Dec 3000/300 keyboard/mouse box

From: Mzthompson_at_aol.com <(Mzthompson_at_aol.com)>
Date: Tue Jan 14 08:28:01 2003

On Mon, 13 Jan 2003; Steven Nikkel <steven_nikkel_at_ertyu.org> scribbled:

> I recovered a couple Dec 3000/300 machines at work, with keyboards
> and mice and can't find any of the keyboard/mice break out boxes.
> What do they look like? Or where can I find them inexpensively?

First of all, a RANT: Why is it that when a company takes a machine out
of service, the first thing they do is toss the cables. Over the years
I have scrounged a few DECstations only to find that the video cables
were nowhere to be found. I also managed to haul home several VXT2000
workstations but only one video cable amongst all of them. $&^%**&%%

Anyway. It is not so much a breakout box as it is a (rather long) cable
with a molded box on the end of it. The box contains the sockets for the
keyboard and mouse. I put together some info a while back and I will
just paste it to the end of this.

Hope it helps,
Mike Thompson

P.S. I have to wonder, now that you know what you are looking for, if it
might not be worth another search around work.

DECstation 5000 keyboard/mouse cable and related info
--------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------
---------------
The DECstation 5000 has a 15 pin (male) D connector on the back for keyboard
and mouse connections. There is a cable that plugs into the 5000 connector
and has a keyboard socket (RJ-11) and a mouse socket (7 pin mini-din) on the
other end. The part number for the cable is 17-02640-01.

A reader of a previous version of this has confirmed from the manual
EK-PELCN-OG for the Dec 3000/300L AXP that the same cable is used on that
series of machines. He also confirmed the following pinout information.

For a keyboard, use a LK201, LK401, or LK402.
For a mouse, use a VSXXX-AA (round hockey puck) or VSXXX-GA (rectangular).

CABLE INFO

The cable pinout (from the DECstation 5000/240 manual) is:

Pin Signal Desc.
1 GND Ground (to keyboard socket)
2 KEY.TX Keyboard transmitted data
3 KEY.RX Keyboard received data
4 +12v Keyboard power
5 GND Ground
6 MSE.RX Mouse received data
7 MSE.TX Mouse transmitted data
8 GND Ground (to mouse socket)
9 GND Ground (to mouse socket)
10 NC
11 NC
12 NC
13 +5v Mouse power
14 -12v Mouse power
15 GND Ground (to mouse socket)

I have also verified the above info with a VOM.

KEYBOARD INFO

As for the keyboard, I had a couple of them open a while back (to clean
out the cookie crumbs) and traced them out somewhat. Looking into the
end of the plug on the cable coming from the keyboard.

     |------------|
     | o o o o |
     | B R G Y |
     |___| |___|
         |____|
                   
B - Black - Data from keyboard
R - Red - +12v to keyboard
G - Green - Ground
Y - Yellow - Data to keyboard

And looking into the socket on the end of the 17-02640-01 cable:
(also applies to the keyboard socket on a terminal such as a VT420)

     |------------|
     | o o o o |
     | Y G R B |
     |___| |___|
         |____|

Pin
 Y to pin 3 of the 15 pin D connector on cable 17-02640-01
 G to pin 1 ...
 R to pin 4 ...
 B to pin 2 ...

I do not include pin numbers for the keyboard connector because I have
found on-line references to some of this info and in some cases the pin
numbers differ. Your mileage may vary.

MOUSE INFO

As for the mouse, you will find the pinouts below and the signals.
Please note that the pin numbers may not be the official DEC numbers.
Here again, I have seen on-line references to some of this info and
the pin numbers differ.

Looking into the plug coming from the mouse:

       5 6 7
       o o o
    4 o === o 1
        o o
        3 2

1 - -12v
2 - Data to mouse
3 - Ground
4 - Data from mouse
5 - +5v
6 - nc
7 - nc

And looking at the socket on a machine or end of the 17-02640-01 cable:

       7 6 5
       o o o
    1 o === o 4
        o o
        2 3

Pin
 1 to pin 14 of the 15 pin D connector on cable 17-02640-01
 2 to pin 6 ...
 3 to pins 8, 9, & 15 ...
 4 to pin 7 ...
 5 to pin 13 ...
 6 nc
 7 nc
Received on Tue Jan 14 2003 - 08:28:01 GMT

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