Kenny
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Hi, I'm trying to sync a keyboard to my gameboy pocket running lsdj and I've been running into some troubles. I've spliced my gameboy link cable onto a keyboard with a ps/2 connector as well as one with a din connector, and I've had no luck. The gameboy turns on and runs fine with the keyboard attached but doesn't respond to any button presses from either keyboard. I followed the pin connections mentioned here http://littlesounddj.wikia.com/wiki/PC_ … Interface, and didn't go off of wire color, I traced each pin and connected the wires according to the diagram. One thing I don't fully understand is people talking about powered vs non-powered link cables. My link cable does have a wire inside the bundle that leads to the +5v pin, is that the only requirement for it to be a powered link cable? I've tried both keyboards with lsdj 4.7.2 and 3.9.2 . Since it's a gameboy pocket does that mean maybe it can't provide enough power to the keyboard and I should connect an external supply? Thanks for any suggestions!

Edit: I tried connecting the 5v and ground cables from a usb cable to the 5v and ground cables from the keyboard cable and connecting that to a little 5v battery for charging cell phones, and that didn't help either. Will that cell phone battery work as an external power source, and am I connecting it the right way, or should I be connecting the cables from the external power, the keyboard, and the link cable all together rather than just the keyboard and external power? Thanks again for any help!

Last edited by Kenny (Jun 9, 2013 7:16 am)

GoingHam
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Chicago

This thread should probably clear up some keyboard confusion.

http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/7615/ … ch-thread/

Kenny
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I didn't find much info there that helped with the problems I am having. It seemed like most useful bit I got out of that is that not all keyboards work. I dug around further and found that other people have gotten my keyboard, a dell sk 8110 to work, so at least I know that's not the problem, so that leaves just the link cable and the game boy itself.

- Can a gameboy pocket power a keyboard or will I need to provide external power no matter what since the gameboy pocket only takes 2 AAA batteries?

- I checked my link cable and I do have a cable that corresponds to the 5v pin, when people refer to non-powered link cables do they mean there is no cable that corresponds to the 5v pin, and if so does that mean my cable is powered?

- I'm using one of these link cables: http://www.amazon.com/InterAct-Cable-Co … link+cable all guides refer to using either a DMG 07 or a modded DMG 04, since this fits the port and all pins are connected to wires inside the bundle, I figured this should work, but please let me know if I am figuring wrong.

Pale
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Jyväskylä, Finland
Kenny wrote:

- Can a gameboy pocket power a keyboard or will I need to provide external power no matter what since the gameboy pocket only takes 2 AAA batteries?

Last time I checked Pocket's link port should provide 5v.

Kenny wrote:

- when people refer to non-powered link cables do they mean there is no cable that corresponds to the 5v pin, and if so does that mean my cable is powered?

Yep, for example DMG-04 doesn't have 5v pin and that's why people mod it.
And if your cable has 5v pin it should be okay.

Kenny wrote:

- I'm using one of these link cables: http://www.amazon.com/InterAct-Cable-Co … link+cable all guides refer to using either a DMG 07 or a modded DMG 04, since this fits the port and all pins are connected to wires inside the bundle, I figured this should work, but please let me know if I am figuring wrong.

I don't see reason why it wouldn't work.


Just wondering, have you put LSDJ to keyboard mode? Check this: http://blog.xero.nu/lsdj_keyboard_tutorial

Last edited by Pale (Jun 9, 2013 9:21 pm)

Kenny
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Thanks for answering all those Pale! I did put lsdj in keyboard mode, and I was getting the I00 indicating that nothing was connected, it wasn't reacting to any keypresses, even arrow keys and enter. Things are pretty sloppy right now, now that I know that it should work I'm going to re trace and re cut and strip all the wires. Hopefully I just had some wires crossed or something the first time around. I'll post back if I have any luck.

Kenny
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Ok, so it was a reading comprehension fail. I was looking at the link cable port map on that page as if it were a map of the connector, not the port, so my I had all the wrong pins connected. I switched them, and now the keyboard works for playing, changing instruments, muting channels, etc... but the arrow keys and enter and page up and down don't seem to work for navigation. I noticed those buttons aren't on the keymap image I've seen around, but I've seen people referencing using arrow keys for navigation in other threads. Is there anything I can try to fix that?