11 Aug
2005
11 Aug
'05
3:16 p.m.
Sellam mentioned that Apple ][ Comms card the other day... Thinking I
should have one, I went digging in the depths of my workshop and found a
box of mostly Apple ][ cards. I am not really an Apple person, so perhaps
somebody sould tell me what I've found... All are Apple ][ plug-in cards
unless I state otherwise.
Wildport Ltd 6522 VIA card. Contains a 6522 (Duh..) and a '04 only. Has a
lenght of 26 way ribbon cable connected by a permanent transition
connector, other end unterminated. Probably a user I/O card.
MTL APC.1.1 (that's in the PCB etc, no other identification). Cotnains
6821, 6850, 1488, 1489, '04, 2-off '151, and a 4060. Also a 2.4576 MHz
crystal. Ther's a 20 pin header with nothing plugged into it, and a 10
pin SIL header with a cable ending in a DB25-P connector. Obviously a
serial card, the 4060 divides down the Xtal to give the baud clocks,
these are selected by the '151s to give the Tx nad Rx clocks to the 6850.
From a glance at the board, it would appear one port of
the 6821 goes to
the 20 pin header, the other controls the 151s (baud selection).
Note
there's no firmware ROM on this board.
Another MTL APC.1.1
Apple Super Serial Card II.6551 + 2316 + TTL + RS232 drivers. I think I
recognise this :-)
CCS Asynchornous Serial Interface Assy No 07710-0001A. Another RS232
card. Containss 6850, 75150, 75154 (RS232 driver and receiver), 8304, 2
PROMs, '09, '136, '03, 4702 (baud rate generator). 4 position DIP switch
marked 'Baud Rate'. 26 pin header, presumably for an RS232 cable.
Epson APL Board Unit G479501000-0. Nothing to do with the language, I
think, just an Epson printer interface. Contains a 2708 EPROM + TTL. 16
pin header, presumably parallel printer interface.
Wesper Microsystems Wizard IPI. Assy 80003601. Looks to be another
printer interface. has an EPORM la=belled EPSON/G10X + TTL
Sync Printer Inerface Card. Apple. TTL + 2 off 2112 RAM + ROM. Has a DE9
connector at the front edge. I think this is a Silentype interface.
Mountain Computer ROMWRITERTTL + a couple of 555 timers + a 24 pin ZIF
socket + discretes. Clearly an EPROM programmer.
Apple/PC link interface. 2716 EPROM + TTL + buffers + M58725 (?). One 20
pin header near back of card. No idea!
Advanced Text Systems P.001 6520 + a couple of '16s + space for more
buffers. Had a bit of ribbon cable soldered to it, with a DB25-P on the
end. No idea!
Another Mountain Computer ROMWRITER
MEMOSOFT Made In France. Contains 6850 + TTL. Also 3486 and 3487
(buffers?) never soldered in + space for passives and a 2716 EPROM. 6
solder pins at the front of the board, seem to go to the buffers. Maybe
some kind of network card?
ICE LTD Apple Cold Boot Adapter. EPROM + 6116 RAM + TTL. One 26 pin
header that might go to ...
P-DJ2-301-B Not an Apple card, this looks to be a hard disk controller.
26 pin header at one end, 34 pin + 2 off 20 pin at ther other, and a disk
drive like power connector. Z80A + EPROM + 2 off 2114 + TTL +
SCX6225NCM/V5 KONAN (what the heck is that?) + 8465 (data separator IIRC)
PROG RWP 8255 + EPROM + 78S40 (SMPSU chip) + '158 + 28 pin ZIF socket.
Another EPROM programmer board.
ICE Multiplexor Host Adaptor 2716 + 6116 + TTL. One 20 pin header
RML PIP card (nothing to do iwth the Apple ][). A 380Z board with 3 off
Z80 PIO and a Z80 CTC + TTL on it. 50 pin RML 380Z bus header connector.
Prototyping area.
