Hi,
I got an Apple II (or II+) clone.
I'd like to know more about it, as I would like to restore it. There is no badge or label on it. The ROMs are 6 2716 eproms. I took some pictures of it:
It came with a clone of the disk II-card, a clone of the language card and a clone of the AP64-Eprommer.
Can anyone identify the manufacturer or give any hints? - At first look I thougt it was a Franklin Ace 1000, but the case is slightly different from the photos I found on that one.
> Can anyone identify the manufacturer or give any hints?
I think that's impossible. In the early and middle 1980 there were many clone manufacturers in Taiwan. Most of them nameless.
One of my Apple II clones resides in (nearly) the same housing, the power supply could be the same, but the mainboard and the keyboard are different. The key caps are brown, not grey.
I believe that is a Tiger TC-80 A. If you are ever interested in trading or selling it, please let me know. I love that keyboard, and I adore the experimental areas on the mainboard for custom mods.
http://quartdepomme.fr/quartdepomme/Hardware_Apple_II_Clones/Pages/TC-80A.html
(This has photos of one mainboard rev, that show the same prototyping area.)
tiger_tc-80-A.jpg
It really seems that this is the one I got... since this seems to be a french site, also the location would fit (I am from Germany).
I got this clone because I really like the keyboard with the seperate NUM-pad. I only have to fix its discoloration and two of the slot connectors... and now, that I know what model it is, of cource, get on a hunt for the badge ;)
That is what I like about it, too; which is why I like the Franklin series so much.
I do at least have the eternal numeric keypad for my main //e.
From what I can see, our mainboard is a match for that model. Keep in mind that they resold their hardware, unbranded, to / through other companies. It is likely that it was unbranded, and has no factory badge, by intent. Another common thing with these clones is that they were sold without ROMs, as 'CP/M machines', and you would need to order the Apple clone ROMs through a separate entity, usually a subdivision of the company, to avoid legal complications on importingthe full clone system.
They broke up the total number of units sold and remained hard to shut down by using several companies to sell and distribute their hardware; so that if one avenue closed, the others remained open, and they were never a direct target.
You will likely want to fin a PAL colourfix board, or to build PAL colourfix onto that prototyping area; unless it already has that done. That, or find an NTSC monitor or television and use it on a 50Hz/60Hz transformer. Otherwise, you will likely only ever have monochrome output on that system.
Apple PAL Encoder Card
...and, no, you can't just use an LCD display with NTSC colour composite input. The Apple NTSC signal relies on tricks that only tend to work on raster CRT monitors. I've seen a number of help topics on that subject recently...
I read about the PAL conversation board before, but unlikely they are very seldom. Do you know, if there are gerber files and BOM (or at least schematics) out there, so that it would be possible to rebuild them?
PDF, you will need to re-design it in KiCAD, or whatever you prefer.
PALcard.pdf
P.S. Use it only in Slot 7. That slot is unique in the signals that it provides:
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/1312/what-makes-slot-7-of-the-apple-unique-from-1-6-and-how-was-this-used
Thank you. I will have a try later this year... first I am going to restore this little gem,
Now I just have to figure what mystic cards I got with my last lot ;)