Hi all.. I just came accross a super super clean II+ , it looks like it has a brand new replaced Keyboard along with a updated Keyboard Encoder! There apears to be a wire that leads from the Keyboard Encoder Board and connects to a IIC located directly under the II+'s Joystick Connector. My problem is I don't know how to enter the Shiftkey Mod , what keys you press or hold to enter using Lowercase. I tried the following program to display what characters are coming off of the SPECIAL ROM ....
10 FOR X=1 TO 255
20 ?CHR$(X);
30 NEXT X
And it shows its normal characters , so I may have to replace the Special Rom with a Lowercase Rom.
Also... When I boot up this II+ , instead of the screen displaying APPLE II , it says " READY GO " <---- never seen this before , it maybe coming from the F-8 Rom located on the Apple ][ 16k Langauge card , or possibly from the F-8 off of the motherboard.
So in closing , if you can shed some light as to how to use the Shiftkey Mod , and possibly explain what this " READY GO " means... That would be great.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to your replys.
Patrick A.
Las Vegas, NV.
OK , turns out I had some text problems.. Sorry about that , here goes:
I have a II+ here , it has an updated Keyboard Encoder Board , there is a wire that leads from the encoder board to an IC on pin#1 just under the joystick connector. I think this is for the Shift Key Mod for Lowercase , but not sure , that's where I hope you guys would now. Also , never seen this before , but where the Power Light is , its a combination light & switch! I took it off and sure enough it has the little (X) connection where you would normally see if you pull of a keycap on your keyboard! Also , for some reason or another , the 16k Language card is a knock off type of some sorts , when you bootup the II+ instead of it saying APPLE ][ , it says READY GO never seen this before. So if anyone can help in figuring this out , and hopefully knowing how the Shift Key Mod works , what keys to hold and what not , would be great. Also I have replaced the SPECIAL ROM under the keyboard with a Pig-Font rom , this rom has all the characters plus lowercase characters and a few more... When I did a program to show the characters that the II+ displayed it did not show any lowercase characters , so this why I changed it out , to have lowercase characters from this point on.
Any how , thanks for viewing and I look forward to your replies.
See ya
Patrick.
Las Vegas, NV.
Well, sort of. You have a clone - or, at least the ROMs are clones. The "READY GO" replaced the original "APPLE ][" to make it look slightly less blatant.
Yes, that is the shift key mod. The shift key mod let word processors of the day understand what you meant when you hit shift; the II+ never had lower case characters coming out of Apple's factories.
Another suggestion that it is a clone. Are there any Apple markings on the motherboard or the case?
Hmmm, I don't know how those work; if there's something you have to do to enable them...?
Thanks for the reply , so really I won't see any lowecase features till I use a word processing program for the II+? Also , the Pig-Font Rom is a updated character ROM for the II+ , it has all the normal characters , plus all lowercase and a few more really neat looking characters , I could have just burned a lowercase rom and put that in , but what the heck , why put in a normal rom when I could put in an updated one at that! Anyways , thanks for you reply.
See ya
Patrick A.
Las Vegas, NV.
There are three push buttons on the Apple II game port. The shift key modification uses the third push button to tell software that the shift key is pressed or not.
Here is a little one line Applesoft BASIC program that does the shift key modification on the Apple II+. It handles the shifted N, M, P keys which would normally emit ^, ], and @.
This one should work on an Apple II+ emulator that doesn't emulate the shifted N, M, P keys:
Interesting! So I have to have a joystick or game pad hooked up to enable this feature? I thought that was the reason the Power Light was part Switch/Light? All I am trying to figure out at this time is what Keys or Series of Keys I need to use to enable or get my self into Lowercase mode in a Program , or to display on the screen for that matter.
Thanks.
Patrick A.
Las Vegas, NV.
No, you do not need a joystick/game pad. From your description, I think I am reading that the shift key on your keyboard is wired to the game port. The game port has a third push button which the shift key modification is usually wired to. Software is required to read the push button in order to determine when the shift key is pressed and released.
