Re: //gs video and keyboard anomalies

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

David Wilson writes ...
> 
> I plugged my ROM03 //gs into a color TV for the first time this weekend
> and was disappointed to find that I get no color. The TVs (I tried a 2nd
> one when the first failed) are both multistandard Auto/PAL/NTSC4.43/NTSC3.58
> units. I finally managed to get some color out of it during the self test
> but not during normal operation. Any ideas what could be wrong? The Control
> Panel is set to color. Prior to this I had just used the RGB monitor it came
> with (and a VGA monitor on my Second Sight card which is not currently
> installed).
>

     If the problem is just with all-Text screens, the absence of color at the
composite signal output seems to be natural on a IIgs. According to the IIgs
Hardware Reference, in Text mode all color information is removed from the
composite signal.


 
> I picked up a cheap Mac keyboard and plugged it into the //gs. It works fine,
> the function keys show up as letters with the Numeric Keypad modifier bit set.
> I can even type on both keyboards at once. The one thing I found is that
> CAPS LOCK on one keyboard also affects the second one (in fact the latching
> CAPS LOCK on my original keyboard lights up the LED on the new keyboard).
> I assume this is because the //gs handles this but I found it surprising at
> first.
 ....

     The observation that CAPS LOCK on one keyboard also affects the second one is
interesting; but, I guess it figures. Evidently, once CAPS LOCK is turned On, it's
On for whatever characters are received on the ADB-- i.e. the CAPS LOCK Key Down
bit is set in the Modifier Key Register. (Which leads one to suspect that the
latching CAPS LOCK key on the standard IIgs KB is "latching" mainly in order to
show CAPS LOCK status without having to include a separate indicator light.)

     Lighting the other KB's CAPS LOCK indicator is kind of surprising (since you
might expect that the indicator would be set only within the device by pressing
CAPS LOCK).  Of course, it's better if CAPS LOCK On/Off are signals which a KB on
the ADB can send _and_ receive.



Rubywand