For those of us in the mid-upper Northern Hemisphere winter is nearly upon us. It's time
to break out the blankets & sweaters and kindle the fire. The nights are lengthier and
soon it will be perfect to cozy up with some classic computing goodness.
So, what are your Apple II activities and plans for this winter? Or, rather, what do you
intend to do with stuff from your collection? Restore something? Learn more 6502?
Organize and catalog your hardware and software? Repair or invent hardware cards and
add-ons?
For me I've got a number of items to work through.
A shelf of II consoles that need electrical repair.
Learn the finer points and some tricks with CFFA3000.
Acquire or build an ALF synthesizer.
Continue MHEC (or rather begin) in-depth measurements.
Try and finish cataloging nearly 4,000 disks (with some hired help).
Divide my collection into several segments for easy management.
Scan and add some documentation for ftp asimov and the community.
Repair (test) and format a couple of ProFile disks.
Not necessarily in that order.
Don't forget and stock up on food and supplies for those days you don't want to leave the
abode.
I'm working on a new IP stack for Apple IIe. I want to at least get the ARP code written this winter. I'm using an Uthernet as the interface.
The list is growing:
-Learn Applesoft Basic
-Learn 6502 Machine language
-Read the new WozPak II Book
-Clean up and restore my II+ boards
-Plus a host of other things
-Learn the ins and outs of my CFFA 3000
-More ADTPro work
Mine is to finish repairing my original Apple II that I purchased last winter. Since then I have aquired 10 Apple II plus units with Disk II drives, the controller card for the Silentype printer I got with my Apple II and a whole slew of date correct TTL.
It's a rev 4 Mobo and I am the second owner.
I want to get it running. It is almost there, I think I am having some issues with the memory.
Retrobrite. I have 5 Apple iigs cases to go before I move onto the disk drives.
Jay,
By any chance did you bid on the "Poor Condition" II Plus
motherboard they had up on eBay?
I didn't think anyone would want to mess with it
after looking at the pictures, so I bid up to $65.00 on it.
I figured it would make a good winter project and it also had the 16k blocks.
Someone else got it for $66.00.
Boy...that thing was a disaster. lol
Steven
The cursor on my Apple IIc Plus is still moving only to the right, even when I move the mouse to the left, so have to find a way to fix that if at all possible. Pretty sure it isn't the mouse itself (which I checked and cleaned thoroughly), but to confirm or deny that I will purchase an adaptor to allow me to use my Macintosh mouse on the machine.
Would be really cool were there a way to use an optical mouse on the IIc Plus.
Once I crack that nut, will look into the flash hard drive option we've seen. That's a bit expensive right now, so may have to wait a while longer.
Finally, would like to see if there's a way to modify the IIc Plus output to pure RBG, vice the setup with which it came.
I put in an order in the latest run of CFFA 3000 cards and hope to get it before the
holidays. I plan to transfer the images from my floppies (before they all die) to
a flash card. Not very exciting, but never-the-less a race against the clock as I've
already lost too much. Other than that, my Apple II plus has a few keys that don't work
anymore. I've gotten some to work again by pressing a few hundred times, but I've got to
figure out how to fix the rest.
Steven,
Nope.
I talked to a guy in Scranton PA and he worked at the University and he had 5 Apple II plus units all in working condition. All he wanted was a case of beer. LOL!
I took him two cases of beer and he gave me all of them, plus a Wildcard, 12 Disk II drives all in good to fair condition, and a trunk load of old 68K macs including an original 128K and external drive.
I have a few of the old 68K ones up on eBay now. I need to get rid of them to make room for more Apple II stuff. LOL.
I never thought I would own a single Apple II plus now I have around 10 of them all with 16K RAM cards too.
Jay
I’ve picked up a number of Apple IIIs with problems over the years. Maybe it’s time to fix them. Also have a lot of Silent Type, Scribe, DMP, Imagewriter LQ, Stylewriter 1 printers and accessories. Maybe it’ll be a good time to see if they actually work. If not, I can use the space
Wayne
My plans are to sell of some gear and clear off some space on my shelves. I was going to dispose of a few early machines and drives, but I think the peak is over.
In the meantime, here's something fun to look at from back in the day:
Here's DISK II serial #00915 - note the shiny, reflective front plate and almost cartoonishly bright Apple logo colors.
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/photo-21.jpg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/photo-41.jpg
And then, sometime within a mere 1000 drives drives later, the matte plate appeared and stayed. Here's DISK II serial #01912.
