pic as ps/2 keyboard

[mister_e]

[T.Jackson]

Out of interest - I wonder what the requirements would be to get a PC to boot with a PIC attached rather than the actual keyboard. Anyone done this?

[mister_e]

mmm, i would probably suggest to record what's happen on the Keyboard Data line first.. or maybe there's a way to tell the BIOS to skip the Keyboard test... sure someone already done this before.

MAybe it just need to see a logic level. I would guess of pull-up.

[skimask]

mmm, i would probably suggest to record what's happen on the Keyboard Data line first.. or maybe there's a way to tell the BIOS to skip the Keyboard test... sure someone already done this before.

Generally, if you select 'Quick Boot' (or whatever else it might be called), bypass some of the POST checks, in the BIOS, the PC won't check the keyboard except for watching for stuck keys. I just tried it on my new-ish Asus Mobo with a 945 chipset.

Quick Boot disabled - No keyboard (USB or PS/2) - Failed, wouldn't continue booting.
Quick Boot enabled - No keyboard - Passed.
Quick Boot enabled - Keyboard, holding down space bar - Failed, but continued booting.

EDIT: There's usually a couple of settings for 'Halt on Disk/Key errors' that can be turned on/off.

[T.Jackson]

Could be a project of interest. I've read magazine articles suggesting some crude ways to get your PC to boot without a keyboard. One suggested method was to gut an old keyboard, grab the board out and cut everything off except the controller IC then whack it in a box. This never seemed very appealing, so I never attempted it.

[mister_e]

mmm somewhere at the bottom of the page of this link
http://www.computer-engineering.org/ps2keyboard/

they say

Initialization:

The following is the communication between my computer and keyboard when it boots-up. I beleive the first three commands were initiated by the keyboad controller, the next command (which enables Num lock LED) was sent by the BIOS, then the rest of the commands were sent my the OS (Win98SE). Remember, these results are specific to my computer, but it should give you a general idea as to what happens at startup.

Keyboard: AA Self-test passed ;Keyboard controller init
Host: ED Set/Reset Status Indicators
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: 00 Turn off all LEDs
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: F2 Read ID
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Keyboard: AB First byte of ID
Host: ED Set/Reset Status Indicators ;BIOS init
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: 02 Turn on Num Lock LED
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: F3 Set Typematic Rate/Delay ;Windows init
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: 20 500 ms / 30.0 reports/sec
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: F4 Enable
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: F3 Set Typematic Rate/delay
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge
Host: 00 250 ms / 30.0 reports/sec
Keyboard: FA Acknowledge

not sure if it's all true AND OR outdated.