Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!microsoft!brianw
From: brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian Willoughby)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Lower case keyboard (was - :Re: How do you do DVORAK?)
Summary: Little known feature of some II Plus kbds
Message-ID: <5773@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 22 May 89 00:05:11 GMT
References: <8905150650.AA03263@crash.cts.com> <1975@ur-cc.UUCP> <621@greens.UUCP>
Reply-To: brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian Willoughby)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 39

In article <621@greens.UUCP> matthew@sunpix.UUCP ( Sun Visualization Products) writes:
[details of Lower Case hack (adaptable to Dvorak) deleted]
>
>Now what did I use this for?  To add lowercase and shift-lock capabilities to the
>Apple ][plus keyboard.
>-- 
>Matthew Lee Stier                         |
>Sun Microsystems ---  RTP, NC  27709-3447 |        "Wisconsin   Escapee"
>uucp: { sun, mcnc!rti }!sunpix!matthew    |

I assume that you had the older keyboard for the Apple II Plus? I made a
modification to a friend's II Plus which added Lower Case by only adding
a DPDT switch. On the newer (relatively) II Plus units, the keyboard
actually had a dotted outline (screen printed on the circuit board) of a
DPDT switch which could be soldered directly to the keyboard pcboard.
Then, by cutting two bow-tie options, and solder-bridging two additional
normally open options, the Apple supplied keyboard generated Lower Case
and used the added DPDT switch as a caps lock key. I was hard to find a
right angle PC mount DPDT switch to fit, however. I made this mod after
adding a new Video ROM to his Plus which allowed lower case characters on
the Text screen.

Being a late-comer to the II Plus world, I've always wondered why the
famed "shift-key mod" was so universally popular, when this mod adds
lower case without running special code to check the state of Button 3.

The drawbacks of this are:
1) You might not have this version of the keyboard.
2) There are still some awkwardly placed characters (i.e. M & [)
3) You probably will want to modify the Monitor ROM so that it doesn't
	convert all lower case characters to upper (this can be 
	accomplished by burning a new 2716 with only one byte changed.
	The "AND #$DF" in the GETLIN routine must be changed to
	"AND #$FF" to defeat the up-shift). Any program which directly
	reads the keyboard will work without the custom Monitor ROM.

Brian Willoughby                        ...!uw-beaver!microsoft!brianw
                or                      microsoft!brianw@uunet.UU.NET
                or just                 brianw@microsoft.UUCP