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Hey all, I engineered and made a small batch of somewhat clever PCB replacement boards for the Y-Cable for the LC Apple IIe card. The Floppy cable attaches at the back and the Joystick port points to the side for slightly less cable stress. I could only find a small quantity of solder cup style DB19 connectors, but managed to make a PCB footprint that allowed me to mount them on the PCB like a standard through-hole part. The only design "flaw" is that since the connector to the card is offset from the floppy connector, you kind of need to either attach the floppy cable before attaching the board to the IIe card, or hold the board steady when connecting the floppy other wise repeated stress could affect the 26-pin connector on the IIe card. I suppose a couple of extra standoffs would alleviate this, but since I never found a motherlode of DB19 connectors, I'm not inclined to make any more improvements or respin the board. Ive already sold several of these on another forum and figured I see if anyone here was interested in these. I have enough parts to make a final run of 10 more of these. Pricing is $25.00 for a Solder-it-yourself kit or $40 for a fully assembled unit. Shipping to US destinations is $5 for USPS First Class or $8 for USPS Priority small flat rate box. Here's a pic installed on a Color Classic:
Please PM me with details. Thank you. MacNoyd
Thanks for all your Interest! I will need to order another batch of PCBs for these before I can ship, but in the meantime, here are some of the boilerplate caveats I've been asking potential buyers to agree to. Please read and understand these before sending me a PM to place an order:
1. This is a limited run project for my part, not a consumer grade product. I have tested a couple units to prove out the design on my own Color Classic, but that was a few years ago and I no longer have the IIe card or external floppy drive. So, the remaining units are untested. I cannot be held liable for any misuse or even accidental damage perceived to be caused by these boards. However, this is a pretty simple design with no active components and I have visually inspected these to make sure there are no short circuits.
2. I've actually only ever tested these with the Apple 5.25" Platinum style drive. I have not tested with a UniDisk 3.5" or the Beige 5.25, Disk IIc, or 3rd party. Still, it's electrically the same as the cable, so it should be compatible with all of the drives that are deemed to work with the official Y-Cable.
3. This design has obvious exposed pins. Please keep metal objects away to prevent shorting the pins. You may want to affix some insulating tape like Kapton or Electrical tape over the contacts. I didn't do this myself cause it looks unsightly
4. Please be sure to either pre-attach the floppy cable or hold the adapter PCB in place when connecting or disconnecting the floppy drive. Since the connectors are vertically offset, some torque could be applied to the LC's onboard 26-pin connector which over time could cause a mechanical failure. The joystick connector should be OK to plug/unplug as long as excessive force is not used. Due to it's positioning only "shear forces" are applied when dealing with the joystick connection and it would take an extreme amount of force to cause damage in this way.
5. The units I assemble have dull looking solder joints. This is because I used Lead-Free Solder. It's very hard to get a shiny joint when hand soldering with LF as it requires a very slow, controlled cooling period typical in a reflow oven environment. Still, I'm not expecting any "cold joints" despite the appearance. Also, I cannot guarantee true RoHS compliance with these as there may be a small amount of lead solder used on the bare PCB's "HASL" plating. Also, the DB-19 vintage connectors are not likely to be true RoHS compliant although even pre-RoHS connectors typically only have trace lead presence. Still, don't let your kids handle, play with, eat(did I really need to say this?) these boards and while you shouldn't need to handle these with gloves or anything, I would take the same precautions you would when handling any vintage PCBA. I just figured extra caution is warranted here since the board sits outside the enclosure during operation.
All of that said. If there are any issues, I'll try my best to help sort them out. Especially if they arrive DOA especially since I couldn't test every unit individually. Im operating on pretty slim margins on these, probably losing money on the ones I assemble myself based on the time spent. The BOM cost actually comes closer to $15 as I forgot how much that special 26-pin connector with the board side 4-40 nuts is($5 just for that one connector). Still, Since this is a limited run, I'm just happy to recoup costs and get these in people's hands who need them.
If you're OK with all of the above you can send me a PM letting me know whether you want an assembled unit or a solder it yourself "kit". Also, I have limited supply of a prototype version that also has an IDC-20 Connector for Floppy emulators. That prototpye wil not fit a Color Classic like the DB19 only version shown above, though. PM me if you are interested in that version and I can send you a picture of one...
I'm very interested in ordering one of these if they're still available. My apologies for the public board post- I tried PM'ing you but failed. Thanks!
macdoogie asked that his account be closed to reduce his "digital footprint".