The Apple 1 Computer 1976

Apple Video Recalling the early days

2012-01-27T12:23:00.005-05:00

Here's a youtube video with some nice pics of the first hand-wired Apple-1, and an Apple-2 prototype from 1977 (If I'm not mistaken, this Apple II was sold on ebay about a year ago).

Watch the video

Above: Stack of the Apple-1 white boxes, probably in Steve Jobs' room on Crist Drive.

UPDATE: I was just informed by Cameron Cooper that this was actually Patti's room (Steve's sister) before they moved into the garage. Info is from Daniel Kottke.

Below: Hand-wired Apple-1 computer.

Apple-1 BASIC firmware card youtube Demo

2012-01-26T15:54:00.002-05:00

I finally got around to doing a video -- enjoy.

Apple-1 BASIC Firmware Card

View the Schematic

Another Apple 1 up for auction on ebay - 175,000.00 USD

2011-12-12T21:24:00.004-05:00

This is one I believe most of us have not seen before.
This was previously owned by an Apple employee back in the 70s.

From the listing description:

"Original Apple 1 Computer made and purchased in 1976. A keyboard that was used with it will be included. Also a copy of the owners manual signed by Woz. Special courier delivery and payment
arrangements- contact by email through ebay. No shipping fee. Joe Copson Nameplate for viewing- not included in sale. will provide a copy of his resume with Apple if requested.
There is a serial number on the back of the computer 01-00##. In answer to all of your questions.
It is a real original Apple1 computer. Joseph Charles Copson worked for Atari and Apple as a programmer and troubleshooter. He worked with Michael Kisor who was a
Senior Software engineer with Apple- he collaborated with Joe on the diagnostic software for the Macintosh. Joe also worked on the Cray supercomputer. He loved technology and served his country in Vietnam which may have eventually caused his death from cancer 3-5-2003.

He wrote the program for Atari games such as Star Raider, Spitfire on the Silver 1.
Look up his name on google under atari age. I would like this Apple 1 cared for as an American Technological historical treasure. Not to be used but to be cared for. To remain in the United States. In that way it would truly honor Joseph Charles Copson Army USAR Control group- Fld Radio Mechanic 1971."

The Elusive 2519B 40 Bit Static Shift Register

2011-12-09T11:59:00.000-05:00

I found this email rather amusing... arrived today in my inbox:

"Dear John,

You have received an offer from "Legacy Components ".

.... snip ....

John,

This part is very old and worth more than your target now. There is only 150 pcs in the world and the best price is $40 ea.

*****------------------------------------------------------*****

2519B - signetics - 126 - $2 "

Nice 6800 white ceramic / gray trace chips

2011-11-13T18:52:00.006-05:00

If I ever get around to building Mike Willegal's Mimeo-1 clone #2, then I will attempt using one of these bad-boys, instead of the 6502.... could be a fun and challenging project... New Old Stock, never socketed. As far as I know, these are fairly rare. I've built 3 clones so far, so the next Mimeo will be my fourth. Insanity? I dunno... could be :D

BTW, Woz said that he had the design, but did not test the Apple-1 with a 6800 due to cost (this was a kit available from HP at the time), and also never wrote the 256 byte monitor for it. I believe there is someone out there that recently wrote a 6800 monitor. I'll post when I have more info (I think it was Mike Willegal that sent me a link a month ago or so...)

Apple-1 wooden case... was this a lapdesk?

2011-11-10T19:32:00.015-05:00

I sent a question to the Woz, asking if the hand-wired Apple-1 case was from a lapdesk... It sure does look like one to me....

UPDATE: I heard back from the Woz, this case for the first Apple-1 was custom built by Randy Wigginton's father. Woz does not know where this computer ended up, but the photo is precious to him. He confirmed that this is indeed the first Apple-1 that he built.

--------

nope, this is the one Randy's father made

ʞɐıuzoʍ ǝʌǝʇs 

ʌʇ ǝzıs ʍǝu ɐ ʞo

--------------

On Nov 12, 2011, at 12:48 AM, John Calande wrote:

Woz,

Ok, my understanding was that Randy's father built the nicer looking brown case that is in the Smithsonian. The Triumph of the Nerds documentary made it sound as if you put this first Apple 1 case together yourself.

thanks again,

John

--------------

SECOND UPDATE: I recall Woz telling me he thought this one *might* be in storage somewhere... so it may be that this one actually lives in the ground in Santa Clara (think band-saws, bulldozers, and junk-yards). :D

THIRD UPDATE: I saw this some time ago.... I must be getting old... I don't know of any other pictures of the first hand-wired Apple-1, although there must be a few.

watch this video

Thanks for your time Woz!

Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)

2011-10-08T21:35:00.011-04:00

As one would expect on an Apple-1 blog ...

My friend Christine texted me the news that evening, as I was head down, wading in code all day long, I had no idea of Steve's passing...

"For the past 33 years, I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do, what I am about to do today?

And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

-- Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech

"Stay Young, Stay Foolish"

In Memory of Steve Jobs... (Really?)

2011-10-08T21:00:00.028-04:00

ebay listings as found on October, 8, 2011

(I tried to work as fast as possible knowing these Buy It Now™ listings wouldn't last long...)

White Ceramic 6502 cpu on ebay

2011-09-16T20:36:00.001-04:00

Sold... and relisted for a little more of your hard-earned cash.

View on ebay

This may be your only chance to own this chip!

This is a MOS MCS 6502 CPU made in 1975.

This was a very early edition of the chip with the infamous ROR bug.

Someone is going to get this chip, act quick and it could be you!

1975 White Ceramic 6502 CPU on ebay for just $2500.00 USD

2011-09-16T20:10:00.007-04:00

Here you go folks. I hope your job security is on the upper echelon!

View on ebay

1975 WHITE CERAMIC MOS 6502 CPU

This CPU is from the very early production run and is dated December 1975 (5175).
This CPU has the infamous ROR bug.
The CPU is used, but is in good working condition.

Due to its vintage nature, the CPU is sold AS-IS, with no warranty.
No returns are accepted.

The shipping price includes expedited, fully insured service with tracking
within continental USA.

Email for shipping quotes to other locations.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Payment is expected within 48 hours after purchase.

Serious bidders ONLY.

Q: Hi, can you tell me the markings on the bottom of the processor? thx
A: 75071

$213,000 Apple-1 shown up and running in Italy

2011-06-02T21:17:00.000-04:00

Be sure to click on the link to the Italian version, because there are many pics and video

Apple-1 Book in the works...

2011-04-05T17:29:00.002-04:00

There is a new book on the Apple-1 in the works. I don't know who the publisher will be, or when, but I will try to find out. I was interviewed last week by the author and have introduced a few of my Apple-1 friends to her. If you are an Apple-1 owner, or have any information on the Apple-1, stories, anything, then please contact me and I will put you in touch with the author. I will post more here, when I know more.
Apparently, Woz will be interviewed as well.

MOS 6502 White Ceramic CPU

2011-04-05T16:58:00.003-04:00

Wow. I had no idea... I suspected this chip would sell for about $150 USD. Surprise!

Images granted use by permission from my friends at: http://www.cpushack.com/

6820 AMI Gray Trace

2011-02-27T18:25:00.004-05:00

I just found these today -- AMI s6820 Peripheral Interface Adapters with white ceramic, gold pins and gray trace -- and when they arrive, if they work I will probably use them on the clones.

UPDATE (9-DEC-2011): I tested one of these in the Obtronix clone, and it works! Looking forward to adding these to the Mimeo boards.

XC6820 PIA Engineering Sample

2011-02-04T08:30:00.006-05:00

I ran into this chip recently, and the collector obliged to send me these hi-res images.
This "XC" 6280 PIA is an early engineering sample chip from the 20th week of 1975.
This chip is gold + ceramic. Note, no grounding strap across the top of the chip which you see in later chips.

