| Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-06-10
23:34:43
|  Music Keyboard for Plus/4?
A new acquaintance has called me, he supposedly has a musicaly keyboard for the Plus/4. I have never heard of such a thing, and suspect that it's something like the "piano" keyboard for a C64 but colored to match a C16 or Plus/4. C64 Musical Keyboard photo for reference.
Has anyone else heard of something like this? What should I expect when I see it?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2005-06-11
10:08:27
| Re: Music Keyboard for Plus/4?
Heard of the C64 counterpart, but never for the Plus/4. Expect the unexpected... I'll be interested to hear what it will turn out to be.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-06-12
01:53:55
| Re: Music Keyboard for Plus/4?
I now have the keyboard.... it is a Colortone Pro Keyboard in mint condition but no software with it.
The keyboard itself is a full travel keyboard of itself, like a midi keyboard, that connects to the computer through the modem port. The seller also had a standard Colortone Keyboard that is a flat membrane and plugs into the 64 through the joystick connection.
My keyboard has a serial tag that states "FCC Approval Applied For" (meaning it has not yet passed US government tests for electrical interference) and the original sales invoice was packed with it stating that this keyboard is for beta testing. The date on the sales invoice is from September of 1984, just as the Plus4 was arriving in the marketplace in the US.
My thought is that this is a prototype unit, possibly not even meant for the Plus/4. Either way, there may be some collector's value to it.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-06-14
00:39:13
| Re: Music Keyboard for Plus/4?
More information -- User Port Adapter for Colortone Pro Keyboard
The keyboard attaches to a userport adapter through a 5 pin DIN cable. The userport adapter has a 5 pin DIN receptacle, of which only these lines are connected:
TOP OF ADAPTER: Pins 1 and 12 (Ground), Pin 2 (+5V).
BOTTOM OF ADAPTER: Pins A and N (Ground), Pin E (PB2, DTR output line), Pin L (PB7, DSR input line).
The Commodore Plus/4 User Manual does not have a pinout diagram, so I used the comparable diagram from the C128 Programmer's Reference Guide. The pinout descriptions match the chart shown in the Plus/4 User Manual, page 212 of the "short" manual.
I have yet to attach the keyboard to the computer for lack of any software to read the userport signals.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-06-14
20:05:30
| Re: Music Keyboard for Plus/4?
Even more information: the manufacturer was Waveform Corporation of Berekley, California, USA. The same company sold "MusiCalc" volumes 1, 2, and 3 for the C64.
It is believed that the "flat" Colortone keyboard can be used with MusiCalc. However, the Colortone Pro keyboard came later, so I don't know if MusiCalc will recognize it.
Once I clear more desk space I will attach the keyboard to a C64, load MusiCalc, and see what happens.
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