I am seeking a solution for a single pushbutton reset/reboot for the Apple II. In my volunteer work with young children (8-10 yrs old) using the Apple II they frequently want or need to reset the Apple II (we use both //e and II+). There are several obsticals to doing a clean hard reset on the Apple. The primary issues are the reset vectors in dynamic ram, the nuanced multi-finger reset options, and the fragility of the Apple II switching power supply. The kids need a one button reset for the Apple without hitting the power supply with another power-on surge in the hope they left it off long enough for the dynamic ram to "clear" and without needing to learn a multi-finger keyboard sequence.
I understand this project is a little silly, but I prefer to think of it as a small interesting technical challenges for the right person.
Here are some of the rabbit holes I have wandered....
a) I want to keep the base machine clean and thus want to avoid custom ROMs.
b) It would be "nice" to use the existing reset button on the keyboard but a tethered reset button is perfectly ok and what I anticipate will be needed.
c) I've always assumed the solution must clear memory prior to doing the clean reboot.
d) Mostly, I've assumed a small (minimal) I/O card would be the best way to cause an interrupt and pass 6502 control over to an alternate code path to clear memory and reboot. A plug-in card would also provide an electrical home for a tethered reboot button.
e) Traditional I/O cards use a small PROM or EPROM which is ok; but the current trend of using a SOC would also be ok if it makes programming and/or hardware for the new REBOOT code easier.
f) As a side note, there was a card called the "Wildcard" that had a tethered button that presented a menu when pressed. One of the menu options was "clear memory and reboot". It seems to be exactly the functionality I want but don't want a menu and don't want to hunt down a Wildcard for all of the Apples we have in our little lab.
Ideally, I would find someone who thinks a small project like this could be fun. My hope is there are lots of I/O cards, past and modern that can be borrowed from to make such a project trivial for someone comfortable with Apple II hardware. Software is my primary domain and while I am generally comfortable with hardware, getting into memory bus timing phases is beyond my skills.
Anybody think this could be fun? Any other clever considerations to accomplish my objective?
TIA
Barry
UPDATE:
A long time later this project is done. Check out the story here...... https://csguy.org/technotes/white-whale-reboot-project/