Compare it to the chip from 1976 found on my Mimeo-1

Datanetics Keyboard Clone KIT has arrived!!!

2011-01-19T21:09:00.002-05:00

I have received my Datanetics Keyboard Clone "kit" from Mike Willegal last week, and will show a side-by-side comparison to the original keyboard (which is what the clone was cloned from :D) after I open things up.

I will also do the usual build logging as progress moves forward. stay tuned!

Datanetics Keyboard Clone II

2010-12-30T10:49:00.002-05:00

Above is another shot of Mike W's rig with the keyboard clone hooked up to the Mimeo-1. Here Mike is testing sending ASCII chars to the Mimeo-1.

Datanetics Keyboard CLONED

2010-12-20T20:19:00.005-05:00

Well, here it is folks. This is a clone of my original Datanetics keyboard (serial number 10).

The clone was created by Mike Willegal (Mike also did the Mimeo mother board clone). I do not have mine yet, but will post more on building this clone when I get my hands on one. Note the image shows an unassembled unit, but just to give you and idea of what this board will look like.

Pretty nice eh? Image provided by Mike Willegal.

Visit Mike's site here

Visit Mike's work log here

How Many Apple 1 computers were sold out of the 200 manufactured? 175

2010-12-04T13:48:00.003-05:00

According to an article from a 1984 Byte magazine interview with Woz:

"BYTE: How many Apple I's did you actually sell?"

"WOZNIAK: We manufactured 200 of them and sold all but 25 over a period of

nine or ten months."

Reference

Apple 1 Original up for auction via Christie's Auction House

2010-11-14T17:22:00.005-05:00

As many of you have pointed out already... the same Apple 1 Original that sold on ebay about 8 months ago for 50,000 USD is now up for auction for quite a bit more.

Read about it here

Bloomberg Game Changers: Steve Jobs (documentary video)

2010-10-15T19:05:00.009-04:00

This documentary reminds me of the 1996 documentary:

"Triumph of the Nerds" and the newer, (2008?) "Welcome to Macintosh"

Interviews / comments from Robert X. Cringely, Woz, John Scully, Guy Kawasaki and others.

Watch the Video

After watching the video, read this: Scully on Jobs (via Cult of Mac)

Datanetics Keyboard Assembly Complete

2010-09-29T19:45:00.009-04:00

The above switch is the broken switch (note both pins are gone) which was originally for the Space Bar. Note the "35" stamp, I don't know what this means, but it's the only switch that had a number stamped on it.

With the exception of soldering the switch pins, the board is back in one piece. Honestly, I was dreading this, but it wasn't too bad. I had to use the solder sucker frequently so that the switches would fall into place gently, without breaking anymore pins. I have replaced the broken switch on the spacebar, with one of the user-defined switches. So the key to the left of the spacebar, will do nothing, ever, because it has no pins!

Preparing to rebuild the Datanetics Keyboard Serial Number 0010

2010-09-28T19:46:00.010-04:00

I disassembled this keyboard a couple of months ago so that I could take pictures for the guys out there that wanted to clone it. I ended up sending the board to Mike Willegal, and he is prepared to have a few boards fabricated, depending on demand -- so if you are interested in building a CLONE of this keyboard, plase contact Mike Willegal at www.willegal.net and let him know.

In the process of disassembling, I broke one keyswitch pin, on the spacebar. I will probably replace this switch with one of the "blank/user-defined" keyswitches.

Datanetics and Sony TV-115 referenced in letter from Steve Jobs

2010-09-22T23:13:00.005-04:00

Sony TV-115 Manual

Aurélien's Hand-Wired Apple-1 / case

2010-09-18T17:54:00.003-04:00

Aurel sent me a link to his latest work. AMAZING job!

Another Apple-1 Original sold on ebay -- 22k+

2010-09-18T17:38:00.006-04:00

John Note: The name on the manual above appears to be Randy J. Suess.

Search results indicate this might be the same Randy J. Suess that was the co-creator of the BBS! Pretty cool, but not yet confirmed.

Here is the original ebay auction Description text:

"I am an avid collector of vintage computers. In fact, I have over 5000'examples' in multiple storage facilities. Honestly, it kind of drives my wife nuts, and I don't have the time or energy to devote to the hobby so I'm in the process of downsizing my collection. I'm now moving from "quantity", acquiring every part for a given manufacturer to focusing only on museum quality very old computers. I'm currently working on an IBM 701 mainframe, and a Williams tube. If you happen to have an examples, or parts for these, please let me know.

I am the second owner of this Apple 1 computer. The original owner purchased this unit from the Byte shop in the summer of 1976. I already possessed an apple 1 computer, but this one was significantly more interesting to me. The one I owned was flaky, and had been heavily modified by it's previous owner (several failed breadboard experiments....). This one was extremely clean, had a full set of original documentation, and had a motherboard modification made by Steve Wozniak to add an interface for a potentiometer, and two tapes (one Apple Basic, and one was an experiment for the potentiometer). A potentiometer is just a fancy way of saying "paddle", and was the primary input device for most video games of the day. When I saw the tape experiment, it was clear to me this was an attempt to play the game "breakout" with a paddle, using the ASCII character set instead of graphical bricks. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's first work together was creating the motherboard for Atari's Breakout arcade game. In fact, the successor, the Apple II had this potentiometer mod (now called a joystick port) built in, and shipped with the game "breakout".

This auction comes with the following items

1) Original Apple 1 motherboard (single board computer)

This is an original unmodified motherboard hand wired and soldered by Steve Wozniak. Based upon the NTI logo on motherboard, and the capacitors, I believe this is from the second batch of computers Woz made (#14-24). Motherboard Includes the (in)famous white 6502 CPU, the original 4k of memory, and the 4k "upgrade" for a total of 8k RAM installed. I have not applied electricity to the motherboard in well over ten years, and do not intend to for this auction. Thus, you should assume this is an auction for a museum quality historical artifact, not a working computer.

2) Original Apple 1 cassette interface

The cassette interface was the only other "option" available to purchase beyond the 4k memory option at the time the motherboard was sold. The interface is unmodified since it's original purchase. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the two cassette tapes I know I own - Apple 1 Basic, and the Breakout test. If (or when) I continue to clean out my storage facilities, I will send the winner of this auction the tapes. I also have a collection of at least 10 audio "tapes" in digital format that I had successfully loaded onto the Apple 1 from my EigerLabs MPMan audio player in the mid 90's - I will package them up and email them to the winner.

3) Original first generation Apple-1 Operation Manual

This is the white operation manual with the 'isaac newton' apple logo on the cover. The manual is complete, including full foldout schematics of the power supply, processor section, and terminal section. This is an early version of the manual, as it includes some typo's which have been corrected with a pen. Given the age of this manual, it is in good condition. Some of the pages are frayed at the edges, the binding staples are a little rusty, and the pages have started to yellow a little. There is no writing in the manual except for the correction in the system monitor section

4) Original first generation "green" Apple Basic Users Manual

This is the very first version of the users manual, and not only includes many typo's (some of which have been corrected with a pen), it includes the following warning:

"This is a Preliminary manual. It will, most likley (spelling mistake is in the original) contain errors, incorrect wordings, etc. Your effort in noting these areas of improvement will be greatly appreciated. If you find an error or can suggest an improvement, please write:

APPLE COMPUTER COMPANY

770 WELCH RD. SUITE 154

PALO ALTO, CA 94304

(415) 326-4248"

The cover of the manual has been separated from the staple, and there are a fair amount of frayed edges and small stains within the document. The name "Randy" is written on the cover (possibly Randy Wigginton, hombrew computer club member, and apple employee #6). There are also two small holes in the back page

5) Original first generation Apple-1 Cassette Interface Manual

This is a smaller 6 page fold-up manual which includes installation diagrams, Cassette Interface Schematics and programming instructions. The manual itself is in good condition, with no holes, slight yellowing, and a single pen underline of a memory address. The binding staples are also a little rusty, but in good condition considering the age.