2 off Videx 80 column (?) cards. Cotnain 46505 (CRT controller, 4 off
2114 RAM, 2 off EPROM + socket for another EPROM (char gen and
firmware?), TTL
Buffered Grappler+ (C) Orange Micro. 64K RAM (8 off 4864) + EPROM + TTL +
a 40 pin chip (microcontroller?). 26 pin header (printer interface). Is
this a printer buffer card?
Microsoft Z80 card. Z80 + ROM + TTL. I know what this is....
Apple Clock Board. Maybe home-made (PCB is not plated-through). EPROM +
8253 + TTL. No external connections.
Apple Parallel Interrupt Type 2. Looks to be the same origin as the last
board.. EPROM + TTL. 10 pin header linked to a DA15 plug
2 off Communication Board. These aapear to the board Sellam was
mentioning. 6850 + TTL + P2 PROM + 8304.
2 off Apple Parallel Printer Interface. TTL + P1 PROM. 20 pin external
connector. I found the manual for this, so I know what it is (it's a
centronincs-;like interface, the odd thing being that the busy line is an
address input to the firmware PROM. The stnadard firmware goes into a
loop waiting for the printer to go ready, when it does, the intructions
read by the Apple are not the jump-round-the-loop, so it goes on and
sends a characer).
Watford Electronics 1770 module for the BBC micro (nothing to do with the
Apple)
Homebrew lightpen on stripboard with a 16 pin header connector.
Presumably for the Apple ][ game port
Wattford Electronics Sideways ZIF socket. PCB with a 28 pin ZIF socket
and some resistor packs linked by ribbon cable to a 28 pin header.
Presumably to fit in the 'ashtray' on a BBC micro to allow easy ROM
swaping
2 of 'WORKSTATION' EPROMs, (C) University of Sussex. Probably for the BBC
micro. Any ideas?
A few more Beeb-related chips (Torch Z80 pack EPROMs, 8271, etc)
Pracitcal Peripherals PROCLOCK. 6821 + MSM5382 (Real time clock chip) +
EPROM + TTL. Oh, and a Lithium battery. Obvious what this is...
Disk ][ Interface card. And yes, I know what it is...
Heuristics 20A-1. TTL + 2 quad op-amps + 2 quad comparators + 2708. 3.5mm
jcak socket. I think this might be a speech input card...
Mountain Hardware Supertalker. TTL + PROM + 3418 _ 2 quad op-amps + LM380
audio amplifier. 3.5mm jack socket 'microphone input', 2.5mm jack socket
'speaker output). Speech I/O?
2 grotty dynamic microphones, probably for the last 2 card.
Any thoughts?
-tony
11 Aug
11 Aug
4:27 p.m.
At 23:16 11/08/2005, Tony Duell wrote:
2 of 'WORKSTATION' EPROMs, (C) University of
Sussex. Probably for the BBC
micro. Any ideas?
Yep, for BBC. (At least, I have an image of a "Workstation" ROM, (C)1983
University of Sussex Computing Centre, so I presume it's the same thing!)
It's a terminal emulator - VT52, 4010 or "dumb". The "setup"
option only
allows changing of baud rate, up to 9600, so it seems not to be a
particularly sophisticated terminal emulator.. looks like it was a
internal or low-distribution release, based on the apparent 4-digit serial
No. on the title screen..
You didn't happen to come across a 6502 second processor did you? I'm
after one, if cheap or for swaps..
Rob.
4:56 p.m.
2 of
'WORKSTATION' EPROMs, (C) University of Sussex. Probably for the BBC
micro. Any ideas?
Yep, for BBC. (At least, I have an image of a "Workstation" ROM, (C)1983
University of Sussex Computing Centre, so I presume it's the same thing!)
It's a terminal emulator - VT52, 4010 or "dumb". The "setup"
option only
allows changing of baud rate, up to 9600, so it seems not to be a
What, no parity, etc, settings. Ouch!
particularly sophisticated terminal emulator.. looks
like it was a
internal or low-distribution release, based on the apparent 4-digit serial
No. on the title screen..
There's a 4 digit hex serial number on the label of the EPROM too.
Different numbers on the 2 EPROMS I have, of course.
