Hi folks -
I just ran across this PCB board offer on Ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184728499451
which costs $125 plus $25 shipping = $150. Vendor says it's based on the Russian open source Gerbers but he edited them to be closer to the originals, the solder pads perhaps being the major difference: the open source Gerbers have smaller solder pads than the originals, but I think that may have been intentional to reduce the likelyhood of solder bridges during hand soldering.
Now look at Newton Mike's (his Ebay shop is newton-computer) "Newton" PCBs here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265158525996
which cost $135 plus $20 shipping = $155, almost the same price as above. These PCBs always had the correct pads as seen in the originals, and they have the desirable (and expensive to produce) nickel / gold plating on the edge connector. BTW, a sidenote / warning: some price gougers sell the open source Gerber based PCBs made with JLCPCB 's ENIG process option at gouged prices ... but the ENIG gold layer you get for the $28 JLCPCB used to charge for each such ENIG PCB is pathetic, only a few atom layers thick, and is a far cry from the high quality nickel/gold contact fingers of Newton Mike's PCBs. If you want to see a photo with such a pathetic ENIG edge connector, look for my post #9 on this thread:
https://www.applefritter.com/content/new-supplier-apple-one-motherboards
This said, I'd like to hear your opinion on these PCB choices. Which one would you buy ? Which one do you prefer ? (two different criteria, although the $5 difference is not much). But I would like to learn how the worldwide Apple-1 community thinks about the PCBs which are the very foundation of all our Apple-1 builds. What are the features you like and dislike ? Did anyone buy this first PCB above and has made a 1:1 comparision with some other Apple-1 main board ? Do you think the differences are worth it ?
Comments invited !
I can not comment on the quality of the boards you have mentioned, but I think the price is pretty high. I sell replica boards myself for less than half. I had them produced according to the Gerber files from the forum. They are NOT with golden connectors as the poor plating (China) does not really justify the price AND if you do not plug and unplug extensions every five minutes, the connectors work wonderfully without gold plating in my book.
Here is my offer (that comes with a free re-print of the fold-out schematics): https://www.ebay.com/itm/294041261435
I also sell them in a set with reprints of the manuals (from scans, NOT from the re-typesetted ones that I am producing right now) and in a set with an acrylic case I designed: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-1-Motherboard-Replica-in-Acrylic-Case/294039736399
There seems to be something wrong with my offers, though, as I am not sure whether they can be seen in every part of the world …
Best
Armin
A couple of months ago I talked to the seller from Uncle Bernie's first link, he is from Canada. This is what he showed me, I apologize, the pictures are small, that's what he sent.
162934239_10157679012106008_3920999343807854325_n.jpg
163199903_10157679012061008_7968634867658371747_n.jpg
163142090_10157679012021008_4248138048851026347_n.jpg
Here's more from the same correspondence, some minimal differences.
163340456_10157679058256008_2917080711896547382_n.jpg
Here is the Russian Replica-1 in high resolution.
Well, at the end of a quick guide to the Apple-1 Newton replica assembly boards in high resolution. Surprisingly, of the three board options available right now, none are from the hero's homeland. This is very sad.
For authentic assemblies, I would recommend the Newton as the most accurate version. Canadian and Russian boards are more suitable for those who assemble for the first time and is not sure of the final result, while the Canadian one, as correctly noted by Uncle Bernie, is close to Newton in price, but not in quality and accuracy.