got the same crumbly foam around the key edges as under a Moog MG1 control panel. I didn't and my table is covered in sticky foam debris. It seems to be scanned in groups of eight and has a single wire per key, moving between a pair of bus bars, which indicates that it is velocity sensative. The bus bars are in eight pairs. It's scanned from the host - there is no on-board intelligence. The two 1/4" jack sockets are for pedals, they may be velocity sensitive too - they are on stereo jacks. Key isolation is by germanium diode, possibly a worry about volt drop. Keyboard electronics is a 74154 and two 74367's I'll beep out the circuits if I get a bit more time, but it looks to me like a simple I/O could be hooked to the existing circuitry. I've not got a full sized keyboard myself, so perhaps there might be a bit of a joint project here.

Since a list of Apple IO pins is not exactly MIDIbox relevent, I've sent you them as a memo. Note this was earlier, and is just the Apple 2 end card.

Hope it's some use - I'd always rather make an add-on  than butcher rarities. I do know the keyboard cards for the Syntauri are rare, though I seem to remember seeing another one in one of the boxes. I've just found a whole load of cards I coiuldn't remember getting either. Apple Z80 card... now where did that come from? so there is hope. You'll need to keep a lookout for the Mountain hardware thingy - it's two Apple cards hardwired together with a ribbon cable, with flying lead phono connectors, and if you're lucky, a light pen.

I'm in the UK, so a swap might be a problem - though if I find the other IO card, it might be cheap to mail you that, if you fancy trying a resurrection, (though more like necromancy I think!).

Best wishes

Mike

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Thanks man :)

I don't think I'll attempt the resurrection unfortunately, don't quite have the resources, but with that info I should be able to get the thing going as a midi keyboard and have it remain intact so that it could be resurrected by someone later on. I know it's historical value and I'm really glad I won't have to destroy it, so thanks man!

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