You didn't happen to come across a 6502 second processor did you? I'm
after one, if cheap or for swaps..
No, I only have one of those (I only have 1 each of the 6502, Z80, and
ARM 1 second processors, and the large-board 32016 in the ACW).
-tony
12 Aug
12 Aug
3:33 a.m.
At 00:56 12/08/2005, Tony Duell wrote:
Indeed.. Very basic!
A lot of my past involvement with Beebs was modem/comms based (started with
writing a BBS, ended up working for Micronet) so I had rather a large
collection of various terminal emulators and associated utilities... this
was not one I ever actually used!
One I did use: I'm in the process of sorting out the heap of beeb stuff,
and found myself running my old modified version of Kermit-in-ROM to talk
(via an iolan terminal server) to one of the BSD boxes here to swap some
files the other day... A 20 year old compile of kermit talking serial to a
version I set up on the day, running in a telnet session. Not bad!
Weirdest ROM I came across, yesterday as it happens: "BBC Terminal control
ROM, 0.23, (c) Cambridge control systems"
Apart from a basic terminal emulator & unremarkable SRAM loading mechanism,
it contains an I/O filing system! Allows you to use standard file channels
to access IO ports, memory & 1MHz bus. Nice ..
Rob.
Yep, for BBC.
(At least, I have an image of a "Workstation" ROM, (C)1983
University of Sussex Computing Centre, so I presume it's the same thing!)
ALmost certainly is.
It's a terminal emulator - VT52, 4010 or "dumb". The "setup"
option only
allows changing of baud rate, up to 9600, so it seems not to be a
What, no parity, etc, settings. Ouch! 
11 Aug
11 Aug
6:36 p.m.
Apple's official RS232 interface for the ][ used only level shifters from
TTL to +- 12. The 6502 would fiddle the levels and watch the control
lines in software.
If you have a controller with a UART on it, then it will need a driver
chip and may not be useful with some apple aps.
The card I have has a 12 or so pin ribbon cable actually fixed to
the board by a header, and it dangles thru the apple2 slot and is
clamped in place there by a metal bracket that pinches the cable
and the case to make a firm installation.
As I said, it has no chips larger than the 14 or 16 pin packages IIRC.
I ran some sort of terminal emulator on it at one time, and I remember
it had trouble over 1200 baud or so.
Jim
Tony Duell wrote:
Sellam mentioned that Apple ][ Comms card the other
day... Thinking I
should have one, I went digging in the depths of my workshop and found a
box of mostly Apple ][ cards. I am not really an Apple person, so perhaps
somebody sould tell me what I've found... All are Apple ][ plug-in cards
unless I state otherwise.
11:54 p.m.
On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, jim stephens wrote:
The card I have has a 12 or so pin ribbon cable
actually fixed to
the board by a header, and it dangles thru the apple2 slot and is
clamped in place there by a metal bracket that pinches the cable
and the case to make a firm installation.
That's the Serial Interace. But what do you mean by a "header"? The
cards I have and the photo in the manual show the cable soldered directly
to the board and looped through two adjacent slots cut into the PCB. The
Communications Interface has only a 6-line ribbon cable.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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12 Aug
12 Aug
5:12 p.m.
On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, jim stephens wrote:
Having seen both boards recently, I will confirm that all of mine are
built as Sellam describes. There's a ribbon cable soldered direclty to
the PCB, looped through a couple of slots as a strain relief, then a
crimp-pin DB25 on the other end.
-tony
The card I have has a 12 or so pin ribbon cable
actually fixed to
the board by a header, and it dangles thru the apple2 slot and is
clamped in place there by a metal bracket that pinches the cable
and the case to make a firm installation.
That's the Serial Interace. But what do you mean by a "header"? The
cards I have and the photo in the manual show the cable soldered directly
to the board and looped through two adjacent slots cut into the PCB. The
Communications Interface has only a 6-line ribbon cable.
5:07 p.m.
