Thinkpads Forum

this is a bit nuts but i'm wondering whether it would be possible to use one of the 600 series bodies and turn it into a USB keyboard for my desktop. in other words, i'm envisioning the bottom half of the laptop (no screen) and go from the keyboard and trackpoint into the pc tower via USB. can it be done? 600 series keyboards are my favorite and i would love to use that as my main keyboard. thanks

alfio

I suppose it's possible, but I haven't done it before. I believe the keyboard and trackpoint use a PS/2 interface, which can be converted to USB. http://www.amazon.com/Adesso-Adapter-co ... B00008ZPED looks like something you could use. The problem now is making two standard PS/2 male connectors for your 600's keyboard and trackpoint to use with the PS/2 to USB device. Looks like you're going to have to do some ribbon cable dissection.

Please let us know if you can get it to work. If my 770 finally bit the dust then I might try something like this.

While not a tp 600 it is a thinkpad branded keyboard. Looks to be a t4x style layout. Sadly it is unavailable, but might be had second hand.

http://www.amazon.com/IBM-31P9490-Keybo ... B0002PUIAA

harshbarj wrote:While not a tp 600 it is a thinkpad branded keyboard. Looks to be a t4x style layout. Sadly it is unavailable, but might be had second hand.

http://www.amazon.com/IBM-31P9490-Keybo ... B0002PUIAA

I have one of those.... its okay, but not as good as the 600 series keyboard.

If the OP figures out how to connect a 600 series keyboard to a desktop, there will be a crowd of Thinkpadders knocking on his door... me included.

virge wrote:
I have one of those.... its okay, but not as good as the 600 series keyboard.

If the OP figures out how to connect a 600 series keyboard to a desktop, there will be a crowd of Thinkpadders knocking on his door... me included.

I don't see how it's possible without a lot of work. Virtually all laptop keyboard have the electrics on the motherboard. it would be like removing the off a standard usb keyboard and trying to use that. Only way I can see it working is to find the pinout of the keyboard and design an atmel chip and program to interface with a ps/2 port and the keyboard. Designing the program and circuit would be trivial, the pinout would the the hard part. Sounds like a project!

i'm still interested in this and, even though i don't know a thing about circuits and keyboards, i'd really like to learn...

so, with the caveat that this may be entirely misguided, i proceed. i have a spare dell keyboard and i thought it could provide the necessary donor parts to (at least) begin executing this idea. i pulled it apart and found a connector where the key inputs (sorry, don't know what it's called) meet a circuit board, seen here

i also pulled my 600 donor apart and found the connector from the keyboard to the motherboard, seen here: here

assuming there was a way to connect the 600 keyboard into the dell circuit, does this idea have any potential? (try not to laugh too hard )

I started looking into this but haven't had chance to try the project yet. I think its possible and I have all the necessary parts, just need to find time to work on it.

Here's a helpful site: http://www.grynx.com/projects/converted ... -keyboard/

The author used an old AT keyboard controller, but a PS2 one is very similar. I pulled one from a spare keyboard-- the connections are the more simplified which should be a good thing. Now its just a matter of soldering and then keymapping... if only I had more time!