Thinkpads Forum

Hey guys, I started working on a T60 USB keyboard adapter that connects both the trackpoint and keyboard about 4 months ago. Today, I got it working. This is a video showing it at work! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50qiHnZofSY Sorry about the poor video quality but that's the max resolution my iPad goes up to.

I don't think that I'll be sharing the source code. Reason being my code isn't the best implementation there is, the code is fairly messy so it would require some documentation to understand, and I'm using an MSP430 microcontroller which is fairly unpopular among hobbyists.

As far as the adapter goes, I guess it would work with most to all T60 keyboards. I'm testing this with a 42T4066 from eBay, which I don't think is genuine at all. Now given that the R60, R61, T61 and Z60 uses the same connector and the same keyboard (searching through eBay returns the same keyboards), I would assume this would work with those as well.

Impressive work!

dr_st wrote:Impressive work!

Thanks. I'm thinking of porting this to Arduino, hoping it would perform better in terms of connecting to the computer. Right now I'm having a some trouble with getting the computer to recognize the mouse part of the device.

Great! I admire Your tenacity and persistence in this topic. I ripped off a keyboard connector from a broken T60 mainboard and soldered it to a breakout board. Could You please share the pinning You got so far? Just from looking at the mainboard I got this:

| 1  |     | 40 |     |
| 2  |     | 39 | VCC |
| 3  |     | 38 | GND |
| 4  | NC  | 37 | GND |
| 5  | GND | 36 |     |
| 6  |     | 35 |     | 
| 7  |     | 34 |     |
| 8  |     | 33 |     |
| 9  | NC  | 32 |     |
| 10 | NC  | 31 |     |
| 11 |     | 30 |     | 
| 12 |     | 29 |     |  
| 13 |     | 28 |     |
| 14 |     | 27 |     |
| 15 |     | 26 |     |
| 16 |     | 25 |     |
| 17 |     | 24 |     | 
| 18 |     | 23 |     |
| 19 |     | 22 |     |
| 20 |     | 21 |     |

Don't hesitate to share Your code. I am familiar with the MSP430 as well as AVR and would love to contribute to a port. Sounds like a good project for the upcoming autumn.

rweickelt wrote:Don't hesitate to share Your code. I am familiar with the MSP430 as well as AVR and would love to contribute to a port. Sounds like a good project for the upcoming autumn.

If you already know AVR, talk to Lars Pontoppidan. Google him. He uses an Atmel microcontroller to interface with his T6000x (I think that's the model).

rweickelt wrote:Could You please share the pinning You got so far?

There are a few T60 schematics out there. I'm not sure what the policy here is on sharing files so you will need to search it up yourself. Anyway, you first need to know where pin 1 is. In the T60 ribbon cable case, pin 1 is on the opposite side to the pointy end. Given that is the case, the pinout I'm working with is:

42	GND	|	| GND		41

2	ROW4	|	| FN KEY	1
4	ROW5	|	| COL5		3
6	ROW8	|	| COL0		5
8	ROW6	|	| COL3		7
10	ROW3	|	| COL2		9
12	ROW7	|	| COL4		11
14	ROW2	|	| COL1		13
16	ROW10	|	| COL6		15
18	ROW1	|	| COL7		17
20	ROW9	|	| PWRSWTICH	19
22	ROW0	|	| NC		21
24	ROW11	|	| NC		23
26	ROW14	|	| UNSURE	25
28	ROW12	|	| UNSURE	27
30	ROW15	|	| UNSURE	29
32	ROW13	|	| GND		31
34	GND	|	| NC		33
36	GND	|	| NC		35
38	TP_5V	|	| TP_DATA	37
40	TP_RST	|	| TP_CLOCK	39

44	GND	|	| GND		43

How did you do yours so perfectly aligned?

That's smart! I've not even thought about searching for a leaked thinkpad schematic. Thank You. Found it. That also explains the pin-numbering in Your post and the reason why You are sure about the connector type.

Regarding the alignment: Have a look into the BBCode documention and the tag "pre" for preformatted text.

rweickelt wrote:Regarding the alignment: Have a look into the BBCode documention and the tag "pre" for preformatted text.

Wonderful. Thanks for that.