Help troubleshooting a non-working Break key

[bfollowell]

I fellow AA user sent me a 600XL they'd purchased to upgrade for them. I installed an SRAM 64K upgrade, a UAV and monitor port, and an U1MB. The upgrades all went well. The remaining problem is the keyboard. It has what appears to be a Type 2 AWC keyboard that was acting somewhat flakey when it first arrived. Working on the keyboard was out of the scope of what I'd agreed to, but I'm reluctant to send this machine back to its owner in anything less than 100% working order unless I just absolutely have to. The + and * keys didn't work initially, but a little cleaning and light exercising of them seemed to free them up. A couple of other keys seemed a little flakey, but I've mostly got them working as well after cleaning and exercising them. The only remaining issue is that the Break key has never worked, not even once. I've verified with my meter at the end of the ribbon cable that the switch itself is working flawlessly. Just to rule it out, I removed the resistor board and plugged the ribbon cable straight into the motherboard, but the Break key is still not working at all. Looking at the keyboard matrix, I don't see anything special about the way the Break key is wired or the way it should work. Seeing as it's only this one key, it seems pretty doubtful to me that it would be one of the 4051s. Is there anything that could affect just this one key and nothing else? I'm going to swap the 4051s with one of my good machines after lunch, just to rule them out, but I'm really not expecting to see any change.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

 

EDIT: I started thinking about it, and I'd only checked the Break key from the built-in keyboard diagnostic. From the READY prompt, the Break key works just fine. It just doesn't appear to work from within the built-in diagnostics test. Is that normal? Maybe it's OK after all.

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by bfollowell

[Mclaneinc]

Just tried Altirra and the break key does not register...

[StickJock]

Yeah, that's how mine behaves as well.  It appears to be normal.

 

[Tuxon86]

It's normal, the Break key doesn't register during the keyboard test. 

[bfollowell]

Yeah, I finally double-checked in Altirra and it seemed to be behaving exactly like this one. It's really sort of strange that they add in a spot for a key in the keyboard test for a key that won't work in the keyboard test.

 

Oh well, hopefully I'll remember next time.

 

I think everything is good now. Time to double-check, then reassemble, then triple check.

 

Thanks guys!

 

 

[thorfdbg]

The break key works differently from the remaining keys. It does not have a keyboard code, but triggers a separate interrupt from Pokey. It would have required extra code in the keyboard test to make it register.

[xrbrevin]

salt tests the break key

[bfollowell]

1 hour ago, thorfdbg said:

The break key works differently from the remaining keys. It does not have a keyboard code, but triggers a separate interrupt from Pokey. It would have required extra code in the keyboard test to make it register.

 

All the more reason that it seems sort of stupid that the Break key shows on the screen for the keyboard tests then.

 

[_The Doctor__]

Maybe the SALT code section for break key test could be put in @reifsnyderb's OS.

[reifsnyderb]

37 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Maybe the SALT code section for break key test could be put in @reifsnyderb's OS.

It would be a good idea to test the break key.  I'll add it to the list.