Apple II clone available

[tezza]

Well Graham, the case is tidy and there are a few cards in there (albeit of unknown condition). There is what I assume to be working monitor albeit pretty yellowed. The drives have rusty cases which is never a good look.

However, it's certainly not tip material and should be worth some pocket money. I don't think it would be that much though.

How do you want to proceed? Should people email with a price and you'll decide? A kind of tender process? Or has someone got first dibs on it already?

[RonTurner]

Its a real shame clones routinely get the badges plucked from them.

I'm guessing they look less Russian or Chinese once you pluck the badge.

[falco]

Interesting - it has a Basis MedFly PSU in it. I used to have a MedFly, that was one of the twin CPU 6502/Z80 ones. Notable because it came with legal Apple ROMs, bought from Apple. It was a Basis 108 apparently aimed at the medical market, quite a nice looking machine.

Here's the 108:
http://www.a2clones.com/apple_clones_1/basis_108/

It took a bit of poking around to find a picture of the MedFly:
http://classictech.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... r-germany/

Wish I hadn't sold that one, it was a good machine.

[Matt]

Just to say congrats to Graham for keeping this machine all these years and to SpidersWeb for offering to adopt it now.

It's really good to see stuff like this being saved from the tip. I'll be keen to see photos if someone is able to make it go again.

Matt.

[RonTurner]

Because you say there is a power light etc and no picture except for a flash of green when you touch the monitor dials have you tried the obvious and connected the computer to your TV (its standard composite) , sounds like a dodgy monitor not the computer to me/ or both ( if there is no beep)

If the computer is NTSC and your TV is pal you will see a clear picture, just no colour, same for a PAL computer connected to an NTSC monitor, just without colour.

With no picture what so ever, my first step would be to connect the computer to a TV set, then proceeding from there since you have already confirmed the PSU is ok.

But if there is no beep then there will be many more parts to look at, whether or not there is a post is of most importance for a starting point.

These things are notorious for bad connections at the IC sockets and man do these have lots of IC sockets.

You should replace the A/C filter capacitors before running the computer as you will almost with 100% certainty see smelly smoke pour out after a couple of minutes when they warm up, which is no big deal apart from the smell, I have had many fail and every time the computer keeps running, just smells real bad, I opened a monitor a short time ago and the filter had a hole in the side , the owners remedy was to get out the blue vivid marker and write "smokes" on it, but it continued to run fine, I have come across the "blue marker patch" many times.

[Graham]

Hello Ron, and thanks for your info above. I forgot to say earlier that no, there's no power-up beep so, I guess no point in connecting up to a TV to bypass any VDU issues there might be. Much as I'd like to look into the affair and at least establish a proper power-up, unfortunately I've haven't the time to do anything more with it so I'm afraid it's gonna have to go out in "as-is" condition, a bit of a pig in a poke I know but there we are.
And Terry, re your posting above, thank you, and I'll send you an email asking about process.
Best regards all,
Graham

[RonTurner]

Its definitely a repairable system, I remembered one of my apple II europlus's also has the same symtoms , but I'm a bit stressed at the number of computers I have in the repair que, and how much time it will take to sort them all out, so I have stopped buying anymore until I can work my way through them all

I will look at mine soon and if I solve it will post notes here, my euro plus has power lights on, no beep and no picture.

I'm very keen to hear how the repair goes on this computer

[RonTurner]

This was taken from: how to repair the apple* computer, first edition, 1982 by data line.

Strange little repair book with blank cover ?

Trouble shooting chart:

Problem :
Dead computer. No speaker beep. No video indications at all, or
Just a flicker on the screen when the power switch is turned on.
Power light on keyboard is on.
Replace ICs at: A2,B2,B13,C1,C2,A14(new rev only)

Problem:
No video indications at all, or just a flicker of the screen when
the screen when the power switch is turned on. Speaker
Does beep. Power light on keyboard is on.
Replace ICs at: A2,A8,A9,A10,B2,B10,B13,C2,C11,D11,D12,D13 or D14

I counted 6 Apple II at my place, I don't think there are anymore in the garage two are clones

I also lost count at around 60+ apple cards of all flavours, but that's not an exact count, sometimes I open a box and find its fullof cards I'm going to say there is about another 50 cards installed (but probably 100+) in the collection also.

