My Apple IIe platinum keyboard just failed on me. Does anyone out there happen to have a spare they'd be willing to sell me at a reasonable price? I'd really like to get back to gaming on my apple.
Anonymous
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Whole keyboard failed? Probably not the keyboard. Probably the encoder chip which is on the motherboard, the cable or something else. Just a key or two? Easier to repair than to find a whole other keyboard. Key switches are available from people like Dr. Buggie on eBay.
What exactly is it doing or not doing?
It’s almost impossible for a whole IIe keyboard to fail. There’s no electronics on it, just a bunch of switched connecting different wires
Exactly... if no keys at all are working then it is something else like the cable has come loose or broken or the encoder chip on the mobo has died.
Considering the replies above, I looked up the schematic and listed the various ways the Apple IIe keyboard might stop working:
IMG_0692.JPG
Here are the noteworthy ways the keyboard can be blocked on an Apple IIe:
Whatever the cause, there's a simple safe way to test whether the motherboard's keyboard circuitry is working: with the power ON, go to the NUMERIC KEY PAD connector (J16) and connect the two end wires together and look to see if the computer starts typing repeated )))))) characters. Connecting those two wires has exactly the same effect as attaching a numeric keypad and holding down the ")" key.
It should be safe to tinker with the NUMERIC KEY PAD connector because it doesn't have any vulnerable signals nor power connections. Any pins on J16 can be safely connected to any other pins on the same connector without causing harm. (That's exactly how a numeric key pad would work.)
IMG_0693.JPG
If nothing else, this exercise led me to discover that the Apple IIe keyboard can be disabled by a card in slot 1, by pulling up pin 35. I didn't know that until today. In his book Understanding the Apple IIe, James Sather discusses the connection of ENKBD* at slot 1, acknowledging that there are no peripherals that make use of it. He speculates, "The capability of disabling the keyboard ROM from Slot 1 is probably meant to support some motherboard production checkout test apparatus."