Hey All,
Is anyone making new "clones" of any of the Apple II disk controller cards, in particular the Disk II Controller card (The one with two sets of pin headers for the original Apple Disk Drives) or the 5.25 Controller Card (the one with the 19 pin D connector attached)?
Rather than buying something of unknown vintage, I'd prefer to buy a recreation, if anyone is making them.
I'm aware of Yellowstone and the ReActive Micro cards. Both seem overkill for what I need.
(I have a set of Disk II Drives and a DuoDisk with nary a controller card between them)
Cheers
Chesh
WHen searching eBay for "Apple Disk II", over 20 of these pop up with prices ranging around $25.
There are still a lot of these available. I do see one seller with bare boards, but for the price, it's just not worth collecting the parts to build one from scratch. Not yet at least.
Cheers!
One of the reasons recreations may be worth getting is I'm in Australia.
If it's a whole kit, it's most likely to have a long product lifespan.
If it's kitform, I can source components cheaply locally (with free shipping most of the time)
EBay purchased second hand components cost twice as much in shipping (and if they don't work, I just gotta eat the cost as it's not worth the cost to ship it back for a refund) so it's not as simple as "just buy second hand".
Chesh
These cards are so absurdly common, that no-one in their right mind would clone them. The only components that ever fail are cheap 74 series chips.
If someone did re-pop them, the PCB price, just to have them made, would exceed the value of the card. You should not need to pay more than £5 for one. People on the forum have them.
If your present card does not function, and you describe the issues, we can likely tell you the cause. The only remotely custom ICs on the board are the two PROMs.
Never will be. There are more Disk ][ and UniDisk cards in circulation, than there are systems. Every Apple II owner had one of these cards, and many of us had more than one. I have a stack of them, as do most other Apple ][ users, as spares.
You can buiild one on a perf board with the edge connector in 30 minutes, although the prototyping PCB will cost you half the price of a card, and fixing existing cards is easy. There will never be a need to reporduce them. In fact, I would expect that some users who have shifted to solid state media no longer use their Disk ][ cards.
Who would have guessed that an old Apple ][ sells for over $2000 today. LOL!
I was told to sell my Tesla Stock when it hit $375/share, less than a year ago. Now it's at $1375 a share. I hate looking back ... :-(
Never say "never".... :-D Some day, when folks have destroyed all their drives and tossed all their drive cards, you'll see prices go up.
We all need to chill out here!
Telling me that my actual experience is wrong is not a welcoming move. While you can buy things cheaply with cheap shipping where you are located, doesn't mean I can buy things cheaply with cheap shipping where I am.
A simple "No-one that I am aware of is making repro cards" would be enough :-D
Guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe I can get a bulk lot somewhere along the way.
Thanks everyone!
Chesh
What I said is:
You should not need to pay more than £5 for one. People on the forum have them.
Post in the WTB subforum here. I know at least one member here with a stockpile of them who sells them bloody cheap.
The freight on a card isn't going to differ much to the freight on a bare PCB. In fact, all of your costs are effectively freight, so, ordering four of them fom a forum member is your most logical choice, IMHO; and if needed, you could flip one or two on eBay.com.au to cover your freight costs.
Hi,
How many do you need?
One of the Disk II Controller card (The one with two sets of pin headers for the original Apple Disk Drives) and one of the 5.25 Controller Card (the one with the 19 pin D connector attached).
I have 2 Disk IIs and a DuoDisk.
Yes, I have managed to end up with more drives than I have controllers :-)
Where abouts in Oz are you? I'm in Sicktoria, might be able to help you out, just watch out for the covid ;)
A
Hadn't heard that one before :-)
I'm in Perth, where our Premier's hardline "overreaction" to border control suddenly doesn't seem such an overreaction.
Stay safe over there! It's getting scary.
Chesh
I've sent you a PM..
https://www.ebay.com/itm/143623176012