• Apple II PI card?

    From mrbrad@21:1/5 to All on Wed Oct 25 19:18:08 2017
    Any idea when another batch of these will be available?

    Want to set up the Apple //e and use this with putty.exe to watch my
    crypto miners for a hoot :)

    (what can I say..I'm bored.....can do this with a pi....why not an apple
    II?)

    anyway, just have not heard of any other runs on this ..so was curious

    brad
    former sysop lost gonzo bbs

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  • From Scott Alfter@21:1/5 to lostgonzo@gmail.com on Fri Oct 27 16:08:18 2017
    In article <osr9k0$kgi$1@dont-email.me>, mrbrad <lostgonzo@gmail.com> wrote: >Any idea when another batch of these will be available?

    Want to set up the Apple //e and use this with putty.exe to watch my
    crypto miners for a hoot :)

    (what can I say..I'm bored.....can do this with a pi....why not an apple
    II?)

    anyway, just have not heard of any other runs on this ..so was curious

    If you're up for a little bit of hardware assembly, I designed a workalike board a while back. It's not perfect (probably should redesign it so the Raspberry Pi doesn't bump into the 6551), but it works.

    You can order bare PCBs from OSH Park...current pricing looks like $38.55
    for three:

    https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/iHTI3wqA

    I only assembled one of mine. If I knew where the remaining blank boards
    were hiding, I'd offer them for sale.

    gEDA design files (schematic and PCB) are up on GitLab:

    https://gitlab.com/salfter/A2RPi

    They depend on additional symbols and footprints:

    https://gitlab.com/salfter/gschem-symbols https://gitlab.com/salfter/pcb-footprints

    I don't have a BOM on hand...currently reinstalling gEDA so I can look up
    the component values. One detail I do recall is that you probably want to
    use a NOS 6551, not the updated part that WDC is selling. (I assembled mine with a Rockwell 6551 with an early-'80s date code, purchased from an eBay seller.) The other chip is probably a 74[LS|HCT]245, the crystal is the
    usual 1.8432 MHz (there's also a build option to use a Raspberry Pi GPIO pin
    as the clock source, which is what the Apple II Pi uses), and then there are
    a small handful of capacitors and resistors.

    _/_
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    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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  • From mrbrad@21:1/5 to Scott Alfter on Fri Oct 27 23:03:46 2017
    On 10/27/2017 11:08 AM, Scott Alfter wrote:
    In article <osr9k0$kgi$1@dont-email.me>, mrbrad <lostgonzo@gmail.com> wrote:
    Any idea when another batch of these will be available?

    Want to set up the Apple //e and use this with putty.exe to watch my
    crypto miners for a hoot :)

    (what can I say..I'm bored.....can do this with a pi....why not an apple
    II?)

    anyway, just have not heard of any other runs on this ..so was curious

    If you're up for a little bit of hardware assembly, I designed a workalike board a while back. It's not perfect (probably should redesign it so the Raspberry Pi doesn't bump into the 6551), but it works.

    You can order bare PCBs from OSH Park...current pricing looks like $38.55
    for three:

    https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/iHTI3wqA

    I only assembled one of mine. If I knew where the remaining blank boards were hiding, I'd offer them for sale.

    gEDA design files (schematic and PCB) are up on GitLab:

    https://gitlab.com/salfter/A2RPi

    They depend on additional symbols and footprints:

    https://gitlab.com/salfter/gschem-symbols https://gitlab.com/salfter/pcb-footprints

    I don't have a BOM on hand...currently reinstalling gEDA so I can look up
    the component values. One detail I do recall is that you probably want to use a NOS 6551, not the updated part that WDC is selling. (I assembled mine with a Rockwell 6551 with an early-'80s date code, purchased from an eBay seller.) The other chip is probably a 74[LS|HCT]245, the crystal is the
    usual 1.8432 MHz (there's also a build option to use a Raspberry Pi GPIO pin as the clock source, which is what the Apple II Pi uses), and then there are a small handful of capacitors and resistors.

    _/_
    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?



    Likely beyond my meager capabilities to pull that off. Thanks anyway.

    You'd think there would be a market for this...if for no other reason to
    have a PI up where you APPLE II sits on your counter for other uses.....

    thanks

    brad
    former sysop lost gonzo bbs

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  • From Scott Alfter@21:1/5 to Scott Alfter on Sat Oct 28 04:56:25 2017
    (Replying to myself to fill in information I didn't have earlier...)

