30 Jul
2007
30 Jul
'07
7:48 p.m.
On Jul 30, 2007, at 3:12 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
That might explain why the pin configuration doesn't seem to be
matching what I remember from the Apple II+ and similar.
The Goog isn't being much help with pinouts. Anybody have a pinout
spec for the //e?
Has anybody come up with a easy to implement solution for connecting
an ASCII keyboard (or, specifically, an Apple //e keyboard) to a
modern computer system? I'm just beginning to try to wrap my head
around this problem, and it seems... non-trivial...
I thought, from the Apple //e Technical Manual, that unlike the older
Apple ][s, the keyboard on the //e was just a matrix of switches
and the
encoder chip was on the mainboard. So it's not strickly an ASCII
keyboard. I've not done _anything_ with USB (mainly because
none of my computers
have that interface). but I keep on reading about microcontorllers
with
USB 'slave' interfaces. It should be possible to use one of those to
either accept ASCII+strobe from an encoded keyboard (e.g. an Apple ][
one) or to scan a matrix of switches.
That has been mentioned. I'm in the process of getting up to speed
on microcontrollers anyway, so this might be an interesting project.
My main target for the query was to see if anybody has already done
this, so I didn't have to run around re-inventing the wheel. It
appears I'm the first person who's thought about gutting an Apple //e
and putting a modern PC motherboard inside (don't worry, peeps: this
was a very much broken and unhappy //e) for the laughs.
http://www.moremayo.com/projects/apple2/ for pics and discussion.