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/photo-11.jpg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/photo-31.jpg
That particular board I wouldn't go more than $15. There are rust everywhere and cleaning that out of the socket isn't worth the effort. I had a board like that before (rev 7 "C" board), most pins broke off when you try to remove the chips out of their sockets.
For $65, I sell my "works on good days" rev 4 Apple II+ board.
This is just one office wall. There's the other office walls, the storage room, the garage and a storage facility to go through.
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image6.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image7.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image11.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image21.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image31.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image41.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image51.jpeg
http://a2central.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/image61.jpeg
Woof!
I bow before your hoardiness. (is that a word?)
Sean,
I proclaim you Master of Hoardiness. lol
I am not far behind you, but I am still a padawan of hoardiness.
Steven
I'm currently at 2 heated and lightly packed 2car garages and 1 high-density richly filtered 20x20 storage locker, plus my small lab and immediate work den. How does one possibly enjoy all of it?
I always think that by buying just one more piece I'll enjoy it then, but that never seems to happen!?!? :~ Instead I end up with more paraphernalia. :~
Thanks, but I know a few people whose collections (not hoards, collections...) make mine look small. I'm transitioning from quantity of items to quality of items.
Sean,
Maybe "Master Collector" would be better.
That still only makes me a "Padewan Collector". lol
That's ok though.
My collection is growing card by card, board by board.
A little at a time. Baby steps.
Steven
Well....
I just got my CFFA3000 Cards, and I plan to see how GEOS and other Systems that need a Hard Drive function...
MarkO
late to the party, but these are/was my projects for my apple iigs:
done:
built RGB cable to mate to c1084s monitor. (very nice graphics on a basically thrown away monitor)
built 2 null modem serial cables to be used for a headless raspberry pi. (have internet access and extra mass storage)
in process:
game port adapter to use a pc gamepad (db15 connector). 80% complete
applesoft basic (finding and typing in interesting programs from magazines)
converting a 1mb expansion card to a 4mb expansion card. 20% complete (already have a briel 4mb card but still interesting to do)
creating image disk from all my floppies (did a a lot but still not making a dent from the pile)
bards tale, played it 30 odd years ago, never completed it, now trying it again, albeit after the kids are asleep...that said, slow process
homemade eprom burner using pc network card. (want to make my own rom 4 chips for the seldom used iic)
Is the 1084-to-IIgs cable simply getting the right connections done up?
I assume it depends on your regional area. I am in NA and the 1084s I have is with the d-sub connection. that said, the cable build was very simple and straight forward. I did add a variable resistor to the sync which helped tweak the syncs that much better. IMO, the 1084s is one of the simplest cable builds I have encountered. Cant say that for the Atari SC1224 monitor, which if I can get it hooked up correctly would be icing on the cake as that RGB monitor vastly far more superior to the 1084 and the apple rgb monitor.
Well, I did get my Apple II running perfectly over Christmas Break. Pulled out the scope and rigorously tested every chip and still no luck. It was very flaky and I thought for sure it would be the RAM, but mope. Tested all the regular ROM chips and they worked fine too. Cleaned every pin on every chip free of tarnish and reseated them all. Still no luck. Flaky booting. After I was just about to give up, I popped out the "programers Aid" ROM and BINGO everything booted and worked perfectly passed all diagnostics and is now working fine.
I put the ROM in a II plus and the II plus went flaky. I am suspecting a short or something. Now I have an Apple II without a date correct "Programer's Aid" ROM in it, but at least it works perfectly.
Jay
fix a rev 4 board and unload a few pieces (thinning the herd.)
Spend time sorting through this and and that pile of vintage computer stuff.
That's impressive. I felt a sense of accomplishment in going through 3 moving boxes full of floppies over the holiday break, uploading unique stuff to Asimov... but that pales in comparison to your piles.
I'm doing what Sean is doing, but not as much. lol
This winter...
What I need to get done, is take stock of my collection: hardware and manuals. It would also be a good idea if I functionally tested all of my hardware that's been lounging around/neglected for the last 5 years or so. Just last night I checked over my IIgs WOZ and IIgs ROM 01 and thankfully neither of the batteries have spewed any acid. The WOZ IIgs had a pair of wires soldered to the main-board and a battery pack attached (by a previous owner) so I snipped that out of there and will find a replacement socket + battery to redo it.
I've also been tempted for some time now to put a Mini-Pico-Nano-ITX board into some apple II peripheral. Imagine trying to jam a complete working PC into an M0001 mouse and have the mouse remain functionally interfaced with said PC!
Not much else planned, but there's always the spur of the moment setting up a //e and ADT'ing something fun to it.