6) Original first generation dual-sided apple advertisement

The front of the advertisement contains information relating to the motherboard, including an illustrated photograph. The backside contains informatoin and a photograph of the cassette board, the 'isaacnewton' apple logo, details on apple basic, and the price list. You can tell this is an early version because the price list only contains three items: Apple-1, Cassette Interface, and 4k Byte Ram. Additionally, the front illustrated diagram incorrectly labels the Motorola 6820 as the keyboard interface. The interface for the keyboard is actually one row up (Row B).

If the winning bidder is interested in using this computer again, I am more than willing to assist in any way that I can - I've amassed a fair amount of research on the board, and continue to find links to interesting pieces of technology that would aid in bringing this back to life (like this adapter that will let you use a modern PS/2 keyboard)

For those that have been following my recent auctions, I usually start the auctions at $.01 with no reserve. This one will be a bit different. I already have at least two offers, so I will start it with a buy it now option, and a low reserve (less than half the sale price of the last Apple 1 sold earlier this year). Most of my other auctions will resume my "guaranteed to get it out of my house or storage facility" auction style.

I am willing to ship worldwide, but will not deviate from using paypal for payment, which I am well aware will cost me a lot of money. The best possible shipping option would be to actually pick up this computer. I am willing to drive up to 100 miles in any direction from Chicago, or meet someone at the airport to facilitate the safe turnover. Otherwise, I will ship this in the best possible shipping bubble I can create to limit the amount of damage UPS, or USPS can do to it. "

The Apple-1 "Garage" 2066 Crist Drive

2010-07-27T00:11:00.009-04:00

On Friday July 23, 2010 I went to Los Altos with my brother and we stopped by 2066 Crist Drive which is where the Apple-1 printed circuit boards were stuffed with chips, and tested. This isn't where the hand-wired Apple-1 was built, that happened down the road in Woz's apartment, and he worked on it alone. This is where Steve Jobs used to live. For me it was somewhat surreal, as I live 3000+ miles from Crist Drive.

UPDATE from Woz received on Aug 04, 2010:

"The Apple I boards were manufactured and populated with components (sockets for the chips) and wave soldered at some company in Santa Clara. Those boards were driven to the house, and later the garage, where we inserted the chips and tested them. We did no soldering there.

My development work was all done in my apartment in the Villa Serra complex on Homestead Road, between Mary and Stelling. Also, much was done in my cubicle at HP's calculator division (APD) which was then in Cupertino, on Pruneridge Avenue (19925?) slightly East of Wolfe Road."

Gold Purple Ceramic chips from 1976

2010-06-26T16:38:00.003-04:00

I picked up a few (about 22) NOS gold ceramic DRAM and two 6820 chips recently. Here they are on an Obtronix board where I tested them. Out of the two 6820s, one doesn't work. The DRAM chips appear to work. These chips will eventually live on the Apple-1 Mimeo that I recently built.

The DRAM chips are MOSTEK 4027 P-3, most made in the 14th, and 19th weeks of 1976. The Motorola 6820L was made in the 48th week of 1976. Note the gold grounding straps on some of the DRAM chips.

Aurelien Zavattiero's Hand Wired / wire wrapped Apple 1 up and running

2010-06-18T16:52:00.002-04:00

Hand Wired / Wire wrapped Apple-1 = WOW

2010-06-02T23:10:00.004-04:00

My friend Aurelien Zavattiero sent me these images earlier this week. He has spent the last 5 months working on a wire wrapped Apple-1 from scratch! Look at this, it's a work of beauty!

Aurel is very close to having the video section working as you can see in the images.

