jxf@altair.cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain) (01/04/91)
Last night, I posted the solution to logically swapping the caps lock and control keys on the Apple extended keyboard to comp.sys.mac.programmer (I finished my the job at 3:00am, and had to share my accomplishment with the rest of the world). I neglected to include the hardware side of this solution, for a number of reasons. Anyway, due to the popularity of this information, I'm posting an e-mail reply I received to my original query about swapping keys that I posted to this newsgroup. It's good information, and a very good description of what to expect (thanks Margarita!). Enjoy. --Jerry Frain, jxf@cis.ksu.edu > From: Margarita Suarez <marg@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> > To: jxf@cis.ksu.edu > Subject: Re: Swapping keys on extended keyboard > Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware > > well, anyway to answer your question, if you remove the > keycaps for the two keys, you'll see the button mechanism. it's hard to > describe, but basically the keyboard base has a black plastic clip > between which the button sits with a spring under it. i don't recommend > trying this unless you're good with working with tiny parts *and > figuring out how they are supposed to go together*. i've done it > successfully several times (swapping the lock mechanism around and then > deciding i didn't want to lock either of the keys, so i put it somewhere > else). i'll try to describe what you'll encounter, but really, you're > pretty much on your own once all the tiny parts fall out of place... > > \\ \ > \\________\ <- one side of black plastic clip > \________\ > | __ | > \ | [__] | <- key mechanism > \|________| > \_______\ <- other side of black plastic chip > > what you need to do is pull the key mechanism out by carefully prying > apart the sides of the clip and pulling up on the mechanism. the > lock-down type mechanism has a small white plastic part and a spring, so > be careful not to lose any pieces. there are also metal clips which act > like springy things too. note where they go. > > basically the trick is to remove both key mechanisms and just swap them. > easy as that, except the simple bouncy mechanism has 1 spring, 2 metal > clips and a plastic piece that you have to hold in place while replacing > it. the spring will tend to jump out of the way at the last minute, so > do it carefully and check that the key is bouncing right when you're > done (if not, try again). > > the locking mechanism has 1 spring, 2 metal clips, and a cryptic little > white plastic piece (the lock). this is the hardest one to figure out, > but if you were able to fit the bouncy one, you can do this too.
anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) (01/05/91)
Having just performed this operation on my Apple Extended Keyboard II, I thought I should fill you in on a couple of tiny differences between the old and the new extended keyboards: There is only one screw on the II, and after removing it you can pry off the cover. There is only one metal clip for the caps-lock mechanism, and it's not removable. There are two clips for the control mechanism, but only the bottom one (towards the space bar) is removable. anders
anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) (01/05/91)
Unfortunately I spoke too soon. My IIfx and Extended Keyboard II didn't seem to want to pay attention to changes to the KMAP resource (I even tried modifying the other ones to see if the new keyboard uses a different one, but to no avail). I did have some luck modifying the table-mappings in the KCHR resource, though (I swapped the control and caps-lock mappings - just hold down the modifier and select the table you want it to use). The down side here was that now the right control key also acted as a shift-key. I was prepared to live with this, since I never use it anyway, but as it turns out, MacX (my main motivation for doing this in the first place), ignores these mappings and uses its own (which it should). Having modified the table-mappings, most mac applications treated the keys correctly, except for MicroEmacs, which had problems with certain control-keys. Also, the caps-lock light kept lighting up when I pressed the caps-lock key that was now a control key. I then tried modifying the KMAP resource again, and the light stopped working altogether. Back to square one... anders
russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) (01/05/91)
In article <1991Jan4.214437.6025@verity.com> anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) writes: >Unfortunately I spoke too soon. My IIfx and Extended Keyboard II >didn't seem to want to pay attention to changes to the KMAP resource >(I even tried modifying the other ones to see if the new keyboard uses >a different one, but to no avail). What you need is a 1977 Apple ROV#. Low mileage, runs well, great price... Errr, never mind that. You need to add a ROV# (ROM Override) resource to your system file, and enter the resource type (KMAP) and ID for the KMAP resource into it. I don't know the proper ID for the IIfx offhand, though-- someone out there must know it. -- Matthew T. Russotto russotto@eng.umd.edu russotto@wam.umd.edu .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.
anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) (01/06/91)
In article <1991Jan5.034841.11758@eng.umd.edu>, russotto@eng (Matthew T. Russotto) writes: >In article <1991Jan4.214437.6025@verity.com> anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) writes: >>Unfortunately I spoke too soon. My IIfx and Extended Keyboard II >>didn't seem to want to pay attention to changes to the KMAP resource >>(I even tried modifying the other ones to see if the new keyboard uses >>a different one, but to no avail). > >What you need is a 1977 Apple ROV#. Low mileage, runs well, great price... >Errr, never mind that. You need to add a ROV# (ROM Override) resource to >your system file, and enter the resource type (KMAP) and ID for the KMAP >resource into it. I don't know the proper ID for the IIfx offhand, though-- >someone out there must know it. Fortunately, this turned out to be the correct solution - I added KMAP #2 to the ROV# resource with the highest version number and everything is now hunky-dory - I'm typing this message into an emacs window under MacX, and am experiencing no pinky-pain whatsoever. Thanks to Jerry and Matthew for making my life 100% complete. anders