Hacking the Gibson

escapades in technology tinkering

Apple II Keyboard Interface

I recently got an Apple II keyboard to use instead of the IIe keyboard I was using. This keyboard has an onboard encoder and a layout that is closer to the original Datanetics keyboards. One thing to watch out for when hooking an Apple II keyboard to an Apple I, when you rewire it if you hook it up backwards, you will blow the 7404 on the encoder board. I know that this has happened to several people, and it happened to me as well. After replacing the 7404 and wiring it up properly, everything worked. I wired the reset button up, but I had no way to invoke clear, so I wired up a simple circuit with a 555 timer to perform a reset and clear on power-on.

Apple II Keyboard Interface Top

Apple II Keyboard Interface Bottom

Apple II Keyboard Top

Apple II Keyboard Bottom