FAQ: Fooling pc to think a keyboard is plugged in.

I guessed; stripped all four wires, and kept trying randomly. =) I figured red would probably be the 5v, and tried diffrent wires hoping one would be ground (unless that one wire w/o plastic covering is the ground?)

Do the colors vary from keyboard to keyboard?

Does the side the wire touches of the resistor matter?

Thanks!

The sides don't matter, but for heaven's sake, use a digital multimeter to be sure which wire is which.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Termina

I guessed; stripped all four wires, and kept trying randomly. =) I figured red would probably be the 5v, and tried diffrent wires hoping one would be ground (unless that one wire w/o plastic covering is the ground?)

Do the colors vary from keyboard to keyboard?

Does the side the wire touches of the resistor matter?

Thanks!

---

The colors for PS/2 are not standardized from what I know. You should be able to use your multimeter and figure out which pin on the PS/2 cable is which colored wire, and then look at the OP's post to determine what it's function is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Termina

I guessed; stripped all four wires, and kept trying randomly. =) I figured red would probably be the 5v, and tried diffrent wires hoping one would be ground (unless that one wire w/o plastic covering is the ground?)

Do the colors vary from keyboard to keyboard?

Does the side the wire touches of the resistor matter?

Thanks!

---

While you were randomly tickling your computer, did you allow the PC to sit at the "keyboard not found" error, and just randomly try wire combinations? Because you have to reboot the computer after each random attempt.

No, red is probably not 5V+.

A simple resistor may or may not work with your computer/bios. On the old style AT keyboards, yes, 99% of the time it'll work. This method with the resistor may or may not work. I know for a fact it won't work on 99% of all server motherboards. However, desktop motherboards, and micro motherboards it's a %50/%50 chance it will work. Some motherboards are "smarter" than others, and actually talk to the keyboard, instead of sensing a voltage drop/lack of floating line.

There is a commercial solution. This is typically called a "dummy keyboard", there are many other types including, "dummy video", "dummy keyboard", "dummy mouse", etc. Search google, it's not easy to find on google, but you can find them. Here's a link for a intelligent dummy keyboard.

http://www.multibug.co.uk/keyboard_dummy.html


Knight.

Of course, if you are going to buy a keyboard dummy, for just a few dollars more, you can get an iPac interface that will turn switch presses into keyboard commands. That would also fool your keyboard.
http://www.ultimarc.com/images/ipac2_diag.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bugbyte

Of course, if you are going to buy a keyboard dummy, for just a few dollars more, you can get an iPac interface that will turn switch presses into keyboard commands. That would also fool your keyboard.

---

Very nice. I didn't even think of the iPac.

Knight.