Using A1200 as a keyboard for a PC without loosing functionality

[TenLeftFingers]

That's basically it. The only way I can justify the space it would take up is if it replaced an actual keyboard. Also, it needs to work as an actual A1200 when I want to boot into workbench.

Has anyone tried this already?

[PJM]

Originally Posted by TenLeftFingers

That's basically it. The only way I can justify the space it would take up is if it replaced an actual keyboard. Also, it needs to work as an actual A1200 when I want to boot into workbench.

Has anyone tried this already?

Not the way you suggest. The better way would be to mod your A1200 to accept PC keyboards and then place it and your A1200 on a KVM. You can then hide your A1200 out of the way. If you're that limited on space though I would just buy a big box AMIGA keyboard and a arduino and run WinUAE / Amiga Forever.

[alexh]

Network the PC and Amiga then run a VNC server on the PC and the VNC Viewer on the Amiga with the headless switch (no video).

It allows you to use two monitors and one keyboard and mouse.

The only down is I could never get a 3-button wheel mouse via a hardware adapter to send the wheel and 3rd button to the PC side.

Because you're using the Amiga Keyboard and Mouse and not the other way around it works 100% for games on the Amiga side.

There are software solutions to run the other way around, Twiny for example but they don't work for games.

But there is a hardware solution which allows you to run the other way around (for big box Amiga's) and still have 100% compatibility in games and that is a networked Amiga Keyboard & Mouse adapter

https://github.com/ali1234/avr-amiga-controller

[TenLeftFingers]

Thanks PJM and alexh. Wifey has just bought me an A1200 for my birthday and it's in the post so I'll start with adding a CF hard disk and PCMCIA wifi card and progress from there.

To be honest, both of your solutions are very different and have their own advantages and disadvantages LOL. I'll have a tough decision to make but as I do want the A1200 to be center stage it's more likely to be the PC/PC keyboard that I hide

Thanks again. I'll update this post if I go any further with it.

Maybe there's a way to mod in a Keyrah. It would probably be a lot simpler if you didn't have to keep it working as an Amiga at the same time.

[TenLeftFingers]

I went off and looked up Keyrah and never replied to the thread! I hadn't heard of that, thank you. It looks like a good way to get the effect I'm after and as you say, keeping the Amiga running at the same time would be out of the question. But I'd like to have a choice at any given moment and not 'retire' the Amiga or need to do any work to switch back.

Since getting the Amiga in the post, I've had a bit of a reality check and found there is a _lot_ of work to be done off the bat:

• Cleaning
• Re-capping
• Accelleration/memory upgrade
• DVI-out upgrade to get the TV license inspector off my back (see this thread)
• Networking

So this project will be deferred for a while until I get the funds/time for all the above.