I have been working on Apple 1 peripheral board designs for the past several months and have them nearly completed. The boards all can take advantage of a simple Apple 1 mod which allows the VMA line to become useful. With this line active, peripheral boards can disable all on-board addressing so that peripheral boards can act as a substitute. The boards include an RS232 Serial board, a USB interface that can make the Apple 1 output appear as a keyboard to a PC or MAC, and a non-volatile memory board that can appear in any Apple 1 address space. There is also a buffered expansion board to support multiple peripheral cards.
I have put descriptions and demo video links on my web site http://www.apple1notes.com/old_apple/Peripheral_Boards.html
wsander
(edit by eeun: fixed period at end of link)
wsander,
I tried the link and it did not work.
Steven
Try this: http://www.apple1notes.com/old_apple/Peripheral_Boards.html
The period at the end became part of the URL!!
wsander
Cool! Would any of these boards be usable with a Briel Replica 1?
The boards would probably work with the Replica 1 but the VMA function would not be available so the functionality would be limited.
Wendell,
Great work as always.
This really opens up possibilities for a nice multimedia museum display with the Apple-1 output and input inside a window of a touch screen with videos and other stuff.
Hmmm. Now I have to make my plexiglass cases have easy side access for an expander board
Cheers,
Corey
If you make the case just a bit wider you can put 1 card under it.
Wsander,
As Ferris Beuhler is "One Righteous Dude"
And Sean is a "Master Collector"
You are a "Master Apple 1 Expansion Board Inventor".
All the cards and what they can do are exceptional.
Steven
Ok.
Here is something for the Apple 1 folks:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390682307546?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_5979wt_1159
This fellow has copies of the Original Checks, and photo's of the Apple 1 that is owned by Bob Luthor. author of "The First Apple".
He also has a cover (I'm not sure if it is original) from an Apple 1 Manual.
I contacted the seller and informed him about Bobs book and said that maybe he should contact Bob.
Enjoy!
Steven
Hi Wendell,
Just a quick question about your expansion card.
I have my Obtronix Apple 1 mounted in a suitcase, so I don't have any horizontal space:
http://www.neoncluster.com/home/apple1.html
Is it possible somehow to mount the expansion board into the vertical female connector on the Apple 1, instead of the horizontal male connector on the side of the Apple 1?
Philip
The board would need to be re-layed out to replace the extension connector with a card edge connector. It could be done.
wsander
Hi Wendell,
Amazing work.
When will the boards be for sale?
Thanks,
Dana
I am not interested in being in the board manufacturing business so I have added a statement to Board design section of my web site putting the Apple 1 board designs there in the public domain so anyone can use the information. i am close to 80 yrs old so I will just stick with designing stuff. I can put additional design information in if there is an interest.
Wendell
I have updated the website with the latest information on these boards including Gerbers for anyone who is interested. The key part for the USB Board is no longer available but much of the behavior can be accomplished with the Serial board anyway.
wsander
Very cool and thanks for posting.
I'd love to get ahold of the entire complement of boards if there was a way.
I'm not sure what level of interest would be, but probably the least risky/most affordable approach would be for someone to create a small crowd funded project to see if there is enough interest to get a set of PCBs made.
If you really want them, you can just send Wendel's gerbers to the fab house of your choosing and pay for the prototype type pricing.
regards,
Mike W.
I have reviewed the pricing on the cards and realize the best thing I could do is buy a quantity of the cards and resell them so I am planning to do that. I am running a couple of final modifications now. One change is to add an SOIC foot print to the USB card since I was able to get a quantity of the SOIC parts when the Radovan Robotics site closed. Also I am working on a 2 layer version of the Expansion Board, the current one is 4 layer which is very nice but it costs about 3 times as much. I would include a Radovan chip (for $10) with each USB board since the part is not readily available. The bare boards should be less than $20 except the 4 layer Expansion board which would be closer to $50 all based on an expected market of about 25 boards of each.
These boards have SOT-23-5, SOIC, and 0603 parts on them so the really require magnification to build, preferably a microscope. I am considering building out a few and selling them assembled.
I would like to know how much interest there might be.
wsander
Put me down for one of each board design. Thanks!