ussexplorer

Nice camera hall. I had to force myself to pickup a cannon ae-1 collection from a thrift store today. I tell myself stick with Minolta only. Save me from breaking the bank. Though I have a a few other goodies film cameras. One of the most horrible things is a 620 film. Yes I know you can respool 120 and order new 620 film. But it is just easier to use a camera that takes 120 film. I have a ansco box camera to took 120 film. The picture quality was great and I was just playing around with it.

If I found a rob for $5.00 covered in sh*****Tz. I would get it. Even if It means I had to take my shirt off to pick it up and put it in the trunk of my car. Great find...

This is just a thanks to everybody that helped. I took several additional pictures of the tear down.

Okay so I got the new ships in. Mitsubishi 74LS161A chips. Now we have a working display and mostly a computer. I still have to clean the printer and disk drive. But now I have a great keyboard problem. I was hoping to avoid this. I'm pretty sure it is dirty. Though this machine is pretty clean. What I get is repeats, some keys not working, some keys working fine. Sometimes I have to smack it a few times. The T key don't work at all. most keys work great. Like the space bar, return, and greater or less than. To name a few. This is what I get for putting the machine back together. Now I have to open it up to pull the keyboard. So I'll keep you guys updates. But for now. This issue is resolved. I'll start a new post for keyboard stuff once I get it cleaned. Thanks, Josh

Got the chips on the way. Should arrive by Thursday. I'll keep everyone posted. Once again thanks...

Update: Got a picture. Joined a group on face book and they asap pointed me to the right bank of chips. One suggested to swap them out in pairs. After messing around I had three results. 1. same issue 2. no picture 3. picture of APPLE II repeated several times and unable to get a scroll lock. So I'm going to source out some 161 chips and see what happens. Thanks, Josh

One final update before bed. I moved around all the chips I could move. Still no difference. So for now I continued cleaning the system up. I did a test with simple green and the lid. It worked great. Just like it did 20 years ago. So I continued with the top, bottom (used a paint brush) and removed the keys for the keyboard and soaked them. Talk about really clean already. I also used a paint brush on the mother board to clean the little amount of dust on it. I also posted on the local Facebook groups looking for parts. Unless I get lucky. I think I'm at the end of my talents. So I'll still try the stuff above when I get a sec. But next is cleaning the monitor, then printer (that will be a hoot to clean.) and the disk drive. TTFN, Josh

Just wanted to post a small update. I have not done any hardware stuff today. But I was reading through the apple ii official diagnostics. I'm surprised about how much is just replace a chip or check with a volt meter. When I first started in computer around 1992. I always figured it was a hack thing to do. As time passed on. I got better at locating and reading what part of the board does what. So that narrowed down the search during a repair. i remember towards the end having it down pretty good for certain fixes. The biggest problem being in a small town (even the next town over.) didn't have a place you could just go in and get stuff. Well except for the Radio Shack. That was limited for parts. I considered the real people who built and used o-scopes to be the true repair people or what I call board level repair. The video I was watching on you tube explaining by the time the apple iie came around. If it wasn't a simple fix. You would just send the board back to apple and they would send another repaired one back to you. So for you guys who are trying to go it alone. Give yourselves a pat on the back. TTFN, Josh

Okay I put everything away tonight after swapping a bunch of chips around according to another site. Still same thing. So when I have a sec on sunday. I'll see if I can set it back up and try typing that in. See what I get. I also checking some additional random points around the board for 5v and such. But I'm running on what I call board level repair. I only have very, very limited experience. Soldering, chip removal and volt meter (to a point.) is not an issue. But I don't have o scope or really know how to read a complex diagram. Thanks, Josh

Okay. So I tried the gr command. 1. press ctrl and reset 2. gr 3. return Get blank screen. Only difference I noticed is now no matter how many times I press enter. I have a blank screen. If I do not use that command. I get lines in different spots on the monitor or not lines at all.

Well yes. I do have the motherboard out and I didn't see anything falling off but I did see the following. I don't know the term for it. Underneath the cover is started to bubble? But I checked it and nothing came off. I have had sometimes when you rub a area. it will come off and you have to put on a jumper wire. But this is pretty bad and I don't know if it hurts anything. So I attached more pictures. So you can take a good look at it. I'll have to try the JR and return Saturday when I get home from work. Right now it is in a safe pile so I can clean the case. I guess you could call it Rotten. But my idea of rotten traces is like battery corrosion and stuff. Thanks, Josh

1. Tried Monitor on vcr. Works fine. 2. Remove all cards 3. Remove mainboard from case 4. check powers supply. All volts are good. Well two volts was just a tad under what they should be. 5. Removed all memory chips except first row closet to keyboard. 6. Take all memory chips from Microsoft 64 k upgrad card and put them in first row. 7. Swap chips around that matched. 8. Removed and reseated almost all chips. 9. Only tarnish found was on original apple memory chips. But only so far down. Not all the way into the socket. 10. Removed apple special rom. Just got a big black green screen. (Assume this is normal.) 11. 820-0044-d apple 2 main logic board rf1 (thus no memory jumpers.) 12. inside of case is stamped march 1982 Oh and one more thing. When I keep pressing return. It keeps beeping and the picture keeps changing. This is after pressing ctrl reset. I also check the bell on the keyboard and it does beep. So I'm pretty sure it is booting. Just not giving me a picture. LIke one of the switching ic chips is busted. Thanks, Josh

just put the monitor on a vcr. Besides the Height needing adjustment. Works just fine for picture.

