Re: Wanted: adaptor to use older Mac keyboards with IIgs

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article buggie@ben16.unm.edu (stephen e buggie) writes...

>    Has anyone looked at the original Macintosh keyboard?   It uses a
>telephone-style cable.   Its a really cute and compact keyboard, with the
>fine feel of IIe-type keyswitches.   A slightly later version (Fat Mac
>512) even had a numeric keypad.

    Trivia: Only the Macintosh Plus added a numeric keypad (plus cursor
keys) to its keyboard--not the Mac 512 or 512e, which came shipped with
the same keyboard as the original Mac 128. They were interchangeable
mind you.

>Could anyone design/build an ADAPTOR so that this early (pre-ADB) keyboard
>could be used with the IIgs?  I saw this keyboard for $3 at a thrift shop
>---- passed it bye.

    My guess is it would take more than a simple RJ-11 pin adapter,
you'd need some kind of signal convertor box as well.

    It would be a pointless project anyway, considering the Macintosh
Plus keyboard lacks many important keys that are *essential* towards
operating an Apple IIgs. These missing keys include: Control, Escape,
Reset and possibly Delete (did the Plus have a "Backspace" key?). If
you look at pre-Plus keyboards, you don't even have cursor/arrow keys.

>The IIGS "stealth" version has an IDE-26 male connector on the
>motherboard, and it can use either an ADB keyboard or the IIe keyboard.
>(The IDE-26 connector can be added to any IIgs motherboard.)

    I think your referring to "IDC" type connectors (such as those on
an old style Disk II Controller Card) IDE is a protocol used primarily
for controlling PC hardrives and CD-ROMs. :)

    The connector on the IIgs motherboard is a 26-pin IDC for IIe style 
keyboards and an 11-pin molex for IIe numeric keypads, but neither is
fully compatible with ADB (for example, IIe numeric keypad keys will 
not be recognized as different from the keys on the main keyboard's 
homerow. Also, the cursor keys are equivalents of typing "^" control 
characters rather than true cursor keys).

>Making the required adaptor is beyond my skills, but I wish that somebody
>out there would design it.  In my opinion, the finest "keyboard feel" is
>the IIe, and this early Mac detached keyboard has the same switches! Steve

    I'm not sure I would agree, I find the Macintosh Plus keyboard
kind of uncomfortable for typing on, I much prefer the standard GS
ADB keyboard (other favorites are the Extended II keyboard and the
IBM full-sized keyboard with the removable key-cap covers--right
now I'm using a clone of it from Ambra). I also like the keyboard
on my IIc Plus and memory expandable IIc, or the older model of
NMB's Win95 keyboard which is similar to the IIgs ADB.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca