Uncreative Labs

Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Las Vegas

So, I'm new here. Everyone has to start somewhere. I am a member of several vintage computer groups and clubs, but sometimes there just aren't that many answers for questions, or maybe even questions for the some of the answers, id that makes sense.

I'm looking for a reliable source for hardware for upgrades for two of my vintage computer systems. Memory, ISA cards, expansion options for Apple ll systems, floppy drives, etc...

I know everybody's first thoughts are immediately to head over to E-Bay. Well, E-Bay is a good start, however I am really looking for a sort of all in one shopping outlet where I can purchase several items at once, pay my money and be done. Sorry, but I don't like the auction process for buying something if it can be avoided. All that does is raise the cost, and I certainly don't like getting into a bidding war for something that doesn't deserve the additional price.

So, does anyone here know somewhere, a web site, or catalogue company that sells vintage hardware?

Thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Jeez, wish you could have a look inside my basement...

Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Las Vegas

T-R-A, Thanks for the sentiment. If you have a basement though, I wouldn't be able to for two reasons.
1. You don't live in Las Vegas, and
2. It woulod be hard for me to drive my wheelchair down the stairs. Wink

Still I would love to try...

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

although many of the folks here are PC oriented
there are some who are involved with apples and maybe other less popular machines.
there is a retired treacher who says he has old macs
and we have an I mac without a home
and the working? guts of another.
a friend in NJ offered us an Emac
but try as we may we cannot find a home for the Imac
of course we are out in the country so there may be few mac-finatics here.
I also have boxes of old IBM hardware and it is buried beneath other semi-obsolete stuff.
Most recent project is digging out ZP1 and slot 1 cases and selling them for the metal
anything that will not run xp goes.
somewhere is have original IBM PC (5 slot) mb that have refurb tags and likely will take a hard drive controller.

somewhere there is a small scsi (originally) apple 3.5" scsi drive.
and all sort of aincient stuff.

NO 5.25" st225n (scsi drives-sorry
I do not know how a mac ":fdisks" a drive or if a 2g or 4g scsi drive would work in a apple or mac.

BUT the mountain of boxes covers it all.
at age 75 my energy level is down and a less than perfect heart ( despite 2 bypasses) also resticts my walking around and lugging boxes.
Here is PA it is either too hot or too cold.
we are heading out today to get what may be the last load of older pc';s

Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Las Vegas

Since I'm in the market for pretty much anything as far as the Apple lle is concerned, and need some additional upgrade cards for the PC, I am certainly interested in knowing what you might have. If there was some way to get a small inventory list, I might even be able to help you sell some of the items you have. Of course, I don't want anything in exchange. Let me know if I can help.

Also, if you can point a few people my way who might have some parts and upgrades, that would be great too.

TTYL

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:37 pm

Hi Bettablue!

Have you heard about the CFFA card for the Apple II? It allows you to store disk images on a CF card or a USB thumb drive and run them on your Apple II.

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/orderForm.php

I'm not associated with the fellow doing it, nor have I tried the card. They're not quite available yet.

If you have Usenet access, check out comp.sys.apple2.marketplace

Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Las Vegas

dw wrote:

Betta blue if you have blank DSDD floppy disks 5.25" and a null modem cable you can connect a super serial card equipped Apple IIe to a modern PC with a program called ADT Pro (Apple Disk Transfer ProDOS). You can use the program to make actual disks from disk images you download online. A company called retro floppy based out of Cary NC makes and sells cables for the program. The software itself is freely downloadable and open source. You can use it to do a bare metal boot off the serial port of an Apple II computer. It's very neat. Puck dropper's suggestion is also good but those type of adapter cards tend to be pricey. Reactive Micro has one that is available but it costs nearly $150 usd.

Thanks to both of you for these suggestions. I was actually thinking about both of these options too. I know the guy who makes the XTIde card for PCs. He normally uses it to connect IDE hard drives in IBM 5150 and 5160 computers. Recently though I found an adapter that will allow me to install the XTIde in my computer with a CF card slot in one of the IBMs rear expansion slots. This would be perfect for me bacause of the amount of software and games I have for my 5150. Booting the computer will provide the choice to boot from floppy, or any of the CF card's partitionns. I can then boot to whatever version of DOS, or programming language I prefer at the touch of a key. Now, if there were something like that for the Apple lle, I would love it. I'm just not sure if the Apple will allow files from my primary PC to be copied and actually used without some kind of conversion.

On the other hand, I've also heard of ADT Pro. The only issue I have with that is that I'll also need to install a serial card on my primary PC. I was planning on having the vintage computers in a different part of my home than my primary computer. Cost is not the primary factor for me. I may have to wait a little while to get things at times, but I will wait if it means that I can have the functionality I want.

