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Unknown Cards


ngtwolf

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Re-edit:  Ignore my last answer, I had my card slot positions backwards.

 

The card in the bottom picture goes in one of the top slots, correct?  It's (still) possible it's a memory extension, even though most of those go in the 80-column slot, which is also the "official" memory extension slot (edit: and which also doesn't exist in a II+).

 

I'm still wondering if the mods seen in the top picture are some kind of memory dumper.  Does the card in the bottom picture connect to the mods, or was it separate?

 

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Its hard to tell much from your photos, theres a lot going on on that larger card, but I can't read anything much off it.  It looks like a lot of logic, I'm not seeing memory there... going out on a limb I'd suggest an RGB card of some type.  I guess thats a IIe we're looking at...

 

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The original poster mentioned that this is an Apple II+ and this is also clear by looking at the keyboard and case slot access cutouts. There is no 80 column expansion slot in an Apple II+ either.

 

As for identifying those cards - no idea sorry, there's an awful lot of 7400 series logic chips on there though...

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1 hour ago, Polymorph said:

The original poster mentioned that this is an Apple II+ and this is also clear by looking at the keyboard and case slot access

You're right there, I missed it by the time I was done looking at the pictures.  The 80Col slot for your II+ is slot 3, the IIe changed that to the AUX slot with the extended 80col card.  That doesn't look like any 80col card I've ever seen though, hence the thoughts of RGB. But you need to better see where everything is going in the case.

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Yeah I agree. If you look really closely you will see what appears to be part of a Videx 80 column card (or clone) in the bottom left of the bottom picture which lends weight to the unknown card not being an 80 column card (why would you have 2?). It might be an RGB card, but it is unlike any I've seen. It almost looks home-brew except its so well laid out.

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Thanks folks for the replies so far.  Heres some more info, and i'll attach other photos i took when i first got the system.

 

The Apple II+ came with four cards in it, but none of them were really hooked up to things inside, most of the stuff inside was unplugged.  I think there was something going on at one point which i'll get into in a minute.

 

One card was the disk controller, another was a memory expansion card (attaching to a ram chip spot on the board), another I believe is an 80 column card but it's not really hooked up to anything so i'm not sure that was ever working as such (I recall it works different on the II+ and you have to have some kind of manual switch or something), and then that weird card.  As others have pointed out, it doesn't look like a commercial card but it also looks too good to be a home brew.  Maybe it was made by some small local shop somewhere.  If it's RGB, then I don't know how that would have worked.  It has two connectors, and one of the connectors looks like it connects to whatever is going on in the main board.  Also, it's all logic chips (or at least mostly logic chips and -no- ram) and since there was an 80 column card and a memory card, its unlikely to have been either of those.  As a final note, there was a Videx keyboard enhancement on the lid, but it wasn't connected to anything and I believe that also needs a card attached to the keyboard which wasn't on this computer, so that was a bit odd also.  Either it was removed (since stuff was unplugged inside), or this lid came from another computer.  The part that leads me to believe there was another system is this computer also came with one of those Silentype thermal printers but there was no card for that printer in this computer either.  

 

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If that DB9 socket peeking out from under the lid isn't a joystick port for some reason, it could well be RGB... it'd be about the age of EGA RGB Monitors which are DB9's....

 

Looks like Polymorph was right about the Videx clone...  I'm still leaning towards the unknown being RGB but that's all I have... other suggestions I've had along the way were maybe something like a light pen...

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3 hours ago, Aunty Entity said:

If that DB9 socket peeking out from under the lid isn't a joystick port for some reason, it could well be RGB... it'd be about the age of EGA RGB Monitors which are DB9's....

 

Looks like Polymorph was right about the Videx clone...  I'm still leaning towards the unknown being RGB but that's all I have... other suggestions I've had along the way were maybe something like a light pen...

No DB9's there except the one that is part of the Videx function strip stuck on the lid, which would connect to a videx keyboard enhancer that gets attached to the keyboard (I believe it replaces the normal keyboard card).  I've since removed that whole piece since its kinda useless without the card (and generally useless anyway). 

3 hours ago, hoserama99 said:

I assume there are no ROM chips on the mystery card? I can't quite make it out.

 

The only suggestion I have would be to plug mystery card into, say, slot 1, boot up the II+ and check $C100 through $C1FF to see if code is mapped in from a ROM on the card.

Nope, no ram there.  Attached is a better photo.  The only connections on this card are two areas for ribbon cables, one for a 16 pin ribbon cable and one for a 14 pin ribbon cable.  The picture that is of the chips replaced on the motherboard with it's connector is a 16 pin connector and looks like it connects to the end of this card, but can't be sure.

 

I tried the software i had that identifies cards, but it didn't identify this one.  Worst case, as mentioned, there are lots of removable logic chips on this board so I can always use it for those, just didn't want to do so in case it was some special rare card which while it might be rare, it doesn't seem like it's special.  

 

IMG_20190620_221812.thumb.jpg.64a1159402b236380d0dbf68557f0d06.jpg

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23559936_10156071357974238_6358493969061

I found a twin for your card on CSA2... same two little daughter cards, but a "professional" card for the slot.  The above diagram in some ways looks similar too...  Certainly shows a lot of 74LS logic can get you an RGB interface, some of the timing signals come from slot 7.... so if this thing is going to work for you, I'd suggest trying slot 7... the thing is its also probably a KAGA/TAXAN RGB interface, be careful what you plug into it.  That's the best information I've been able to find.

 

s-l1600.jpg

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Awesome, that definitely looks like it.  I'll have to figure out the pinout to see if I can make an adapter for it though.  If so, I'd like to move it over to my IIe since I don't really use the II+.

 

Thanks so much for your help!

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BTW, can you link to where you found that image of that card?  Maybe theres something I can research there to figure out what the card type is (and maybe the pinout).  The photo of the matching card, not that scan, I mean.

Edited by ngtwolf
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