Apple 1 replica build project in France

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Apple 1 replica build project in France

Hi there !

 

my project is to build a working replica of an apple 1 like many people on this forum.

 

some facts: I began with a ZX 80 kit in the 80's, then a ZX 81 and finally  an apple //e in 1983. Today I'm the happy owner of a IIc with 255 ROM and I enjoy it.

 

I'd like to build an apple 1 replica. I already have the main PCB and the ACI PCB. I am not obsessed by a 100% exact replica but a working one and I'm looking for advice about the BOM.

Philippe

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The best advice of Uncle Berie for prospective Apple-1 builders!

In post #1, Kerpat wrote:

 

"I am not obsessed by a 100% exact replica but a working one and I'm looking for advice about the BOM"

 

Uncle Bernie gives this best advice:

 

If you want a working Apple-1 clone, get one of my famous IC kits (which I also sell directly, just use "Send PM"). These kits contain almost all the components needed to build an Apple-1 and an ACI except: PCBs, IC sockets, cables, keyboard, transformers ... these you need to buy elsewere. Note that the kits I offer on Ebay don't have the big blue Sprague caps nor the heat sink ... they are lost to the usurious Ebay fees. Nobody, absolutely nobody can buy these components furnished in my kits at a lower price by himself / herself (yes I have female fans, too !). This is because I operate with no profit (by design, I hate to pay "taxes" to parasites of my work).  Get these kits as long as you can ... I have 39 sets of ICs left over which I bought years ago for my "100 perfect , wave-soldered Apple-1" project which could not be realized do to various obstacles and reasons (if you followed my posts here on Applefritter you know how that went wrong).

 

All my kits have a complete IC set that was tested and burned-in for 4 weeks (!) in a "real" Apple-1 clone. Note that we have to be careful with wording: a "clone" is a copy of the original, using the same type of parts, and the same circuit. A "replica" is  a functional equivalent using more modern ICs, and a different and smaller PCB, look for Tom Owad's book here on the applefritter start page (worth buying in any case just for the Apple-1 history in it !). If you don't want to impoverish yourself, and if you are not willing to suffer, or if you are not frustration tolerant, go build such a replica, and not a clone. As long as you hide the replica from sight in a nice wooden case, nobody could tell the difference, the response to the keyboard and the screen output is the same.

 

The "clones" only work when you use a) a known good IC set, b) my "Tips & Tricks" pdf, and c) add my "reliability mods". There are always "maverick" builders out there who buy their parts from here, there and everywhere, and then they end up with nonfunctional or unstable builds and then they write about their problems and their suffering here on applefritter. Many fall prey of Chinese IC counterfeiters (see my recent post on counterfeit DS0025 which lists all known counterfeits). In the end they pay more money, have all the disappointments, and all the suffering, and for what ?

 

So, buy my kits instead. I want to get rid of these rare IC I paid some $27000 for and I want to get my money back (as faster as I can do that, the better, because it seems that all fiat / paper money now turns into toilet paper faster than ever before, except for Weimar Germany of the 1920s maybe, where every homeless bum was a billionaire).  Of course I do not save that money, I turn it into something that keeps its value. Thanks God I did not buy a private jet - was close to do that - but just look at the JET-A prices, which have doubled, filling the tanks of a small private jet for one flight would now stretch my credit card which has a $10000 limit.  I don't know how this crazy world will end - but these energy prices spell: doom !). So get "good valuable stuff" like my IC kits as long as I don't need to increase the price to 10 billions (hyperinflated) US$ soon !

 

Did you ever wish to be a millionaire  ?

 

An old adage says: "be carefuel what you wish" --- if this money "printing" continues you will be a millionaire soon, and a few months later would will be a billionaire, and then a trillionaire ! Did you think that the 1 Trillion Dollar bill from Zimbabwe is a hoax ? No, it really existed ! It would buy a loaf of bread, and then a few days later it would buy nothing and people used it as wall paper.

 

But back to the virtues of my Apple-1 IC kits.  Since the ICs are known to work and there are the "Tips & Tricks" to protect you from pitfalls, you will succeed without much suffering. As long as you can do a good soldering job. This is all which is needed. This is the best path to Apple-1 build  success there is. Once you have  your first Apple-1 up and running, you can use it to make your own known good IC sets.

 

Oh, and if you still want to do everything by yourself, Kerpat, I can send you a BOM for the Apple-1 which I made recently to get a more systematic approach into my kit production. So far I did everything out of my head, and a finished Apple-1 nearby as a pattern, and I never forgot a part.  But I'm preparing to get this into other hands with more RQLT, so I have started to make better documentation. You can be the guinea pig for trying out my BOM free of charge ... just send me a PM.

 

Bernie

 

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The work is going on

I'm finished with the soldering work for the motherboard en the ACI. I'll now have to make my poxer supply.

I'm looking for a keyboard solution : I'm looking for a solution without smd and if  possible one of the projects of clones I found on the net but  I can't find any PCB for sale.

 

Special thanks to Uncle Bernie for his component kit and great advice

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