    In article <osvlli$53s$1@dont-email.me>,
    Scott Alfter <scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us> wrote:
    I don't have a BOM on hand...currently reinstalling gEDA so I can look up
    the component values.

    Having looked at the files (and dug up the DigiKey invoice from when I assembled mine), the BOM for my card looks something like this:

    ref val pkg DigiKey Part #
    U1 R6551 DIP-28 n/a
    U2 74LS04 SOIC-14 296-14875-1-ND
    U3 1.8432 MHz HC49/U 631-1076-ND
    C1, C2 0.1uF 50V Y5V 0805 1276-1007-1-ND
    C3 10pF 50V 5% NP0 0805 1276-1109-1-ND
    R1 6.8k 1/8W 5% 0805 RMCF0805JT6K80CT-ND
    R2 10k 1/8W 5% 0805 RMCF0805JT10K0CT-ND
    CONN2 2x13 PCB-mount socket OR1152-ND

    build-time option:
    J1 add wire to use RPi as clock; omit U3 & C3

    _/_
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    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
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  • From Scott Alfter@21:1/5 to lostgonzo@gmail.com on Sat Oct 28 05:20:08 2017
    In article <ot0vj3$m3f$1@dont-email.me>, mrbrad <lostgonzo@gmail.com> wrote: >On 10/27/2017 11:08 AM, Scott Alfter wrote:
    In article <osr9k0$kgi$1@dont-email.me>, mrbrad <lostgonzo@gmail.com> wrote:
    Any idea when another batch of these will be available?

    If you're up for a little bit of hardware assembly, I designed a workalike >> board a while back. It's not perfect (probably should redesign it so the
    Raspberry Pi doesn't bump into the 6551), but it works.

    Likely beyond my meager capabilities to pull that off. Thanks anyway.

    You'd think there would be a market for this...if for no other reason to
    have a PI up where you APPLE II sits on your counter for other uses.....

    Hmm...I'm guessing you'd buy one if it were available. Others might just be waiting for someone to step up. With a bit of rework to avoid the clearance issues in the current design, perhaps I'd be able to sell a few of my cards.

    The tricky part would be sourcing NOS 6551s. Even after weeding out the Chinese counterfeiters, it looks like there are options ranging from $6-$10
    per chip, though there's one seller asking $400 for 150 (which would be
    under $3 each, but I don't think there's that much demand for them).

    The remaining parts are readily available from DigiKey, and they're fairly cheap.

    Maybe I could farm out most (or all) of the assembly to someone like Seeedstudio...dunno if they let you ship parts to them that they don't carry for assembly, or if they can only assemble with parts they have on hand. If the latter, either I could have them put a socket where the 6551 goes or I
    can hand-solder it after they're done.

    _/_
    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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  • From martindoherty377@gmail.com@21:1/5 to mrbrad on Mon Dec 4 17:43:06 2017
    On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 11:34:55 AM UTC-4, mrbrad wrote:
    Any idea when another batch of these will be available?

    Well some news emerged on the www.ultimateapple2.com store's blog on 7-Nov-17 (and I quote):

    https://www.ultimateapple2.com/?p=208
    "Apple2Pi's are now back for last run of 2017."
    "As the title states…the last run for 2017 Apple2Pi’s are back and available for purchase. This was a very large order so we have stock available to hopefully bring us through the rest of the year and well into next Q1 of 2018."

    Unfortunately for the slower members of our herd, the new infusion of stock has sold out already! :P

    In an earlier post (20-Oct-17), Anthony said "Our work has resumed on the newer version of this board and we will keep you updated here on the progress of that project."

    Martin

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  • From paul.s.macmillan@gmail.com@21:1/5 to mrbrad on Thu Dec 21 15:50:43 2017
    I have a recent A2PI card and can't seem to free up enough time to use it... I can sell it at cost if you want it.



    On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 8:34:55 AM UTC-7, mrbrad wrote:
    Any idea when another batch of these will be available?

    Want to set up the Apple //e and use this with putty.exe to watch my
    crypto miners for a hoot :)

    (what can I say..I'm bored.....can do this with a pi....why not an apple
    II?)

    anyway, just have not heard of any other runs on this ..so was curious

    brad
    former sysop lost gonzo bbs

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