[rescue] From the basement...

[Lionel Peterson]

An update on the Apple ][e:

So I powered it up - I unplugged the disc controller, left the 80
column/additional memory card in - and it fired right up.

A quick "Hello, World!" program in AppleSoft BASIC and everything looked
great.

I will leave the DuoDisc drive and controller disconnected for now, I have
no floppies and no way to clean thirty years of gunk off the heads if I
wanted to test them.

I looked up the CFFA card (
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php),
and while the third run is now sold out (as of three weeks ago, DARN),
the seller is taking names towards a possible fourth run. It seems pricey,
but I think I'm going to hold on to this extremely clean and complete Apple
][e for a while, and having a card like this in the machine makes a whole
lot of sense.

I cleaned off the case (removed sides and top from bottom tray) with some
variant of 409 - it was dirty, not dis-colored (too much), and now it looks
good as new.

I went online poking around and stumbled upon two books about the Apple 1
and ][ history and use, they should arrive in a few days:

The New Apple ][ User's Guide -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615639879/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Sophistication and Simplicity -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986832278/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I guess I need an actual monitor to display 80 column text, correct? Any
pointers on such a beastie? Are there composite to VGA adapters that will
work? Is there a way to make this display properly on, say, a flat panel TV?

Thanks,

Lionel

On Wednesday, May 7, 2014, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com> wrote:

> So I took a quick look at the system - it's a Apple ][e with the 80
> column card, a superserial card (for printer I assume) and a disc
> controller. The two disc drives are in a "duo" case and attach with a
> single round cable (not the rainbow ribbon cable the drives connected
> with on early Apple ][ computers I'm familiar with.
>
> As an Apple ][e it appears to have 64K on-board and the 80 column card
> takes it to 128K - cool.
>
> The keyboard appears clean, all the keys seem responsive, none are stuck
> AFAIK.
>
> The board looks very clean, a bit dirty, but not like it has been
> lying around with the top off the case for a while.
>
> If I'm lucky, it should just power up, if I'm not luck, it will
> release it's magic smoke from the PS.
>
> I wonder what people do to get around the inevitable death of 30+
> year-old 5 1/4" floppy drives (and the complete lack of new 5 1/4"
> media AFAIK)? (Do people use iPods connected to the cassette ports?)
>
> This could be interesting - I'm going to research case cleaning
> techniques - the case is pretty clean, but I'd like it to shine if it
> still works.
>
> Lionel
>
> On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> >
> > After attempting to rid myself of old Apple bits this past weekend, I
> just
> > today found an Apple ][e w/ dual drives in the basement...
> >
> > I've not tested it yet, I assume the best process is to remove any add-in
> > cards and see if it boots to ROM, then add back the floppy controller and
> > see where that gets me...
> >
> > Any different advice? Anything I should visually inspect before powering
> > it on?
> >
> > TIA,
> >
> > Lionel
>
>
>
>
> --
> Lionel Peterson
> lionel4287 at gmail.com <javascript:;>
>


-- 
Lionel Peterson
lionel4287 at gmail.com