So, to simplify and expplain a bit better... I would love to have a CF card on each of my vintage computers, the IBM and Apple lle. If it will allow me to copy programs and games to formatted partitions and run them from the CF card without having to convert them somehow, that would be great for my purposes. I know it will work like that for the IBM, but not sure how that will operate on the Apple. I'll check out the site to see.

Thanks again.

Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 62

Betta blue if you have blank DSDD floppy disks 5.25" and a null modem cable you can connect a super serial card equipped Apple IIe to a modern PC with a program called ADT Pro (Apple Disk Transfer ProDOS). You can use the program to make actual disks from disk images you download online. A company called retro floppy based out of Cary NC makes and sells cables for the program. The software itself is freely downloadable and open source. You can use it to do a bare metal boot off the serial port of an Apple II computer. It's very neat. Puck dropper's suggestion is also good but those type of adapter cards tend to be pricey. Reactive Micro has one that is available but it costs nearly $150 usd.

Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 62

Don't get me wrong CFFA is a great idea. I would recommend it if you can afford it. On the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup there is a gentleman from France who has developed a way to connect a usb flash drive to an Apple IIc floppy drive port. I have seen the youtube video. Very neat.

As for the serial port not existing on your motherboard, you may want to check and see if there is a serial header on the motherboard. I know most motherboards produced nowadays are legacy free but yours might have a serial header in whcih you will not require an adapter card or usb to serial but a ribbon cable with a 9pin or 25pin port on one end.

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

serial headers vary
some use a different pinout than others
I wouild make a suggestion
use a floppy with cute mouse or other smaller sized driver
( tested on another pc) and if it does not work
try another cable
Possibly try an external modem and see of it is activated
but the mouse approach is best.

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:57 pm

If the Apple II you want to use has cassette ports, you don't need a serial port in your PC. You can connect the two computers over the headphone/speaker out and microphone/line in ports. Unfortunately, they've started to eliminate microphone ports as well...

I've used ADT Pro to boot my IIe over the cassette ports. The procedure is up on their website.

Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Las Vegas

Puckdropper wrote:

If the Apple II you want to use has cassette ports, you don't need a serial port in your PC. You can connect the two computers over the headphone/speaker out and microphone/line in ports. Unfortunately, they've started to eliminate microphone ports as well...

I've used ADT Pro to boot my IIe over the cassette ports. The procedure is up on their website.

This was also something I was contemplating. I know the connections are simple and the program is freely avaaiable. I was looking for something a bit faster, and using the CF card adapter will certainly be faster. I am also doing the CF thing with my IBM5150. As mentioned previoudly, I know the guy who makes an XTIDE board for IBM 5150 and 5160 computers, and his will allow me to partition the CF card so that when booting the PC, I can choose which partition I wans to boot from. That will allow me to boot into every version of DOS I have, plus programming languages and even some games. I was hoping for something similar for the Apple lle. Then it would simply be a matter of setting up the partitions and selecting which to boot from.

I was also wondering about something too. Are Apple ll computeres compatible with PC versions of DOS? If so, which versions will work? Will the Apple ll boot using something like DOS 3.3 and play some IBM games? The two systems aren't all THAT different.

Just a wild thought for a newbie.

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:32 am

Quote:

I was also wondering about something too. Are Apple ll computeres compatible with PC versions of DOS? If so, which versions will work? Will the Apple ll boot using something like DOS 3.3 and play some IBM games? The two systems aren't all THAT different.

There's no way that'll work natively. MS-DOS runs on an Intel 8088, Intel 80x86 or compatible processor. The IIe uses a 6502 (or 65C02) processor. I'd venture a guess that the memory architecture is different as well. (You'd have to ask a hacker.)

Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Las Vegas

OK, that's what I thought. Right now, I need to build up my Apple lle and THEN get some software on it. I have over 1000 titles, so making floppy disks is really not an option. That's why the CF card, or USB is so attractive to me. The same goes for the IBM computers I have. So many software titles... Over 4000 for the PC's!

Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 62

bettablue wrote:

OK, that's what I thought. Right now, I need to build up my Apple lle and THEN get some software on it. I have over 1000 titles, so making floppy disks is really not an option. That's why the CF card, or USB is so attractive to me. The same goes for the IBM computers I have. So many software titles... Over 4000 for the PC's!

This is what you need for the Apple IIe

http://www.reactivemicro.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_29&products_id=31

AFAIK it is the only one still being produced or still available for the Apple II series. I have seen others but this one seems to be the only one I could find still available. I was contemplating purchasing one for my Apple IIgs before I sold it a few months ago.