Apple's official RS232 interface for the ][ used only level shifters from
There are at least 3 'official' RS232 interfaces for the Apple ][ -- the
bit-banger card, the comms card (6850 based) and the super serial card
(6551 based).
TTL to +- 12. The 6502 would fiddle the levels and
watch the control
lines in software.
That sounds like the bit-banger card. I have a couple, I have the manual
somewhere. I've also heard that one early Apple manual (which I don't
have) contains code to bit-bang 110 baud serial data through one of the
outputs on the games connector, and that that was the original way to get
printouts from an Apple (convert to current loop, add an ASR33).
If you have a controller with a UART on it, then it
will need a driver
chip and may not be useful with some apple aps.
Most of the serial cards, including the bit-banger and the other 2 Apple
ones have firmware PROMs on them, which cotnain the drivers with the
standed PR#n, IN#n interface.
The card I have has a 12 or so pin ribbon cable actually fixed to
the board by a header, and it dangles thru the apple2 slot and is
clamped in place there by a metal bracket that pinches the cable
and the case to make a firm installation.
Both the bit-banger and the 6850 card have that sort of construction.
As I said, it has no chips larger than the 14 or 16 pin packages IIRC.
I thought the firmware ROMs (there are 2 on the bitbanger, P7 and P8)
were 20 pin chips.
I ran some sort of terminal emulator on it at one time, and I remember
it had trouble over 1200 baud or so.
You were lucky. I had problems with it at 300 baud...
-tony
7:03 p.m.
On Sat, 13 Aug 2005, Tony Duell wrote:
That's what they look like to me (looking at the photo in the manual).
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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That sounds like the bit-banger card. I have a couple,
I have the manual
somewhere. I've also heard that one early Apple manual (which I don't
have) contains code to bit-bang 110 baud serial data through one of the
outputs on the games connector, and that that was the original way to get
printouts from an Apple (convert to current loop, add an ASR33).
This is in the first Apple II Reference Manual (a.k.a. the "Red Book",
January 1978), which was the manual you got with your Apple ][ prior to
the more "official" small format spiral bound Apple ][ Reference Manual.
It's on page 114, "A Simple Serial Ouput", and includes an assembly
listing and schematics for a simple circuit that plugs into the game port.
It's a hard to find manual and sells for a lot when it is found.
As I said, it
has no chips larger than the 14 or 16 pin packages IIRC.
I thought the firmware ROMs (there are 2 on the bitbanger, P7 and P8)
were 20 pin chips. 
11:12 p.m.
On 8/12/05, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
That sounds like the bit-banger card. I have a couple,
I have the manual
somewhere. I've also heard that one early Apple manual (which I don't
have) contains code to bit-bang 110 baud serial data through one of the
outputs on the games connector, and that that was the original way to get
printouts from an Apple (convert to current loop, add an ASR33).
I've done that (bit-banger serial over the game port) with non-Apple
software at 1200 baud direct to a C-64 user-port bit-banger serial
port... was about 1984 or 1985... me and a mate wrote some custom
stuff to gulp and blow disk sectors from the Apple II version of
Sorcerer to a C-64 disk that had formerly contained Enchanter. We
used Enchanter to map the different sector mappings, then siphoned off
the game file from one machine to the other, proving beyond a shadow
of a doubt that Infocom's multi-platform efforts were fully
successful. The game-port-to-user-port hack wasn't bad, either. No
level shifters, just TTL serial over a 30 cm twisted triple-wire (RxD,
TxD, GND).
I thought the firmware ROMs (there are 2 on the
bitbanger, P7 and P8)
were 20 pin chips.
They should be 6309s, but I could be mistaken.
-ethan
11 Aug
11 Aug
11:50 p.m.
On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, Tony Duell wrote:
Wildport Ltd 6522 VIA card. Contains a 6522 (Duh..)
and a '04 only. Has a
lenght of 26 way ribbon cable connected by a permanent transition
connector, other end unterminated. Probably a user I/O card.
Standard 6522 interface. The 04 is to invert one of the Apple's clock
signals to be compatible with the 6522.
