Does anyone have (or can take) some hi res pics of a Apple Super Serial Card.
I'm looking to make a replica of the original and so far have only found photos of the top side. Have also found a schematic which should make things easier.
I've tried building the simple serial card on github but there are lots of issues with is so now on a mission to create a schematic/pcb layout of the original.
The prices are crazy on eBay so thought this would be a good project.
I'd like to help you, but my phone isn't very good..... If this is what you need I can take a better picture tomorrow, my wife has a better phone.
IMG_20240315_135514.jpg
IMG_20240315_135528.jpg
Thanks very much, that's perfect. That should be more than enough for me to pull the image into KiCad and start reverse engineering the traces.
Good stuff, both of ya.
GMC, if you are in the US and I can help with proto boards or parts, let me know, I have a lot of spares on hand for these kinds of things. Safe to assume you might too, but just offering.
I've got 7 or 8 SSC around here. They're one of the most common cards other than floppy controllers. Apple must have made a couple million of them because a large percentage of //e were sold with at least one. Pretty much most people who bought an Apple branded printer like an Imagewriter or Imagewriter II bought one. A lot of people bought two because they hooked a modem up to the other one. Back a few years ago I bought a number of //e units and many of them had a at least SSC in them, that's where the ones I have came from.
When I look on eBay I see dozens of them under $100 and several under $50. Admittedly a lot are untested and quite a few are missing the piggy tail which is inconvenient (easily fabricated), but given what they cost when they were new, I don't think the prices they are selling at are ridiculous. Of course it seems like everyone expects Apple II prices to be what they were in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Basically free. That wasn't going to last forever. Although sometimes there are still opportunities for it through like K-Fest or whatever.
Just in case you need a cleaner schematic, it's here (below) as a highres image. Also, it's accurate, as I hand built a SSC and added an ethernet interface to it. (past project I called Super Serial Ethernet Card)
BTW, if you change the oscillator to 3.6864 MHz, you will double the baud rate of the card (to 19.2K Baud) without any timing issues in any standard Apple ][ Plus.
I tried to go higher (like to 38.6K Baud) but had issue with missing bits under AppleSoft. (i.e. timing too fast) Going faster than 19.2K Baud really requires that you use 6502 native code (or accelleration) with a stock Apple ][.
Enjoy and good luck on your board design!
SSC_Schematic.png
Wouldn't it be easier to copy the schematic from the book into KiCAD and use the card as a guide?
Also, this has been done, methinks...
https://www.applefritter.com/files/2024/03/15/SSC-Schematic_0.pdf
IMG_7162.JPG
That's the schematic for the Simple Serial Card that no one seems to be able to get working reliably.
I found the schematic on the apple2.org.za site so it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate the PCB.
The schematic I supply in my post (above) is what you'll find on the apple2.org site but you will find that the one I supply here is much cleaner.
Thanks. That's a much clearer schematic. Almost finished inputting into KiCad already.
Good to know it's been tested and working.
Down to the last PCB track and pulling my hair out trying to work out what the PCB traces look like under the chips. Mostly worked out but have one track that I can't get routed.
Anyone willing to remove the 6551 and take a photo of what it looks like under the chip. Not sure how much will be visible, but it's really only pin 6 and pin 25 I'm concerned about.
As you can see from the layout, it impossible for pin 6 to connect to where it's supposed to go without crossing the trace from pin 25. Can't imagine the schematic is incorrect - but guess it's not impossible.
Screenshot from 2024-03-22 16-51-56.png
These are what I have on file when I was building my SS Ethernet card
SuperSerialFront.JPG
SuperSerialFrontNeg.jpg
Wow - that's even better. Thanks.
That would make laying out a direct clone very easy.
I was digging in my parts stash the other day and I knew I had a bunch of UMC 6551 chips, but I also found like 8 more Rockwell parts that I had forgotten I had. That jogged my memory and I think I have a batch of Rockwell 6522 around as well. And I found about 40 Motorola 6821 which I don't even remember why I would have bought so many of.
I'm in the process of cleaning, sorting and organizing all of my retrocomputing gear and parts stash. Righ tnow it is spread over multiple boxes in multiple rooms in the house, a storage shed and two storage lockers that I need to consolidate down to one or ideally eliminate completely to save $$$.
I can guess that you might have bought a Motorola 6821 to replica Apple-1?
No, I got the famous Uncle Bernie chip sets for my Apple-1 builds, and these I must have gotten at least 5+ years ago based on the box of stuff they were in. Plus I wouldn't have bought so many 6821 just for Apple-1. I literally have about 40 of them. I don't remember buying them at all now, when or from where.