I know I’m commenting very late but in case anyone else stumbles across this post: The C128 and the D version were designed at the same time, but production of the 128D was delayed. The C64C-style 128 has the hole in the motherboard because the motherboard also had to fit the 128D, which needs it for a support pillar.
I just got a 128 flat, and I also have an additional wire on the board like the “D” here from J7 to one side of that cap. Do you think that is factory? Because someone also installed a custom character rom like on the picture of that “D” board.
Hi Alexandar,
The modification is factory and used for switching to (inter)national characterset. The J7 is configured to connect together CAPSLOCK-key and pin 21 on the CHARROM(U18). This allows you to switch banks in the CHARROM using the CAPSLOCK-key, resulting in two individual charactersets. The CAPSLOCK key has different printing in different regions. “CAPS LOCK”(US), “ASCII/DIN”(DE), “CAPS LOCK ASCII/CC”(SE/FI). Possibly other combinations exist.
Regards
Jani
there’s another C128 mainboard out there…
it’s board 250783, it’s the cost reduced version mainboard for the wedge shaped version of the C128, called C128CR.
Hi Ethan,
The ribbon cable connects to the 1571 drive PCB (schematics call it the “internal serial bus connector”). The 128DCR (metal case) has everything integrated into one large PCB.
//Jani
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