New Apple-1 NTI board builder

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jrsphoto's picture
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New Apple-1 NTI board builder

Just wanted to say hi, my name is John.  Got my Newton NTI board in September of last year and I've slowly been collecting parts.   I got this board with the intentions of making it as authentic as I can, giving myself a year to collect the parts I'll need.   Time will tell how much my plan changes because as we all know, many of these part are imposible to find at  any price considered remotely resonable.  I knew this going into this project though so no suprises so far.

 

I've been browsing the Apple-1 form here  unanounced for some time now (just before I purhchased the Newton board) and there is just a wealth of info here.  Its was the push I didn't really need to purchase the Newton NTI board and kickstart this project.   I blame UncleBerny :-)

 

I've got most of the IC's with date codes ranging from 75-77,  including an AMI 6820 from mid 1977.  Still don't have the RAM chips (or a ceramic 6502 LOL).  I do have what appears to be propper 40 & 24 pin sockets (please correct me if I'm wrong on this), and can get quite a few more if others are looking to trade:

 

I'm looking for the 8, 14 and 16 pin TI sockets though I've not had much luck.  I see the 8-pin TI socket on ebay but at the prices the sellers asking for 1, it falls into my "unreasonable" catagory. 

 

At any rate, I'm sure it will be a fun project, I've got no set time table with it (well, before I kick the bucket would be nice) so time is my friend.  If there are others here in the Minneapolis area, let me know!

 

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Hi jrsphoto!
I'm the same as you, I bought a Newton NTI board and am in my second year of collecting parts. I bought all the required TI closed ic sockets (except two 40-pin) from that seller who sells 8-pin on eBay. But directly, without eBay, we are hobby friends on Facebook, it allowed me to save a lot of money. The 8-pin cost me $15 apiece, maybe that's expensive, but in more than a year of searching I haven't found cheaper, and frankly I haven't seen any other offers at all. I guess they are really rare components... If you use Facebook I could introduce you, if not I can get the seller's email and you can talk about everything. Let me know if it's of interest to you and good luck with the build!
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Where did you find that

Where did you find that LM323K heatsink?

 

Best,

Logan

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Hi mrtitanic777!

Это 309k, я провел несколько глубоких исследований и пришел к выводу, что буду его использовать.

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Beware of the pitfalls with these TI sockets !

In post #1, jrsphoto wrote:

 

"I do have what appears to be proper 40 & 24 pin sockets (please correct me if I'm wrong on this)"

 

Uncle Bernie answers:

 

Well, you asked for this. Your fault ! The 24 pin socket in your picture is WRONG. It's not the low profile type used in the Apple-1 originals.

 

Also be aware of one fact: these TI sockets were junk even when they were new, fresh out of the factory, in the early 1970s. The industry using them paid a huge penalty for cheaping out, in terms of warranty repairs, and so they quickly had learned the lesson and abandoned this type of unreliable sockets. Which explains why they soon disappeared from the market and nowadays are so rare. The Apple-1 has about 1000 IC pins who want a good, reliable contact. So what are your odds  to get a good, reliable Apple-1 (and not only a wall hanger) if you use these terrible sockets ? Also, it's worth to pay attention to the real, read: professional, computer industry of the time being - guess how many IC sockets were in a  Data General Nova or any IBM mainframe system of the late 1960s or 1970s ?  

 

Note that I don't say it's impossible to build an Apple-1 clone that works, at least for a while, using these notorious sockets. As far as I am concerned I prefer reliability and durability over  "correct" looks. Form follows function. I have seven Apple-1 serving as burn-in rigs for my IC kits and there would be no way to do this with these TI sockets. I use sockets with the machined contact type. For which the manufacturer specifies 100+ insertions before the socket gets unreliable. So I could make 700 IC kits in total ... not gonna happen, by far. Each of these burn-in rigs may produce a dozen IC kits or so, before they get replaced with a new build. So the sockets still will be used up only by 12%. You don't want to replace any ICs sockets in any motherboard. Even with professional desoldering equipment it's too tedious and risky (to damage the PCB).

 

If you want to know more about IC socket choices, send me a PM.

 

- Uncle Bernie

 

 

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mrtitanic777 wrote:Where did
mrtitanic777 wrote:

Where did you find that LM323K heatsink?

 

Best,

Logan

 

Logan, they are still produced and can be orderd from Digikey, for example.

 

 

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UncleBernie wrote:In post #1,
UncleBernie wrote:

In post #1, jrsphoto wrote:

 

"I do have what appears to be proper 40 & 24 pin sockets (please correct me if I'm wrong on this)"

 

Uncle Bernie answers:

 

Well, you asked for this. Your fault ! The 24 pin socket in your picture is WRONG. It's not the low profile type used in the Apple-1 originals.

 

Also be aware o

 

I wondered about the 24-pin sockets UncleBerne..  I didn't have good low-angle pics of a the orginal sockets to know for sure, and the pictures I did have made them seem taller than the 40-pin sockets, so grabed these taller sockets.  I can get the low-profile versions as well but now you got me thinking about the sockets.    By the way, thank you for all your wonderful posts here on this Apple-1 forum.  I've learned much from reading your posts, and many others like Corry986,

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Hi jrsphoto!

Your 24 pin ic sockets aren't exactly what you need for an authentic look. I have a couple extra, if you have a couple extra 40 pins like in the photo we could swap. We would each pay for our own shipping, it would take about 2-3 weeks for you and 4 weeks for me. To sweeten the deal I can write down a set of PROM's for you, but they will be Soviet KR556RT11's, I will make stickers like the one in my thread about the updated ACI card design. I can't buy them from you, I'm cut off from all the world's financial systems, but I can receive and send packages for now. Soon there won't be that option either, then I won't be here either, I need to hurry. I have to finish my line before the iron curtain finally closes, just like in Soviet times. Think about it, if you're interested email me and we'll talk about it.

 

I wrote a couple of emails last night to my acquaintances who own originals and authentic replicas, there is no problem with using these closed ic sockets. I asked how often they change it in the keyboard socket and was told they have never changed it. For Uncle Bernie's needs they don't fit much, but if you decided to build a very accurate replica and already bought a bunch of expensive components to why turn away from that path? 
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Hi jrsphoto!

Your 24 pin ic sockets aren't exactly what you need for an authentic look. I have a couple extra, if you have a couple extra 40 pins like in the photo we could swap. We would each pay for our own shipping, it would take about 2-3 weeks for you and 4 weeks for me. To sweeten the deal I can write down a set of PROM's for you, but they will be Soviet KR556RT11's, I will make stickers like the one in my thread about the updated ACI card design. I can't buy them from you, I'm cut off from all the world's financial systems, but I can receive and send packages for now. Soon there won't be that option either, then I won't be here either, I need to hurry. I have to finish my line before the iron curtain finally closes, just like in Soviet times. Think about it, if you're interested email me and we'll talk about it.

 

I wrote a couple of emails last night to my acquaintances who own originals and authentic replicas, there is no problem with using these closed ic sockets. I asked how often they change it in the keyboard socket and was told they have never changed it. For Uncle Bernie's needs they don't fit much, but if you decided to build a very accurate replica and already bought a bunch of expensive components to why turn away from that path? 
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