German Mega ST keyboard

[OldAtarian]

What is different about a German Mega keyboard from a US one? IS there a ROM in the keyboard that contains any unique German characters? If there is, can it be replaced with one from a US keyboard?

[Sub(Function(:))]

As far as I know the only difference is only the characters printed on the keys themselves.

 

Keyboards usually send scan codes to the OS (Not the Letter 'A', 'B' etc). The OS then translates these scan codes in to characters for the screen.

 

BTW if you want the keyboard to match what is typed then you will need to change the language of the TOS. Or I think Philsan found an program to do this in software.

[oky2000]

Pull the key caps off your broken US Mega keyboard and swap them over

[OldAtarian]

So the character set is part of TOS and not part of the keyboard itself? That's good to know. So whatever the German money symbol was at that time will show up as a dollar sign? And any accented characters will display as normal English? Will the keycaps from any other ST keyboards work? I was buying this for a machine that had no keyboard to begin with. It was actually a lot cheaper for me to go the German route than to order one from Best. Best wants more for the keyboard than I paid for the rest of the machine with monitor, Megafile 30 and tons of software.

Edited November 19, 2010 by OldAtarian

[Sub(Function(:))]

I would get a set of stickers and put over the keys.

 

For the letters german keyboards only swap the Y and Z. but this can be a little bit anozing <--see

 

There are also the german "special" character (ess-zet and a, o and u with umlauts) these tend to have there own keys, so you loose some keys for these. The big problem I have though is with all the other characters !@#$%^&*() these are not in the same places on the german as on US. germans also use other special characters such as §. but I cannot remember if the ST has these (think it does). The conclusion is if you touch type you are OK, if you hunt and peck you need uses stickers

 

You can uses any Mega keycaps but not ST(f,fm,e..) ones there are a different size and shape.

[OldAtarian]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Fri Nov 19, 2010 2:44 AM' timestamp='1290152681' post='2139827]

I would get a set of stickers and put over the keys.

 

For the letters german keyboards only swap the Y and Z. but this can be a little bit anozing <--see

 

There are also the german "special" character (ess-zet and a, o and u with umlauts) these tend to have there own keys, so you loose some keys for these. The big problem I have though is with all the other characters !@#$%^&*() these are not in the same places on the german as on US. germans also use other special characters such as §. but I cannot remember if the ST has these (think it does). The conclusion is if you touch type you are OK, if you hunt and peck you need uses stickers

 

You can uses any Mega keycaps but not ST(f,fm,e..) ones there are a different size and shape.

 

It sounds to me, then, that the character set is stored in the keyboard so there must be a chip somewhere inside that holds it.

[Sub(Function(:))]

...

It sounds to me, then, that the character set is stored in the keyboard so there must be a chip somewhere inside that holds it.

 

 

I got a Mega Ste while I was in Switzerland. It had German TOS and Keyboard. I got a couple of TOS ROMS from eBay, and the keyboard gave the correct UK characters on the screen. ie Z and Y were correct :; instead of ä ...

 

I did get a UK keyboards later, mainly because of the () are shifted to the left form the DE keyboard, and I was getting too many typo's because of this.

[wongck]

So the character set is part of TOS and not part of the keyboard itself? That's good to know. So whatever the German money symbol was at that time will show up as a dollar sign? And any accented characters will display as normal English?

 

The symbol is stored in TOS. If you have a German Tos, it will come out the German money symbol.

The keyboard just sents the GDOS ASCII position that will translate to ASCII code. I mention GDOS ASCII because I remember reading somewhere that states there is some difference between it & ASCII.

 

Anyway, think of it as coordinates where the key is pressed. This is sent to the computer and it figures that the particular coordinates produces a particular symbol. The symbol, how it looks like, is hardcoded in the TOS.

 

So you have to replace the German TOS with US TOS or British TOS. IIRC,the British TOS has hoth the £ and $ symbol.

You also need to change the keyboard keycaps to represent the symbol you want.

[majere]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:01 AM' timestamp='1290121302' post='2139597]

BTW if you want the keyboard to match what is typed then you will need to change the language of the TOS. Or I think Philsan found an program to do this in software.

 

I have just adquired one mega ste from germany, and I want to use my spanish mega st keyboard. If any knows a program to change the language it's perfect to me.

[Sub(Function(:))]

 

I have just adquired one mega ste from germany, and I want to use my spanish mega st keyboard. If any knows a program to change the language it's perfect to me.

 

try this link keyboard thead

[majere]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Fri Dec 3, 2010 8:58 AM' timestamp='1291363092' post='2149609]

try this link keyboard thead

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks very much Sub(Function(), for the info

Edited December 3, 2010 by majere