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

[David Schmenk <dschmenk@gmail.com>]

On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 8:32:01 PM UTC-7, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> 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
> 
> NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
> Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
> 
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it's seriously underused."

I too liked the link to the Horton standard keyboard.  The best modern keyboard I've found is the Happy Hacking keyboard, currently attached to my Replica-1.

Thinking there couldn't possibly be any mod you could make to the Apple II keyboard for such uppercase/lowercase operation, I pulled out the Apple II reference manual and looked at the keyboard schematic.  Curiously enough, there is an input to the key matrix encoder that is left floating with the suspicious title of LOCK.  Might this be the elusive switch?

Dave...