- Details
- Geschrieben von Super User
- Hauptkategorie: Magazines
- Kategorie: CFOG's PIP
- Veröffentlicht: 30. November 1987
- Zugriffe: 32361
CFOG's PIP, March 1988, Volume 7 No. 2, Whole No. 64, page 28
Foot Control Pedal For CP/M Kaypros
by Benjamin H. Cohen
Copyright 1987 by Benjamin H. Cohen. All rights reserved.
For a long time I've used a foot pedal to actuate the CTRL key on some of my Osbornes. The idea is simple: WordStar, the program that I used most, required intensive use of the CTRL key. By the end of a long session with WS my left pinky was sore. Even more important, every time I needed to hit the CTRL key and a letter on the left half of the keyboard I was forced to relocate my hand and make an awkward movement, then put my hand back on the home keys. This meant the fingers were behind the mind, always a bad idea for a writer.
On the Osbornes the implementation meant cutting a keyboard cable, installing a special jumper box, and adding a foot pedal. Unfortunately with some Osborne keyboards, both Oak and TEC, the signals to the system were such that the foot pedal CTRL key didn't always work. Sometimes it worked, but other signals from the keyboard were messed up.
An article in the April 1987 issue of ProFiles, the Kaypro Corporation magazine, told how to add a foot pedal for the CTRL key on CP/M Kaypros. [It won't work on MS-DOS Kaypros, it's a completely different keyboard.] I tried it out and it works. All you have to do is disassemble the keyboard case, solder two wires onto the keyboard, run them to a socket you attach to the keyboard case, and plug in a foot pedal that you can get at Radio Shack for $3. I won't detail the job: read the ProFiles article.
I did make one change from the recommendations in the ProFiles article. I used plastic tape to insulate the socket from the keyboard case.
I also found it useful to cut the foot pedal cable and add a length of wire to it. That makes it easy to snake the pedal cable around and locate the pedal. I also took some double-faced tape and stuck the pedal to the floor so that I know where it will be when I want it. That doesn't work too well on a carpeted floor: I'm still working on a solution to that!
