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PC Keyboard Interface

How to create an adapter for connecting a computer keyboard to your Gameboy

A nice tutorial is here: http://the.fontvir.us/b10g/?id=12 ... and here http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/404/xeros-lsdj-keyboard-tutorial/

You will need 4 wires from the Gameboy serial port: The GND (Ground), Clock, and Data In (Serial In), and +5V (You can aso use a separate power supply for this)

Connect the +5V and GND to +5V and GND on the keyboard connector, and connect the Clock and Data In pins of the Gameboy to the Clock / Data pins on the keyboard. It's that easy.

The male keyboard connector pinout is:

 5 pin 180 deg DIN connector     6 pin MINIDIN connector
 ---------------------------     -----------------------
                                       _
          (2)      1 Clk	    (5) (6)	  1 Data
       (5)   (4)   2 Data	       |          2 -
      (3)     (1)  3 -	          (3)     (4)     3 GND
                   4 GND	                  4 +5V
                   5 VCC            (1) (2)       5 Clock
                                                  6 -

                     (looking at connector)

Note: A standard Nintendo Gamelink Link Cable won't carry the +5V line. It only carries GND, CLK, DATA IN, DATA OUT. You can use a separate power source for the keyboard if you like. It'll work just as well.

The Gameboy jack pinout is:

 Gameboy link port  no Description Color(Form GBATEK by Martin Korth)
 -----------------
   _____________     1 +5V         N/A
  /  5   3   1  \    2 Serial out  Red(orange)
 | =###=###=###= |   3 Serial in   Orange(red)
 |   6   4   2   |   4 Reserved(SD if it exists) Brown
 `---------------'   5 Clock       Green
  (looking at GB)    6 GND         Blue

Note on Serial in/out connections: Note that the lines are crossed, the out line goes to the in line on the other side.

  • The SERIAL IN pin on the Gameboy goes to the DATA pin on the keyboard.
  • The CLOCK pin on the Gameboy goes to the CLOCK pin on the keyboard.
  • The GND pin on the Gameboy goes to the GND pin on the keyboard.

The VCC pin on the keyboard goes to either the VCC (+5V) pin on the gameboy, or to the (+) electrode of a battery. (The battery connects to the keyboard's VCC and and the keyboards/Gameboys GND junction). Simple enough?

(Info taken from http://gbdevers.freeservers.com/) WARNING POPUPS!


Here's a picture..ps2 view is looking into the plug,(view from sockets prespective.!! LSDJKeyboard.jpg

Not getting this to work with LSDj? Use this checklist:

  1. Check the pins.
  2. Make sure SYNC setting is set to KEYBD.
  3. Remember: To be able to play on the keyboard, the sequencer must be running.
  4. Check the pins again. I'm not implying that YOU are actually this stupid – but most people actually look at the keyboard connector from the wrong direction on the first try. Or something like that.
  5. If none of the above works, try exchanging the SIN and SOUT lines.




Q : Is there a way to have a Keyboard interface AND a MIDI sync on the same Greyboy? It would definately be cool for syncing LSDj to other devices and having the added control of a keyboard...

A: No!

Q : I there a way to have a BPM sync running when using the Keyboard interface?


A: See previous, or what?

The DMG-07 4 player adapter cable has all the needed lines (including +5v). I determined the cable colors using a multimeter:

  1. brown (+5V)
  2. red (serial out)
  3. yellow (serial in)
  4. – (reserved)
  5. green (clock out)
  6. blue (gnd)
  • Showing 10 most recent

16 comments

 
38.107.179.243Anonymous User
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  • Is there any way we could get some functionality to change the BPM of a track from they keyboard? That would be super useful!

  • Can I use the Keyboard to input notes in LSDJ? As far as I can tell, the Keyboard only plays notes, but doesn't record the note you play.

  • this post is fantastic

  • Sorry for sounding daft, but I just picked up a DMG-04 cable for a keyboard modification. When it comes to having a seperate power source for the keyboard/cable, what does that mean and how do I go about doing it?

    Shaun.

  • juhu nice 1!!! ty a lot dude....great job

  • OK, now it's repaired... works with 4.1.0 (stable) or 4.2.0 (latest!)

  • np dude! ty 4 so quick answer and so .....you do a great jop! love lsdj! and sry 4 my broken english i´m from austria ! arnold schwarzenegger style xD

  • I will try to borrow a keyboard from someone and see what is wrong with newer versions... sorry :I

  • yeah work with the keyboard but it was i think lsdj 3.9 or less.....and now with 4.1.6 it dosent work.... i dont understand this -.- but i have a lsdjmc2 this one-->(http://www.komaku.com/0engine/tokyo_bbs.cgi) and korg microkontol and would like to know how to combine Lsdj with my keyboard :S how would i go about doing it!?

  • got a keyboard it runs well.... now i got the newest lsdj version (4.1.6) and now it doesnt work! why!?

    • Does it work fine with previous versions? I haven't really tested this feature with a real keyboard in a long time... :(

    • Doesn't seem to be working on 4.6.3 here.

    • Please try upgrading to 4.6.4, that should work better

    • Trying out 4.6.4 now (thanks for the quick reply, by the way, you're my hero Kotlinski) - doesn't seem to be working. GB doesn't respond to either the buttons on the DMG or they keyboard if I set it to Keyboard Sync. Is there a way to determine whether it's connected? Like the "purge sequencer" option would before?

    • I am not sure why 4.6.4 would kill both DMG buttons and keyboard. I tried it quickly and to me it seemed to work fine. Does the same hardware work fine with any prior version? And how did "purge sequencer" tell you whether keyboard is connected..?

    • Heya, I was just going on this: http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/404/xeros-lsdj-keyboard-tutorial/ which has a description with a screenshot saying how "once a device is successfully synced, this will be a larger integer (e.g. I01, I02)." Anyway, I've checked with 4.2, 4.1 and a couple of earlier versions now - it doesn't work with any so it's probably a faulty mod. I'll post if I get any useful info though!

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