What I've noticed is that many sites that describe the low-level protocol in some detail, fail to include the translation from what the ADB peripheral places on the bus to what the action is supposed to represent, i.e. what the character whose key I pressed is supposed to mean. Since I want HEX codes, and not ASCII, and since the keypad will undoubtedly produce the same codes as though they came from a "real" keyboard, ultimately being translated, within a Mac, to ASCII for transport to the application, I'll probably need to perform that function.

You're right, it's always quite fascinating to get from nothing to a working protocol with predictable results. However, it looks to me as though the result will still need some post-processing.

That's why, some months back, I was looking for a 24-pin skinny-dip-packaged 805x, as that's what's on that board now, and I'd rather put the HEX code on the ADB, or, better yet, a simple serialized version using clock and data on the two avaiable wires. I know that means cooking up my own protocol, or perhaps using i2c or SPI, or the like, but it makes more sense than several levels of translation.

RE