Epson APL Board Unit G479501000-0. Nothing to do with
the language, I
think, just an Epson printer interface. Contains a 2708 EPROM + TTL. 16
pin header, presumably parallel printer interface.
I'm pretty sure it's a printer interface sold by Epson for their printers.
I have a few of these.
Apple/PC link interface. 2716 EPROM + TTL + buffers +
M58725 (?). One 20
pin header near back of card. No idea!
I think this is a card by Applied Engineering? Maybe not. But I think it
allows connection to a PC-compatible disk drive(?)
Buffered Grappler+ (C) Orange Micro. 64K RAM (8 off
4864) + EPROM + TTL +
a 40 pin chip (microcontroller?). 26 pin header (printer interface). Is
this a printer buffer card?
Yes, and a nice one.
2 off Communication Board. These aapear to the board
Sellam was
mentioning. 6850 + TTL + P2 PROM + 8304.
Somewhat rare. At least they were hard to come by when I was looking for
another to complete the TelePong demo several years back. I finally got
a second one through the designer of the card.
Heuristics 20A-1. TTL + 2 quad op-amps + 2 quad
comparators + 2708. 3.5mm
jcak socket. I think this might be a speech input card...
Most likely. Heuristics made speech recognition stuff in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. I have a Heuristics speech recognition board (large,
mounted in a hard-shell portable carrying case) with a serial port so it
can be interfaced to any computer with an RS232 port. Circa early 1980s.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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12 Aug
12 Aug
5:10 p.m.
On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, Tony Duell wrote:
Right. I've not traced out the schematic (to get the wiring of the 26 pin
cable), and don't intend doing so anytime soon, but it's hardly going to
overtax me if I need to use it...
Wildport Ltd 6522 VIA card. Contains a 6522
(Duh..) and a '04 only. Has a
lenght of 26 way ribbon cable connected by a permanent transition
connector, other end unterminated. Probably a user I/O card.
Standard 6522 interface. The 04 is to invert one of the Apple's clock
signals to be compatible with the 6522. Apple/PC link
interface. 2716 EPROM + TTL + buffers + M58725 (?). One 20
pin header near back of card. No idea!
I think this is a card by Applied Engineering? Maybe not. But I think it
allows connection to a PC-compatible disk drive(?) 2 off Communication Board. These aapear to the
board Sellam was
mentioning. 6850 + TTL + P2 PROM + 8304.
Somewhat rare. At least they were hard to come by when I was looking for another to complete the TelePong demo several years
back. I finally got
a second one through the designer of the card.
Yes, I think I have one of their S100 boards somewhere, but it would take
some finding....
-tony
Heuristics 20A-1. TTL + 2 quad op-amps + 2 quad
comparators + 2708. 3.5mm
jcak socket. I think this might be a speech input card...
Most likely. Heuristics made speech recognition stuff in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. I have a Heuristics speech recognition board (large,
mounted in a hard-shell portable carrying case) with a serial port so it
can be interfaced to any computer with an RS232 port. Circa early 1980s.
6:27 p.m.
On Sat, 13 Aug 2005, Tony Duell wrote:
You mean the speech boards are more common? I am suprised :-)
No, but I don't imagine a whole lot of these boards were sold, or if they
were they just aren't out there. I've gone through a lot of scrapped
Apple ]['s and have found many stashes of Apple ][ boards and have never
once come across one. The one I had was, I think, one that I got when I
bought my first Apple ][+ back in 1984.
Me too.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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2 off Communication Board. These aapear to the board
Sellam was
mentioning. 6850 + TTL + P2 PROM + 8304.
Somewhat rare. At least they were hard to come by when I was looking for Most likely.
Heuristics made speech recognition stuff in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. I have a Heuristics speech recognition board (large,
mounted in a hard-shell portable carrying case) with a serial port so it
can be interfaced to any computer with an RS232 port. Circa early 1980s.
Yes, I think I have one of their S100 boards somewhere, but it would take
some finding....
7072
days inactive
7074
days old
12 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
classiccmp.org＠irrelevant.fsnet.co.uk -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
vcf＠siconic.com