Re: Mystery hardware Part I

[tdiaz@coyote.csusm.edu (Tony Diaz)]

Kid (neiderma@eden.rutgers.edu) wrote:

> Can anyone figure out this stuff?
>  
>  
> ______________________________________________________
>  
> On a ][+ (looks to be an original ][ upgraded to a ][+ because it
> has a REPT key) there is a membrane-keyboard strip attached to the
> front lip of the computer lid.  The strip has about 12 buttons on it
> and a ribbon cable which attaches via a db-9 connector to a daughter-
> board attached to the keyboard board inside the machine.  The membrane
> buttons display 0-9 and some other numerical stuff (period, plus, etc).
> With the db-9 connector attached, the ][+ keyboard works OK, with it
> unattached (which was how we got it) the keyboard prints the wrong
> characters (push H-G-R and you get "IGS").  There is a Videx company
> stamp on the strip.  What is this thing for?
>  

That is a Videx function Strip. It plugs into where the numeric keypad
would plug into on a ][+'s encoder board. There is a disk needed in order
to use it, but it shouldn't be messing up the keyboard if the software is
not installed.

With the software, you could program those keys to do different things.
..and example would be having it say [PRINT "] in basic so you wouldn't
have to type that in all the time. Or other words you don't want to type
constantly.