A1-Mimeo clone up and running (BASIC)

2010-05-31T23:14:00.010-04:00

Apple-1 (Mimeo) Clone with the BASIC firmware card attached, shows the BASIC up and running, Hello World!. After a 2+ hour debugging session with Mike Willegal's help, we determined that I had a bad connection at RAM location B-14 (X4) on pin 1. The oscilloscope image above shows the signal, (about 2 volts peak-to-peak split between + and - voltage levels) I had on pin 1. Pin 1 SHOULD show -5 volts.

This all started when I could not read the data I had just deposited into memory anywhere in Bank X. Mike had me test using 0 and FF at different memory locations, for example:

0:FF (deposit FF at mem location 0000)

0:0 (deposit 0 at mem location 0000)

1000:FF (deposit FF at mem location 1000)

1000:0 (deposit 0 at mem location 1000)

After doing the deposit, we checked the data with a read:

1000.1000

Output: 1F

What we were seeing was 5 bits that were"stuck" 0001 1 1 1 1

(wrong, this should have been 0 or 0000 0000 )

The next thing we did was swap the chip select jumpers:

Before:

W=>1

X=>0

After:

W=>0

X=> 1

Normally, the PROM monitor will use the X bank, so what we did here was to use the W bank of RAM instead. I switched the jumpers, and ran the tests again. Bank W was working correctly.

So this was a pretty good indicator that the problem was somewhere in the X bank and not somewhere else on the board. At this point, we started probing the ground and power pins at each X bank DRAM chip. I checked +5v (pin 9), +12v (pin 8) and lastly -5v (pin 1) until we found the problem.

UPDATE (June 18, 2010): Here is a test program Mike had me use for testing the RAM -

0: AD 00 10 4C 00 00

This HEX code is : LDA 1000 with a Jump back to 0

That will loop forever and generate an alternating square wave (toggling) on the oscillocope at pins 1 and 2

A1-Mimeo (Apple-1 clone) stuffed - first power up test

2010-05-25T00:24:00.005-04:00

No keyboard attached. I turned on the power and quickly went around the board with the back of my hand, looking for hot chips, and watching for smoke. No issues found. Everything looks good.

Initial Power applied to the A1-Mimeo before stuffing the board

2010-05-25T00:12:00.009-04:00

If you're wondering about the power supply and how to build it, please see my earlier posts when I built the first clone. I am using the same power suppy here to test the Mimeo-1. Before stuffing the board I checked each voltage source and ground at each DIP. I checked the big blue caps as well. Everything looks good. In this image, I have the scope set for 5 volts per div. The card you see hanging off of the PCB is a card that I built for address line display (the red leds) and correct +5v regulated power at the J3 connector. The card also has a reset button that can be used when no keyboard is attached. The little green LED is lit, we are good to go.

Chip Select Jumper Configuration

2010-05-24T23:57:00.005-04:00

W might normally be connected to E so that memory bank W is available for the Cassette Interface Adapter (e.g. to load BASIC from tape into bank W). I have a different configuration: W=>1 and S=>E, so that I can use my BASIC firmware card instead of loading from tape.

Note that S, T and R are "user selectable" chip selects, of 4k each. In my configuration, S is used as the chip select for the BASIC firmware card.

A1-Mimeo Assembly, day 2 (less stuffing the chips)

2010-05-22T10:11:00.010-04:00

A1-Mimeo DIP sockets completed by 2:30 AM

2010-05-21T13:53:00.004-04:00

All DIP sockets soldered on the Mimeo-1. This weekend I'll try and finish up the rest of the components.

Datanetics Keyboard Disassembled

2010-05-18T20:14:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, on the same morning that I filled in the Mimeo-1 vias, I took apart the Datanetics Keyboard. I have many images of the process which I will post later. For now, here are 2 images.

Building the Apple-1 Mimeo - filling in the Vias

2010-05-16T09:11:00.003-04:00

White Stickers

2010-05-15T08:11:00.009-04:00

Have you ever noticed that some of the original Apple-1 units have a small white sticker on the back? I have never seen a number greater than 82. Recall that 200 units were manufactured.

