Re: Apple II keyboard encoder - need specs for optional right-angle slide switch

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Ralph wrote:
> I'm trying to track down details on adding a keyswitch to the Apple II
> plus keyboard encoder.
>
> I have a vague recollection of a specific "Apple Cart" article from an
> 1980 or 1981 issue of Creative Computing, it discusses the keyboard
> encoder board on the Apple II plus, and mentions the specific C&K
> switch part number that can be soldered onto the board to achieve
> full character set generation (upper and lower case ASCII, and getting
> ctrl-shift-P to generate the '@' sign) from the normally upper-case
> ASCII only keyboard.  I did ask a few people in person over last
> weekend, but they unsurprisingly couldn't come up with an exact part #
> after 30 years.
> (Atariarchives doesn't have these Creative Computings scanned in)
>
> Thanks!
>
> - Ralph
>
> BTW, I found this gem of an article from M. Horton (previously at Bell
> Labs), posted in 1983 - linking offsite
>
> http://www.megalextoria.com/usenet-archive/news042f1/b62/net/internat/00000317.html
> (well-formatted ASCII version)
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/net.internat/msg/a319f7b375fc6e55
> (mangled Google Groups version)

Interesting article on a fundamentally broken topic: keyboards.

WRT the encoder board having an unfilled position for a switch
that "normalizes" the ][+ keyboard, wow--how could such a common
desire be so easily filled and yet remain so obscure?

I have my doubts...

I modified my ][+ encoder board to support auto-repeat after a
second or so delay (by adding a diode and a capacitor), but I
never saw any mods for increasing the character set.

-michael

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