Questions about European Apple IIe

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Questions about European Apple IIe
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Hi all. Picked up two Apple IIe machines and a Mac LC that are European versions. The IIe machines are both PAL video with the Aux slot in line with slot#3 and have 230/240volt PSUs. I will post pictures when I am home this evening or tomorrow morning (sorry, looked at them before I left for work this morning and realized what I had but no time to photograph)

My first couple questions are:

1) Can I swap the PSUs for a 115 VAC supply?

2) If not, I assume I'd need a step up/down transformer to properly run them yes? Never dealt with any machines/electronics from Europe/places abroad.

They all have the correct cords (10Amp or higher 3 prong 240/250VAC)

3) I am also getting a PAL to NTSC converter (RCA) but what issues may I deal with as far as monitors? I believe (at least older) PAL standards were 50Hz and I know most monitors I've looked at were 60Hz.
Would a typical converter deal with those issues?

4) What other kinds of issues may I have to deal with? Any issues with peripheral cards, etc? The drives they came with (the IIes) work fine on a machine I already had hooked up so I know they...pardon the term.... go both ways, just curious what else to expect.

Thanks for any help, this is uncharted territory for me.

PS - What is the difference between an A2S2 - 064 P, or D or F? Again, I will post photos this evening but the label on the bottom gave all three choices. Mine are both "P" but was not sure what it stood for. A service sticker on the LC had an address of 'Adelaide SA' which if my searching was correct is Adelaide South Australia if that gives any clues to the machines' origins.

They also did not have a keyboard switch and had standard keys (with some minor differences like the caps lock and shift keys being arrows and not words printed on the key caps) so I assumed they were not from a non-English speaking country.

Thanks again.
Zan

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Re: Questions about European Apple IIe

You may replace the 220V PSU with a 110V power supply. Step-up transformer or converter would work, too.

For the color output (if you need it, since there is a switch on the motherboard that forces the output to be monochrome, e.g. clamps color frequencies) I would suggest using an NTSC motherboard since colors are more "true" and vivid. The lack of NTSC TV sets in those world regions in the past led to RGB/PAL ways to output color video from the apple IIs, and in addition the framerate would be better (60Hz for NTSC vs. 50Hz for PAL)...I suspect that you'll achieve very poor image quality by using a PAL to NTSC converter box.

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Re: Questions about European Apple IIe

As I said I've never had one before so had no idea what to expect. I'll not likely keep both (don't really need two IIe's from Australia!) but would like to test each one.

Perhaps the step-up transformer to test the PSUs and then the one I'll keep I will likely swap the PSU out and put the 240v PSU on the shelf. Thank you very much for the response!

Anyone else have any ideas, things I should look or look out for?
Zan

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Re: Questions about European Apple IIe

Hi Zan,

The A2S2-064 P, or D or F refers to the keyboard layout and character set. F for French, D for Deutsch and P for Portuguese (not sure about this last one).
The keyboards are different in all these countries as well as the keyboard EPROM 341-015x.
The switch under the keyboard allow to select between to different character sets and keyboard loyouts as shown on this picture of a french keyboard (note the double marked keys).

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Re: Questions about European Apple IIe

Had a German IIe a long time ago and remember opening up the 220V power supply and there was a yellow jumper wire that you could switch it to 110v. Not sure if they all came that way but mine did.

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Re: Questions about European Apple IIe

Ill take a look. One of the two supplies was dead, the other working nicely.
Zan

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