Hi,
Just picked up two Apple IIe's, one monitor, one 5.25 disk drive and two unidisk drives. But NO monitor cable. I see a guy on Ebay selling the cable but was wondering if anyone knows if Ratty Shack sells them, and what it would be called at the store?
Any wire with RCA/Phono jacks on both ends will do...
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103846
Suddenly I feel old. Has it really been that long? Really?
RCA phono cable. Yellow, if you like to play by the rules.
Really! A phono cable as a monitor cable...cool. Thanks for the response.
What do you mean?
It's the second question I've seen in as many days about how to hook up an Apple to a monitor. Seems like composite video has gone the way of the buggy whip in the age of the automobile. With HDMI, USB, FireWire, and now Thunderbolt - I guess it's inevitable. I'll just go back to yelling at kids to keep off my lawn now.
When I picked up a IIe it had an RGB card and monitor, so just in case you don't find a composite jack there were other options
Dave, the good news is that Radio Shack still sells something that can plug into an Apple II. God forbid you should need a 7402 though.
Dave...
Hey! Dagnab kids anyway. lol
What?
Max,
LOL That was just my reply to Dave's Horse and Buggy remark.
I remember having lost my first cable from my IIc to my monitor "Way Back" in the mid '80's. I walked to my box of spare cords and cables and happened to see an old RCA stereo phono cable sitting there.
I thought "Hmmmmm.", tried it and it worked.
It justified my being a "Pack Rat".
Hello,
Recently a friend of mine gave me an apple IIe. However it had no monitor cable.
I tried using an RCA cable but on the monitor side the hole is not wide enough for the RCA cable to fit.
Do I need a different cable? I tried searching online but could not find any specs or a cable that I can buy.
I can attach pictures if needed to help .
You'll need a composite cable such as this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019304Z6M/
--Chris
[quote=cghera]
Hello,
Recently a friend of mine gave me an apple IIe. However it had no monitor cable.
I tried using an RCA cable but on the monitor side the hole is not wide enough for the RCA cable to fit.
Do I need a different cable? I tried searching online but could not find any specs or a cable that I can buy.
I can attach pictures if needed to help .
[/quote]
[quote=css]
You'll need a composite cable such as this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019304Z6M/
--Chris
[/quote]
Thank you, I will try to find one like this. Are these thinner than a usual RCA video cable? Because I tried one that is yellow which we usually use in old video cameras etc. Sorry for my ignorance.
Most any RCA cable should work. Show us a picture of your monitor connection.
Right, RCA cable should work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_video
[quote=cghera]
[quote=css]
You'll need a composite cable such as this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019304Z6M/
--Chris
[/quote]
Thank you, I will try to find one like this. Are these thinner than a usual RCA video cable? Because I tried one that is yellow which we usually use in old video cameras etc. Sorry for my ignorance.
[/quote]
OK this is what happened. I tried again using an RCA cable. The cable didn't fit. I tried putting a 3.5mm jack just to see if it would fit. It didn't. However the 3.5mm jack stuck inside the hole and when i pulled it I discovered that the previous RCA cable was broken inside leaving only the little metal stick inside it having the rear side as a small hole. In which the 3.5mm stuck and pulled it out!
Now the RCA cable fits normally but when I turn on the screen and computer I only see green lines.
I hear a beep and the floppy drive makes a seek and nothing happens.
I have no disks at all.
Is it normall that I dont see any message on the screen until the drive reads a disk?
Or I should see something like a warning for no OS?
Should I continue on a new topic as the cable fitting was solved? Or I should see something on the screen so the cable is not giving signal?
[quote=cghera]
OK this is what happened. I tried again using an RCA cable. The cable didn't fit. I tried putting a 3.5mm jack just to see if it would fit. It didn't. However the 3.5mm jack stuck inside the hole and when i pulled it I discovered that the previous RCA cable was broken inside leaving only the little metal stick inside it having the rear side as a small hole. In which the 3.5mm stuck and pulled it out!
Now the RCA cable fits normally but when I turn on the screen and computer I only see green lines.
I hear a beep and the floppy drive makes a seek and nothing happens.
I have no disks at all.
Is it normall that I dont see any message on the screen until the drive reads a disk?
Or I should see something like a warning for no OS?
Should I continue on a new topic as the cable fitting was solved? Or I should see something on the screen so the cable is not giving signal?
[/quote]
You should see a blank screen with "APPLE ][" or "Apple //e" depending on what ROM version you have. The beep is good, but a screen with only green lines means you aren't getting video for some reason. If you can post a pic of the image it would help diagnose. With no boot floppy the drive will recalibrate and then spin forever looking for a boot sector, that's normal.
I will get a picture and update.
thanx
From what you describe it's very possible that the RCA jack on the monitor is broken. This would explain the lack of video. You could try feeding the Apple II into a different monitor or feed another video source (VHS, DVD, etc) into the monitor to determine for sure which is at fault. If it's the monitor jack then it could be that just the center pin connection got stretched out. Try wiggling the plug to see if you can make a connection. If not, you will probably need to open up the monitor to repair.
[quote=jeffmazur]
From what you describe it's very possible that the RCA jack on the monitor is broken. This would explain the lack of video. You could try feeding the Apple II into a different monitor or feed another video source (VHS, DVD, etc) into the monitor to determine for sure which is at fault. If it's the monitor jack then it could be that just the center pin connection got stretched out. Try wiggling the plug to see if you can make a connection. If not, you will probably need to open up the monitor to repair.
[/quote]
I think Jeff may be right. Often times if a cable breaks off like that it can damage the RCA jack. If you have to open up the monitor, be extremely careful. They've got dangerous high voltages inside, even if they've been turned off. If you don't know how to discharge a CRT it may be better to have someone who is experienced do any servicing on an older monitor. That said, it usually isn't difficult. On most composite CRT monitors it is just a few screws to take the back off and the RCA jack usually either is hooked to it or on a panel that is either mounted to it or to the frame of the unit. Then all you need is a new jack and it is normally a simple soldering job. Depending how it mounts finding one that is an exact fit these days can be a challenge but there is usually a way to jerry rig something if worse comes to worst.
I have managed to see the apple IIe logo after playing with all the knobs of the monitor.
Know I need disks to try to use it. I will not write anything on this topic as it seems I worked out the issue.
Thank you and merry Christmas
[quote=cghera]
I have managed to see the apple IIe logo after playing with all the knobs of the monitor.
Know I need disks to try to use it. I will not write anything on this topic as it seems I worked out the issue.
Thank you and merry Christmas
[/quote]
Good news. Just a misadjusted monitor. You're almost there.