I did play around with the memory chips. But I wasn't sure what bank was used for video. Plus I noticed some gunk on the pins. So I need to clean that. Well gunk but now all the way down into the sockets. I also need to bust out my volt meter too. But I did remove all the cards. Even the 16k expansion and placed one of those chips in the socket. I removed all memory and got no beep. So I'm like okay. I'll keep putting memory back in until I get a beep and see if I get any difference at all. I honestly with I had the memory test I used 20+ years ago for the shop I worked at. Simple dram tester. Oh and yes all the chips are original apple stamped memory chips. Also yes. I was thinking of plugging a vcr into the motor. But from my understanding. That is the monitor that came with it.

So have the three pics of the display issue. One is on power on, the other is on ctrl reset. then the final is when I type you can see if move around. In fact It beeps at me. So I'm pretty sure it is posting and going into basic. Just picture looks all lined up and such. Played around with the ram.Removed all the cards. etc. etc. Any idea on what to start at. Oh and for more pictures of the computer itself. I have it posted on APpleFritter via user NovellNetware. Thanks, Josh

Well first thing first. I still got to get my hands on it and diag. what the problem is. Then I can get a list of goodies besides listed above. But yes some kind of device. I'm sure I"ll find something. For years I have looked at all the cards and items. I was hoping to get something like a compact flash on card to go right into the machine. But seeing most of those only seem to work on a iie. Sort of out of luck. Plus I didn't know most of them are limited productions. I did send an e-mail to the person who is holding it for me until he brings it down on July 4th to send me more pictures of the bottom and cards of the unit. Since I don't know if that is a serial card or not.

Was looking at this. Though I read it was a little slow. https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/

Any Small Computer Museums or collections around LA? I can't seem to find anything. Also vintage arcades and such that is kid friendly? A place in Salt Lake City charges a entry fee and all games are a nickel. Thanks, Josh

I'm not surprised. As I posted in another message. About 20 years ago you could find this stuff all over the place. I normally don't purchase just to sell on e-bay. But when you walk in and find an item that can go for money on e-bay I would purchase it. Most of the time to replace a slightly less condition item. The problem is I had to pass up tons of stuff due to storage and a small house. Now I got a house and a place to put stuff and can't find anything like before. 1. Ebay hit. 2. economy hit. 3. People would always purchase before. But now have phones to look up items they never picked before. Like video games. 4. holding onto stuff much longer. 5. Reality shows. I went to storage auctions before and after. Wow what a joke. 6. etc etc. But I figured it would be interesting to find a junk store or a parts store or even a retro computer place. Maybe somebody will chime in. But thanks for the answer. Josh

Going down to Los Angeles to visit relatives. Wondering if we have any vintage computer or parts or places to go? Mostly for Apple II stuff to purchase. I noticed all the Museum's seems for vintage computers seems to be in San Francisco area and stuff. Way to much for what I already have planned to drive or take a train. So anything I might have missed. I'm already going to a flea market. So maybe I'll find some goodies. Thanks, Josh

That is nice. Years ago I passed up a few systems. I didn't realize it was pretty much apple ii with graphics and sound. So I passed up tons of them. Though I don't remember any of them having extra cards. So I passed them all up. That and no place to put them. Years before that I ran into some Franklin ace computers. I had not idea what they was. When I got home and looked them up. Went back to the thrift store. They was all gone. Really sad too. No software or anything. But complete with disk drives and such. No monitors. Funny part is they did come from the local school district. Had it burned in on the side. Oh, well. As stated in another post. I Just got hooked up with a apple II plus. I was reading in the power supply at least one items needs to be replaced. They have been known to go out. Anyway good luck on the apple IIgs. TTFN, Josh

During my research. I have seen that 65c02 show up before. But I was not sure what it was. I just know the iie and above has it. I think during my reading. I might be even able to add it to the ii plus. But I'm not sure. I found an article the other day talking about different roms / add-on's that came you could add to the apple ii or ii plus that came in the iie. Update: According to the webstie. It says if you do not have an enhanced iie. They sell the enhancement kit. So I guess it might not even work in a iie. Thus the reason for the upgrade. But I wonder what part of the upgrade though. The instruction set, graphics, or what.

I saw that card but upon farther inspection. Says it is for the iie or ii gs. Not listed under ii plus. Though they do have a 13.mhz card for the ii plus. That is a shame. But I do know the Floppy emu will work. Not the best. But it will also connect to the only Mac I have too. Though I have solved moving files to that via a usb zip 100 to scsi zip 100 drive. Works great.

Ah well for the modem. I have a old at&t partner phone system. I don't use it since the house I moved into is a pain to wire. So I'm still figuring it out. However, it does allow you to hook in normal phones, faxes, and old slow modems. This allows you to intercom between the devices and ring them. I also have a external us robotics modem. I think between the 2 modems and the system. It will bring back memories. If they don't give me to much trouble. I also use the system to test out voip ata's and stuff. Though that is all going the way of the dodo. Also on my list is a serial card and I want but the price is crazy a scsi card. Somebody at the place I work dropped off a old apple plus third party 20 or 40 meg scsi drive. I don't need it for my Quadra 650 I have. But I know it does work. Then again don't know if the apple II plus will see something that big. Thanks for the help. Josh

Sorry it is known as a language card. One of the purposes was to upgrade the apple to more memory. At first when I saw the Microsoft on the card I thought it was the cpm/80 card. Something I didn't know that existed back when I was a kid. Repo's and the cpm/80 card are going for some money. So for about 5 minutes I was jumping around for joy until I realized it was a Microsoft language card and not the cpm card. Though I will get all I can get. As for the apple works. Any version of apple works is good. Yes I was thinking of getting an emulated floppy drive. How can you not? I love the sound of the old disk drives and such. But I still remember the horrors of a disk going bad even if you have backups. Anyway attached is a picture of inside the machine. Thank You, Josh