Re: Looking for (internal) Keyboard cable for the US //e

[heuser.marcus@freenet.de]

On Jul 3, 4:46 pm, "myoldmac.net" <use...@myoldmac.net> wrote:
>
> I try to find such a PC Floppy cable, but Marcus - I have a german ÜÄÖ
> Umlaute keyboard.
> Do I need to change the Keyboard ROM ? I have a German ROM on in the
> old (defect) board.

You need to use a German keyboard ROM with your German
keyboard to get the correct "translation" of keys into key codes.

Thankfully you can just replace the US chip with the German
chip as both have 24 pins.

But now the fun really starts as the US mainboard doesn't
support the little switch that is underneath your keyboard!

This switch selects the font in any text mode on screen
from German (with umlauts) to the US font. You can use
this switch whenever you like - the video hardware reacts
immediately.
This switch connects electrically to the so called "VIDEO
ROM" and selects one of two memory areas (two fonts) in
a non-US mainboard.

On a US mainboard this chip only has one area (one font)
and is smaller than a German (or other non-US country) chip
in capacity and size: It also has 24 pins instead of 28.
This means that you can't simply transfer the chip like the
keyboard ROM!

One solution would be to live with the US video ROM - and
forget the umlauts completely. The text mode should (I'm
not 100% sure) be identical to a German video ROM switched
to the US font.

Another, better solution (especially if you tinker with the
Apple a lot or want to sell it as a unique item in Germany)
would be to get a "video ROM adapter" and plug the German
video ROM into it and the whole thingy into the ROM socket.
Then you connect the switch to the adapter everything should
work like with a German mainboard.

Maybe you can get an inexpensive adapter from Garberstreet
Electronics - ask Bill Garber (you'll find postings of him here)
- which I can assure you do work flawlessly (as long as your
German video ROM is in working condition).

My Apple IIe is built exactly like this (German case, keyboard,
keyboard ROM and video ROM, US mainboard and a video
ROM adapter).

Of course you'll get NTSC video output with 60 Hz but most
modern TV sets in Germany should be able to work with that.
You also get the US picture aspect-ratio which fills the screen
better and displays US software more accurately than the
squashed 50 Hz video of PAL Apples.
The colors usually are way better with the NTSC (because
they are more "authentic") so a US board is worth the trouble,
IMHO.

Be aware that some expansion cards won't work with the
US mainboard (especially European video cards) as the AUX
connector slot is not in line with slot 3 anymore.
The French Le Chat Mauve RGB cards are one example
because they combine 64K RAM with RGB video output.
On the other hand slot 3 becomes a (universal?) slot and
you can use far better cards which were designed for the
US mainboards.

HTH,
Marcus