Hello all,
I'm restarting my old Apple IIe+ and I have found that interface card in slot 2.
It's a dual serial card with RTC clock. For sure I have assembled that card by myself in the past.
I would be glad to have more information on that card.
It's likely a clone and I would like to be able to access the RTC and configure the serial port speed.
The AI tells me that this card was made by a Chines company Giantek, but I cannot find anything about the card or the company.
Thanks in advance for any information.
Yves
Looks identical to the AST Multi I/O card. You will find its Utilities disk image here: click!
AST Multi IO Card - Front.jpg
You are a crack!
Thank you so much for the identification and the link.
Greeetings.
Yves
Glad I could help!
Btw, could you please post the back side of your card. I think some people in this topic might be interested in it, including myself.
Thanks!
It is always amazing the variety of Apple II cards that there were back in the day. And even more so sometimes how many of them were cloned by Chinese/Tiawanese/Hong Kong companies. And also in a few other countries like Brazil and Eastern Europe that had political or legal reasons why they cloned things like the "iron curtain" or import bans.
One nice thing abouut the clone card compared to the "real" one is it looks like the chips are socketed as are the "pig tails".
I have assembled the card myself, starting from a bare board, which explains why the chips are socketed.
Yves
OK, that does make sense then. Are those bare boards still available or was it a "new old stock" vintage blank board?
I really don't know if the bare PCB 's are still available.
I have bought several Apple II interfaces bare pcboards, even mainboard, when I was working in SE Asia in the 80's.
I guess they are no longer available since a while.
Yves
Wow, I didn't even know that buying bare PCB expansion cards for the Apple II and soldering them yourself was a thing in the 80s. How easy was sourcing all the components? Now it’s click, click, click and you’re done, but back in the day I imagine you had to go through several different thick catalogs, fill forms and send them through the mail? Or could you simply order everything from one place by phone?
For the DIYer it would have been catalogs, for small company's we had parts catalogs and a salesman would come by from time to time. I think we could call the sales rep.
Yes exactly.
The components were not too difficult to source because at the time, there were more DIYers, like HAM radios.
Now electronic shops are rare and you have to order the components via click, click, click :).
I have just found in my attic, a complete Apple ][ + mother board fully populated with IC's also made from a bare board back in the mid 80's.
I will test it soon, just to see if it's still working.
I remember that the most difficult component to find was the power supply connector.
I have used other connectors from AMP.
The Apple model is still very difficult to source today.
Yves
Digikey has them. I bought several from them
Back in the day there were mail order places you could get all the components needed to populate most Apple II boards. Places like JDR Microdevices. And where I lived when I was a teenager we had an electronics supply store that actually carried a pretty comprehensive selection of chips like 74LS family, etc. That was more expensive and you still sometimes had to order less common parts, but it was very convenient. As far as getting blank PCBs, there obviouusly weren't places like JLCPCB or PCBWay, but if you read magazines like Computer Shopper you could order blank boards for the Apple II and IBM PC mostly. The electronics parts companies advertised there and in magazines like Byte too. Companies like Mouser and Digi-Key sold mail order through ads like that also.
You can find PDFs of a lot of those vintage publications online. It is interesting to see what was available back in the day.
Digikey in Europe has no stock and they have to transfer the connectors from Digikey USA ...adding heavy taxes.
I have tried to buy from them. Not a solution.
I usually remove the connectors and change them for other easily available models.
Yves