I don't know. I don't think that the power light/switch is related to the shift key modification and displaying lower case.
Type in the one line program from my previous comment at the Applesoft BASIC prompt:
Run the program, and type some characters. When you type, lower and upper case characters are displayed using the shift key modification. On an original Apple II+ lower case characters appear as symbol characters, unless you've got lower case characters in the character ROM.
Well the program works fine in Applewin , but on the original it gives errors. Any how , I get lowercase to display no problem , and when I hit Shift/Esc I can toggle between Upper/Lowercase in Apple Writer , at first I thought wow , it works! but I tried one of my other II+'s that doesnt have this mode and it turns out this is standard keys in Apple Writer. So this tells me it doesnt work , and I think... The wire is located in the wrong spot on the motherboard! Shouldn't it be going into PIN #1 or the joystick connector? And if this works , shouldn't you be able to toggle Upper/Lowercase once you are at a ] prompt?
If this is the case , I notice that I can pop off the joystick connector from the motherboard , and pin #1 I assume would be the pin to the far right when you are looking dead on at the connector , solder a fine wire to it , as close to the motherboard as possible and put the connector back on? And use a small aligator clip and clip it to the correct pin of the keyboard encoder?
If this is still not the case , then possible I am not using the correct keys to enter Upper/lowercase
Thanks.
Patrick A.
Las Vegas, NV.
Be aware of which pin you wire this to.
For a proper shift key modification, I think it is wired to PIN #4: Pushbutton 2
Apple 16-pin DIP Game Port socket (on the motherboard) for II, II+, IIe, IIgs
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . =========. Pushbutton 3 (GS only) 9 | * . . * | 8 Ground. Gm Ctrl 1 (Stick-1 Y) 10 | * . . * | 7 Gm Ctrl 2 (Stick-2 X). Gm Ctrl 3 (Stick-2 Y) 11 | * . . * | 6 Gm Ctrl 0 (Stick-1 X). . . . . Annunciator 3 12 | * . . * | 5 /$C040 Strobe. . . . . Annunciator 2 13 | * . . * | 4 Pushbutton 2. . . . . Annunciator 1 14 | * . . * | 3 Pushbutton 1. . . . . Annunciator 0 15 | * . . * | 2 Pushbutton 0. . . . . No Connection 16 | * . . * | 1 +5V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ===| |===. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^. . . . . . . . . . . . Notch on socket. . . . . . . . (faces toward front of computer)No. You need software to make the shift key modification work.
Note... this notch faces the back on the IIgs.
Here's a way to type lower case on an Apple II plus that has the shift key modification. It requires a 16K RAM card.
Enter the monitor.
]
CALL -151Enter this routine. This is an intercept routine to read the third push button and emit upper/lower case depending on whether the shift key is pressed/released. It does not properly handle an original Apple II+'s keyboard as the shifted N, M, P keys emit ^, ], and @. I tested this using an Apple II+ emulator.
*
300:A9 B 85 38 A9 3 85 39 4C EA 3 E6 4E D0 2 E6 4F 2C 0 C0 10 F5 91 28 AD 0 C0 2C 10 C0 85 EB 2C 63 C0 10 C C9 C0 90 8 C9 E0 B0 4 69 20 85 EB A5 EB 60Make the RAM writeable, but read from ROM.
*
C081 C081Copy the ROM to the RAM.
*
D000<D000.FFFFMPatch the line input code so that it doesn't convert lower case to upper case.
*
FD7E:EA EA EA EA EA EARead from RAM, and make the RAM read-only.
*
C080 C080Enter Applesoft BASIC.
*^C
Invoke the input routine to use the shift key modification.
]
CALL 768OK , I got some more info on the keyboard shiftkey mod , the keyboard and encoder board turns out to be made by a company called Syscom , back in the day I guess they made alot of these replacement keyboards , and there is a combination of keys to get into lowercase , from what the seller told me , but I am still trying to figure this out , I know I said that I was done with talking about this subject , but I feel it is important to give information to others that are interested in learning about this modification for the II+
See ya :O)
Patrick A.
Las Vegas, NV.