ruining a perfectly good Apple II S/N 2569 chassis.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/317020875324?
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Nice way to turn a $3000 machine into a $75 one.
It if was done today, sure and probably a lot more than $3000, but it looks like it was done back in the day when a Rev.0 was not valuable, so I don't see anything being ruined. Just an interesting upgrade and since it works - an interesting machine to have.
There's nothing wrong here - we don't know the provenance of the original motherboard - it could have been upgraded to a II+ long before some of us were adults, and then, seeing an opportunity, "upgraded" it to a IIe when a spare motherboard came along.
Or maybe it was an empty case in a repair pile and someone had a bright idea to stick a IIe board into it. Again, probably long ago.
We can't be so quick to judge.
Good point, things were different 20 or 30 years ago.
DSCF0001.jpg
Even 30 years ago there was some collector interest in original non-Plus Apple ][ units. Not nearly the prices we've seen them go up to in the last few years, but even back then it would have been a mistake to do this kind of mod.
I am sure there was collector interest as soon as the Apple II came out, but that doesn't mean that 7-8 year old machines were worth anything back then. This update was probably done around 1983-1985, when someone simply took out an 8-year old motherboard and put a newer one while keeping the old case. I fist did a similar thing back in the day with an 8088 machine. I installed a 386 SX motherboard and threw away the old motherboard. I have been doing this through the desktop PC era if the new motherboard would fit in the old case.
The point is that the Rev.0 machines became valuable decades after this one was no longer a Rev.0, so nothing valuable was ruined in the update.
"It's Horrible! I love it! What is it?"
And by "What is it?", what did you stick in there?
[Sorry to get us off topic]
I really love an interesting case hack. (In the process of doing a case hack on an old Amiga 1200)
I'm guessing you had a SCSI card of some sort, and the two floppies were aftermarket drives with Aii compatible controller cards.
Keyboard on a long ribbon, or did you use an aftermarket solution?
Chesh
The reason for the tower was that I had a IIgs and II+ set up all the time but no room to keep a IIe out all the time as well. I could keep it on the floor beside my IIgs and get it going by just connecting a monitor and power
It’s got a Ramfast SCSI card connected to a hard drive and CD drive. 2 aftermarket 5.25” drives. A superdrive card with 1.4mb drive. Mouse card, Echo II sound card with volumn control. Transwarp It had a Ramworks 1mb card with RGB daughter card. More recently it got VGA.
Without a case the stock keyboard didn’t look right. I tried a couple of aftermarket keyboards but wasn’t happy so I came up with a better solution. I ran a cable from the keyboard connector to a db25 connector on the case back. Then I took a IIgs keyboard and cut all the traces and wired it to a cable with a d25 connector. I heeded 26 pins so I used the ground for that. It worked fine but that Clear key bothered me. It was hooked up but did nothing so I custom keyboard ROM assigning it the same function as on the IIgs. I’ve never found a use for it but it works.
One idea I had was that some cards don’t use the slot id so maybe they could share a slot so I wired 3 slots in parallel with slot 2.
DSCF01.JPG
The sticker is crooked.
Wayne, can you take some more pictures and write more about this, in a new thread, so I can put it on the front page?
Speaking of Amiga case hacks, I just finished my PSU case hack. It's the good ol' Mean Well RPT-60B in there:
Amiga 500 PSU.jpg
On topic: The guy who won this Apple II auction got the whole thing for $130 after shipping, which is a great deal.
Cool camouflage indeed !
Please don't forget to link here the new thread :-)
In the meantime....a cluster of questions.
I"ve got a spare same model of scsi cd rom reader (it is a NEC, if I am not wrong). Is it really possible to use it in an apple iie ? Or is it only there as a music player?
How can you use the 3,5" floppy Drive ? Is it a PC standard one ?
Where did you get the 3 slot expansion card you put in slot 2? (Is it called "raiser card" ?)
Now for everyone: I am waiting for my BMOW Femu: does anyone know if it can fit in a 5.25" bay?
Last but not least: power available for all the slots in Apple 2 should be 500mA: how could it be enough for all that stuff ??????
Veeeeery very interesting indeed !!
Julian
The limit is 500mA on the +5V rail in a single slot.
Hi !
yes, I've also found that sentence in Apple II Reference Manual :-)
But I was concerned about the 500 mA (+5V) limit for each slot since a long ago, because of this calculation:
8 slots * 0,5A each = 4A
Screenshot_20250713_153319_Mi Browser.png
Moreover, I red here and there about power leaks with some peripherials, i.e. disk knocker or bigger displays while using BMOW FEmu.
All this makes me think something is different against that manual data.
Are original AII(e) PSU underrated ?
For sure the PC PSU in Wayne's layout, is supplying more than 5A ....but, is the motherboard able to support all that current without damages?
Every hint is welcome ! :-)
Julian
The original Apple II PSU with its 2.5A rating on the +5V rail can be easily overloaded with enough TTL cards. This is my Pravetz 82 (an Apple II clone), which originally had a 3.5A rating on the +5V rail. I upgraded it to 5A by replacing it with Mean Well RT-65B:
+5V Rail.JPG
Nice demo ! I like it since it leaves no doubts.
A lot of nice cards (I barely recognize 2 :-O ), and a clamp Ammeter: I have to find my old one.
I checked for Mean Well PSU: not bad price, and it looks a nice solution :-)
(only -5 volts are missing)
Now only one question remaining: are PCB tracks capable to support 3A or more without overheating or dameging ?
Regards
Julian
For sure they are. The +5V trace is on the back side of the Apple II motherboard on the left side on the picture below. The ground trace is in the front side in the same location and has the same thickness.
Rev0Back.jpg
I'll start a new thread for this
My Aiie board tracks are not so clearly distinguishable as yours. I had to check with different light sources :-) All very dark green.
Moreover, rear "circumnavigating track" is printed like a grid, so it looked like a shield more than a voltage rail.
Thanks to your photo, I eventually distinguished the connections between these two "not only shields" and slot power pins (some of them are crossing the board side to side), so I am no more afraid for that overload issue :-)
Only one thing lasts: each voltage cord, at power supply socket, passes trough an inductace (Ln) before reaching the other tracks on the board.
Inductance for 5V is made of a thin wire like all other inductances nearby...I hoped it could be thicker, but...not
:-(
The mesh formfactor reduces the amount of copper a bit, but notice that the lower part is wrinkled, which mean that the trace there is heavily tinned, making it several times thicker. This more than compensates for the mesh. The original inductors on the Apple IIe can definitely handle 5A. I am not sure what you have on yours.
Btw the Apple II Rev.0 MB is from the Net and so is this one:
AppleIIeMB.png
The board in your photo is so bright and sharp!!
Mine is very darkly homogeneous....but definitely the same model...even if traces are all plain the same way, not thicker or wrinkled...anyway you have assured me to use a more powerful PSU :-)
If the inductors near PSU sockets are 5A certified (I have no reason to think they are not original), I am done !!
I've bought that board online from a not well identified dismantling warehouse....maybe it was covered of smoke particles and, during decades, they adhered and even became not removable and cleanable....and so very dark and difficult to focus.
This makes me worry about slot contacts :-O
I think I will use a PC cabinet, not so big as Wayne's, to build my "reborn" apple ii :-)
I am not willing to pay bucks for a crystal case...I prefer to spend such money for interesting cards, like Esp32 softcard :-)
Thanks everyone a lot !
BTW: does anyone know if BMOW FEmu fits inside a 5,25 1U floppy bay ?? ;-) Maybe with some brackets ... or would it exceed the available window-frame ?
Julian