OK, so I understand that there are "standard" //e computers and "enhanced" //e computers. The latter have 65C02 processors and upgraded ROMs and video that add a variety of nice feature, the one of which I like the best is being able to type lower case BASIC commands.
The "junk" //e I have is a beige numeric-keypad version. The motherboard has two 64x4 RAM chips. It has the enhancements.
The nicer //e I received today (stuffed with interesting cards, although the seller had rendered it unbootable by placing the Transwarp card in slot #3 and also installing the Apple 80 column card. The boot display was...interesting...fortunately having boned up on old manuals in the last few days I recognized the problem...) has an older motherboard with 8 RAM chips and does not have the enhancement upgrade.
Now, if I wanted to enhance this machine, I see two choices:
1. Bid on the NOS enhancement kit somebody's selling on eBay now. Starting bid is $75
2. Pay vintagecomputermuseum $79.99 for a guaranteed working //e motherboard of the two-RAM-chip type.
So, my question is: are all two-RAM-chip motherboards enhanced? Looking at the photos of the motherboards for sale I see most of them are using 6503 chips...
Well just for the info: the 6503 is just the part no. of the Rockwll 6502 chips.
And without viewing the ebay bid: items from ebay sometimes not fullfill the description and expectations....
the risk for damaged EPROMS is rather low... - but the risk for a damaged 65C02 could be rather high if during the
long period of storage somebody made mistake of not taking precautions against static damage.....
so if both have nearly same price i´d choose the pack from the store with guarantee.....:
http://www.reactivemicro.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_31&products_id=55 for $30
offers for upgradekits for $75 are just a bad joke.... - typical for ebay....
similar to the armenian carpet seller:
"every day a stupid guy passes the shop... you just have to catch that guy....!"
sinceerely speedyG
I just checked out that kit up for auction on eBay.
It seems legit, but the price is outrageous when compared to the Reactive Micro Kit for $35.00.
When I bought my kit (New, Sealed in the box) a few years ago they were running $25.00, but new, sealed, complete kits are becoming scarce. The one on eBay has been opened.
There is one picture showing the contents of the package. If you copy this picture it will show you what chips (with part numbers) you will need.
Wow, the Reactive Micro price is rather a lot better, isn't it?
Any recommendations on their Compact Flash adapter thing? That looks handy.
My Monitor II just arrived from eBay. Sadly, while the image is razor sharp even in 80 column mode, all four posts securing the CRT to the plastic tilt frame have sheared off, leaving the CRT kind of hanging there. Wondering if it's worth my while to try to repair with lots of epoxy. We'll see what the seller says.
Well...
(Strange music in background and a voice that disturbingly sounds like Rod Serling says:)
You have come to a fork in the road...
You can go with Reactive Micro's IIe MicroDrive IDE Controller with CFFA Adapter
OR
With Rich Dreher's CFFA 3000 :
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
They both have the same basic functions, but Rich has updated the 3000 to be USB capable.
What is nice about the CFFA 3000 is the fact that if you have a multi-card reader, you can plug it into the USB connection and also use SD Cards. This gives you a much wider choice of memory options.
Of course; you can probably find adapters for the MicroDrive as well with some searching.
You have entered.... "The Apple Zone"
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I found the CFFA 3000 last night. He's sold out of them now and merely asks that you let him know if you're interested. I imagine it might be some months before more are actually available. If I use the Reactive Micro unit, well, Compact Flash to SD adapters are widely available and rather cheap, although the 128MB CF card the device comes with would probably hold all the Apple software I'd ever want. I have a 4GB Microdrive (remember those?) I could use, too, although I imagine that would be overkill.
Here's a question on a totally different subject: how well does an Applecolor composite monitor do displaying text, especially in 80 column mode?
Apple color composite monitors did just fine displaying 80 column text.
The difference between an Apple "][e" and a "//e" (unenhanced versus enhanced, and what's in quotes is what shows up at the top of the startup screen when the system is booted) includes not only the new ROM chips but also swapping in a 65C02 CPU for the 6502. I'll sell you an (non Apple brand) enhancement kit for $25 including shipping within USA. I also have a bunch of other accessory hardware if you're looking for anything in particular. A long list that I keep meaning to post on this site...
As a happy owner of Rich's CFFA board I can tell you that guy cares about keeping people updated, sending out free upgraded ROM's in the past.
I'll take you up on that upgrade kit offer since Reactive Micro's store is closed, and nothing's available any more, dammit. You can contact me at dramsey@neko.com to work out the details.
Hopefully Rich will crank out a new batch of CFFA boards sometime in the near future. Something similar is about the only thing left on my "to get" list.
I could, if Reactive Micro was still selling stuff. But they're not.
Well i guess that the waiting period for the CFFA won´t take that long....
there are several reasons for that:
1. the CFFA3000 is allready sold out for several months.....
2. at the moment he just releases the CFFA1 with 200 cards after 3 years....
3. Within the last 3 years a lot of Replica1, Mimeo´s and other replications have been sold ....
4. so i´d expect the CFFA1´s to be sold out rather soon..... probably within the next 2 or 3 months....
5. i´ll take at least 2 of them and i probably will try to get another 2 at the end of the run....
6. therefor i´d expect the next run of the CFFA3000 to start far before end of June this year.....
7. at ebay those guys that have no patience have allready paid up to $599 for that card....
( .... again the "armenian carpet dealers law" )
8. therefor i expect the next run of CFFA3000 cards to soon start after the CFFA1 cards have been shipped....
9. In the meantime the community recognized well, that the CFFA3000 cards are very good alternate choice compared to the SCSI devices or old IDE devices... it even beats them by the size that might be handled ( beyond 330 MB-limit ) and price because the devices to be used with the CFFA3000 like CFcards or USBsticks are much cheaper than the alternate devices to the other systems.... it´s just to be recognized that for the price of 1 SCSI harddisk you can purchase a bunch of USBsticks or CFcards for use with different operation systems....
sincerely speedyG
Sounds like Platinum //e that has yellowed to beige.
That's where the Transwarp normally goes. It doesn't interfere with the 80 column functions.
The cheapest way to get the enhancement kit is to pickup an already enhanced motherboard on the cheap.
If you have patience, something will show up on eBay.. I got Two Enhanced //e Motherboards for $20.00 ( USD ), each plus shipping.
You're right about the Transwarp card...I plugged it into slot #3 and everything works fine. I guess something was loose the first time I tried.
Another member here has offered an enhancement kit, I'm waiting to hear from him.
I'll email you shortly, but there is possibly another issue worth posting here. You mention the 80 column card,but does it also have the 64k expansion too? You'll want that for Double HiRes graphics.
I sent the man his IC's. Here are the installation instructions for all concerned:
Apple ][e Enhancement Kit
Replace CD ROM part number 342-0135 with CD ROM part number 342-0304
Replace EF ROM part number 342-0134 with EF ROM part number 342-0303
Replace VIDEO ROM part number 342-0133 with VIDEO ROM part number 342-0265
Replace CPU part number 6502 with CPU part number 65C02
I have two 80 col cards: one with lots of chips and a much smaller one with only five chips, but both are labelled "80 col/64K". I'll read up on Double Hires Graphics...
I received the enhancement kit today and it works perfectly. I had one scary moment when I booted for the first time, with scrambled characters appearing on the screen. Sure enough, I had bent one pin on the video ROM. Straightening that out fixed things.
Very good. Thanks for another pleasant transaction here on the 'Fritter.
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