jac@mouton.UUCP (08/23/84)
I have finally gotten around to responding to the question posed as to whether the APPLE II,II+.... could generate lower case. Most people responded with the popular "one wire" mod. This works fine AS LONG AS THE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO USE THIS FEATURE. What happens if you want to use lower case with a word processor that supports real shift keys, or an applications program that doesn't support the one wire mod. Weeelllll, it is very simple if you have the "two piece" keyboard. When Apple designed the II+, they fully intended it to have lowercase. However, they realized that this would make the II a competitor with the III so they decided that the major selling point of the III would be the fact that it supported lower case. BUT, the pc patterns were already made up, so they merely modified them a little. Look at the encoder board. You will see a location which looks like: * *=* * *=* Or something like that (this is from memory so you'll have to be a little creative when you look for the pattern.) Anywaaaaaayyyy, look for a series of traces that looks like a double pole, double throw switch could be installed. cut the traces shorting the pins together- they look like =======\ /======== ========\ /========= =========\ /========== ==========\ /=========== ===========\/============ ===========/\============ ==========/ \=========== =========/ \========== ========/ \========= =======/ \======== They are expanded for clarity. they really are about this big: =><= Cut these traces and install a switch. In one position your keyboard will generate lower case (you will have problems with generating an '@' (at sign) because a shift P will give you c a capital P. flick the switch to the other position to get keys like this ] ^.......) while in the other it wll generate upper case only. NOTE THIS DOES NOT, I REPEAT NOT, DISPLAY LOWER CASE, IT GENERATES IT. If you have a lower case character ROM, then you will have no problems. otherwise, you will see funny things. If there is sufficient demand, I'll post the contents of a lower case prom. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS MOD AS IT WILL VOID YOUR WARRENTY (if there still are any valid II warrenties out there) AND A DEALER MAY REFUSE TO FIX THE PROBLEM IF YOU SCREW UP. I have made 1/2 dozen mods like this and never had any problems. Good luck, and don't hesitate to send mail to someone else if you have problems. Jonathan A. Chandross Bell Communications Research ......allegra!mouton!jac The above hardware hacks are probably -DEFINATELY- not encouraged or endorsed by my employer. All above opinions are strictly my own.