APE-Face printer interface rom dump

[re-atari]

Hi all,

 

Has anybody already dumped the contents of the rom inside the APE-face printer interface and is willing to upload?

I had access to one back in '85, borrowed it from a friend to replace my troublesome CardCo interface. At one occasion I opened it up out of curiosity and drew out the schematic. Turned out to be a relatively simple design featuring a romless Z8. Could not dump the contents of the rom (2316 2Kb maskrom), though, as it was soldered in. IIRC the (single sided) PCB's layout contained an error, I think it had 2 swapped address lines compared to the reference design for the Z8.

 

I'm thinking of rebuilding one myself just for the fun of it, but I need the rom contents. Does anybody have these available? Also, if anybody has them, images of the top and bottom of the PCB would be very helpful as well, so I can verify if the layout indeed had an error.

 

re-atari

[sup8pdct]

Hi all,

 

Has anybody already dumped the contents of the rom inside the APE-face printer interface and is willing to upload?

I had access to one back in '85, borrowed it from a friend to replace my troublesome CardCo interface. At one occasion I opened it up out of curiosity and drew out the schematic. Turned out to be a relatively simple design featuring a romless Z8. Could not dump the contents of the rom (2316 2Kb maskrom), though, as it was soldered in. IIRC the (single sided) PCB's layout contained an error, I think it had 2 swapped address lines compared to the reference design for the Z8.

 

I'm thinking of rebuilding one myself just for the fun of it, but I need the rom contents. Does anybody have these available? Also, if anybody has them, images of the top and bottom of the PCB would be very helpful as well, so I can verify if the layout indeed had an error.

 

re-atari

I just fished mine out and had a look. It has only 1 chip in it. Cannot get a number off it due to it not having one, only has apeface copyright notice.

The board has space for 2 extra chips, one 24pin rom size and a 2nd that is 22 pin. I can take pics of this one if you like . it is Apeface XLP.

 

James

[re-atari]

Has anybody already dumped the contents of the rom inside the APE-face printer interface and is willing to upload?

I just fished mine out and had a look. It has only 1 chip in it. Cannot get a number off it due to it not having one, only has apeface copyright notice.

The board has space for 2 extra chips, one 24pin rom size and a 2nd that is 22 pin. I can take pics of this one if you like . it is Apeface XLP.

Thanks for your efforts. Your description sounds more or less like the PCB I traced out. That one had a 24 pin NEC 8316 maskrom (not a 2316, my typo ) and a 20 pin 74LS374 along the Z8. The rom carried the inscription '© 1983 D.D. 48 XLP'. Seems like the manufacturer switched to a Z8 with built-in rom later on. The Z8 I traced out had a 372800 Mhz crystal attached to pins 2 and 3. I'd really like to see some photo's of the PCB!

I'm afraid you won't have a chance of dumping the rom, though. Well, unless you have access to a programmer that can read microcontrollers. A HiLo all-07 or Galep-3 would be able to pull it off.

 

re-atari

[Mathy]

Hello Re-Atari

 

BigBen has a Galop. I guess it's a 4.

 

BTW if BigBen doesn't have one, then HardwareDoc does.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[re-atari]

BigBen has a Galop. I guess it's a 4.

BTW if BigBen doesn't have one, then HardwareDoc does.

I have both a HiLo ALL-07 and a Galep-3, so access to a sophisticated eprom burner isn't quite the issue. I feel reluctant that members rip apart their hardware and mail their components somewhere to get the rom contents dumped.

 

re-atari

[Marsupilami]

Also, if anybody has them, images of the top and bottom of the PCB would be very helpful as well, so I can verify if the layout indeed had an error.

Hi, i just put mine on my gallery: http://atarinside.dyndns.org/

I hope it will help

Regards.

[sup8pdct]

Hi all,

 

Has anybody already dumped the contents of the rom inside the APE-face printer interface and is willing to upload?

I had access to one back in '85, borrowed it from a friend to replace my troublesome CardCo interface. At one occasion I opened it up out of curiosity and drew out the schematic. Turned out to be a relatively simple design featuring a romless Z8. Could not dump the contents of the rom (2316 2Kb maskrom), though, as it was soldered in. IIRC the (single sided) PCB's layout contained an error, I think it had 2 swapped address lines compared to the reference design for the Z8.

 

I'm thinking of rebuilding one myself just for the fun of it, but I need the rom contents. Does anybody have these available? Also, if anybody has them, images of the top and bottom of the PCB would be very helpful as well, so I can verify if the layout indeed had an error.

 

re-atari

 

here are pics of my interface.

hope they are of some use.

 

James

 

p.s what is the processor type? Have found a datasheet of one that apears to have the same pinout Z86C21.

Edited December 1, 2008 by sup8pdct

[re-atari]

here are pics of my interface.

p.s what is the processor type? Have found a datasheet of one that apears to have the same pinout Z86C21.

Many thanks both to you and to Marsipulami for posting these photo's! The PCB's resemble each other a lot, the only difference appear to be in the layout of the traces leading from the SIO-connector to the microcontroller and in the placement of the crystal.

 

I think the PCB is roughly the same as the one I traced out in the past. As I wrote in an earlier post, that interface contained a romless Zilog Z8 (U1), which is a microcontroller version of the Z80, as well as a 74LS374 (U3) and a 2Kb maskrom (U2). It looks like the interface I had at hand was an earlier version, and that the manufacturer switched to a CPU with maskrom onboard later on. It would've cut down production costs and (more importantly) prevented any homebrewers from dumping the rom contents.

 

I know I still have the schematic I drew back in '85 in one of my archives. I'll look it up and post it here.

 

re-atari

[Richard2112]

Hello Re-Atari,

It's a crazy small world. I worked at Digital Devices between 1984 and when they closed in 1985. I was the warranty repair department, shipping department, I built test units, and anything else that was needed. By blind dumb luck, I came across your post.

 

Although I do not have any of the original EPROMs, code, or schematics for the APE Face, I do have a huge pile of Z80's with the printer buffer ROMs built in. I also have circuit boards, schematics, and everything else needed to build them if needed. You are welcome to them if you want to build one.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Richard

[Dropcheck]

Many thanks both to you and to Marsipulami for posting these photo's! The PCB's resemble each other a lot, the only difference appear to be in the layout of the traces leading from the SIO-connector to the microcontroller and in the placement of the crystal.

 

I think the PCB is roughly the same as the one I traced out in the past. As I wrote in an earlier post, that interface contained a romless Zilog Z8 (U1), which is a microcontroller version of the Z80, as well as a 74LS374 (U3) and a 2Kb maskrom (U2). It looks like the interface I had at hand was an earlier version, and that the manufacturer switched to a CPU with maskrom onboard later on. It would've cut down production costs and (more importantly) prevented any homebrewers from dumping the rom contents.

 

I know I still have the schematic I drew back in '85 in one of my archives. I'll look it up and post it here.

 

re-atari

 

 

Did you ever get a rom dump of the U2 chip?

[Dropcheck]

Here's a NEC pdf of it's then current chip offerings. Take a look at pages 123 to page 130

1982_NEC_Microcomputer_Catalog.pdf

[re-atari]

 

 

Did you ever get a rom dump of the U2 chip?

Hi Lenore,

 

I haven't logged in for quite a while, so missed this question. Sadly I haven't been able to find a ROM dump. I did contact Richard2112 by PM or email, but IIRC he never got back to me. Maybe my mail got lost somewhere along the way.

Workrelated requirements got in the way shortly afterwards, and I never got back to the subject later on.

 

re-atari