About a dozen boxed cards including a boxed zip chip !!!

Around 60+ apple floppy drives

I think I have at least 7 colour composite monitors and about 6 2e monitors, and 6 green screens. Maybe 5 rgb GS monitors

Over 50+ manuals

Over a thousand floppies, including working apple system disks etc

A small box of 2e mobos including what looks like a brand spanking new apple II+ mobo

2 apple hard drives

2 apple iic ( one boxed)
3 apple iic monitors ( one boxed )
4 apple iic external floppy drives

5? Apple GS including a zip chipped, maxed out spec , rev#3 woz limited edition etc etc

9+ printers and fanfold paper + two a3 printers.

And besides what I just listed there are parts and bits and bobs that would amount to a significant collection on its own.

I'm not sure exactly how much apple gear I have but could confidently call it the biggest apple II collection in NZ and yes I'm boasting, sounds bad doesn't it

[Edited] just been checking through stuff, it looks almost 100%
for certain that I don't have the parts to assist in repairing this
clone, in fact I'm one II+ mobo short and one of my II+ has
similar fault so I will be looking for same parts myself
Will probably have to borrow the parts from my working
clone, I'm not putting an offer in I have to many waiting
repair already + don't want anymore clones with missing
badges , will assist if asked, if possible

[Graham]

Evening all,

And thanks Ron, Terry and everyone for your posts (Terry, I agree, this must definitely not go to the tip; and Ron, you must be a legend, mate - you're as bad as me with my whole basement full of 1970s-80s Alfasud car parts from knackered cars I've dismantled over the last 30 years). (I've still got several of those models that we use extensively every day so that parts-pile is often raided.)

Anyway, re the computer - due to pressure of Alfasud work I really can't look into it any more at all so it'll have to go out as-is. No doubt Ron's info will help whomever winds up with it. I've had a couple of offers in via email, so I think I'll only leave it on offer just a little longer, and if nothing higher comes up by say last thing Tue evening then it goes to the best one by then. Hopefully that should be time enough for anyone else to jump in who wants to, without dicking people around too much.

OK, until Tue evening,
Cheers all, and thanks again,
G

[Graham]

Oh, one more thing -
re Falco's post above ("Interesting - it has a Basis MedFly PSU in it. I used to have a MedFly, that was one of the twin CPU 6502/Z80 ones. Notable because it came with legal Apple ROMs, bought from Apple. It was a Basis 108 apparently aimed at the medical market, quite a nice looking machine.") -

That PSU was a replacement one I bought after the one in the machine when I bought it conked out, after a few years. I fancy I got it via the Wellington Apple Users' Group, but it's a long time ago now so can't be sure. I just am sure that it is a replacement part.
Best regards,
G

[Graham]

Rightio folks, the oldtimer has gone - it'll be off to AK where an enthusiast wants it to restore and not just for parts. A good result, and many thanks to the board and all you helpful people on it.
Bye for now,
Graham H

[Gibsaw]

Who took it? (progress reports would be good.)

[SpidersWeb]

Rightio folks, the oldtimer has gone - it'll be off to AK where an enthusiast wants it to restore and not just for parts. A good result, and many thanks to the board and all you helpful people on it.
Bye for now,
Graham H

Excellent result

[tezza]

Rightio folks, the oldtimer has gone - it'll be off to AK where an enthusiast wants it to restore and not just for parts. A good result, and many thanks to the board and all you helpful people on it.
Bye for now,
Graham H

Excellent. This is just how I'd hoped this section of the Forums would work.

[falco]

I'm really looking forward to having a go at it - thinking about it, it looks a lot like one of the machines I sold in the early 90s. It probably isn't, but it's a very familiar looking thing anyway. The MB is interesting too - I think it's a Plus clone, but with improvements such as using 4164 RAM instead of 4116. If so, that should make it significantly easier to troubleshoot.