Yesterday I asked Steve Wozniak if these stickers represent the serial number of each board. Unfortunately, Woz does not remember.

So I sent an email to Steve Jobs today asking him... he responded from his iPhone and said:

"It was not put on by us."

Steve

So what is the true meaning of these little white stickers?

Apple-1 Registry

2010-05-15T08:06:00.004-04:00

Mike Willegal is putting together a registry of existing (allegedly), Apple-1 originals. If you have any information on any of the units Mike has documented, or know of any other Apple-1 boards not listed, please contact Mike, or post a comment here.

Apple-1 Registry

Wendell Sander's Apple-1 Website

2010-05-14T10:27:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to post this link provided by Wendell Sander -- it is a work in progress. There are source files for Apple-1 programs, and other info, so check it out.

Apple-1 Notes

Apple-1 BASIC Firmware Card... it works.

2010-05-10T00:09:00.012-04:00

I used a 512k EPROM because it's all I had on hand. BASIC is only 4k so you can use a much smaller chip if you'd like. (I have some 8k chips ordered...) I programmed the AT27C040 EPROM using a "Top2004" programmer.

Note that on the Apple-1, I have jumpered "S" to "E" (CSE) so that when E000R is entered, BASIC will run.

I finally sat down and started to debug my Apple-1 BASIC firmware card. I had never played with the Pom1 emulator, so I downloaded the C source code and after about an hour I had it running in xCode. The image below, shows the emulator running the same BASIC ROM file that I had burned into my EPROM chip. You can see, it does not show the ">" prompt as it should.

This is the apple1basic.bin file, which I downloaded many months ago from www.pagetable.com. This is the same output I was seeing with my BASIC firmware card. (At this point, you must do a reset, as BASIC fails to load).

I then loaded the "basic.rom" file that is included with Pom1 and it loaded BASIC without any problem. Clearly something wasn't right here... so I did a cmp/diff on the two files, and as it turns out, 2 bytes are incorrect in the apple1basic.bin file downloaded from www.pagetable.com.

see below, where hilited - (decimal 976 and hex 03D0):

The above 2 images show the hex and decimal locations of the 2 incorrect bytes found in apple1basic.bin

In addition to the ROM file differences, I found I had my wires crossed.... the above image shows the incorrect wiring on address lines A8, A9 and A11.

After moving these address lines to their correct locations, and burning the EPROM with the new working BASIC ROM file, you can see that I was able to load and run the BASIC "Hello World!" program.

UPDATE: September 22, 2010 - Here is a link to the Basic Disassembly

Download the files, and view with a text editor.

PS2/RS-232 to ASCII Keyboard Adapter Keyboards tested

2010-05-01T10:21:00.007-04:00

Completed Keyboard adapter, with ZIFF connector for the ribbon cable.

No luck with the USB to PS/2 adapters. I only tried a DELL keyboard.
I tested 5 different PS/2 keyboards and they all work just fine. (No issues with any of them).

(From left-to-right / Top-to-bottom)

Row 1. emachines, DELL

Row 2. DELL (by MicroSoft), Compaq "Internet"

Row 3. Compaq

Mike Willegal did a great job with this adapter, and I highly recommend this adapter to anyone working on an Apple-1. I promise you, you will need a backup someday.

RS-232 / Keyboard Interface Assembly - Working!

2010-04-30T22:33:00.005-04:00

The image above shows the first sign of life for this PS2 keyboard interface to an Apple-1 Obtronix. It worked the first time, no problems at all. Note that as soon as I powered up the Apple-1, the interface automatically sent a Reset and a Clear Screen, and you can see that we end up at the prompt, ready for input. The keyboard LEDs lit, including Caps-lock. I then tested the Control-sequences:

RESET = Ctrl + Alt + Del

CLR SCREEN = Ctrl + C, Ctrl + L, Ctrl + R

I am back in business with a working keyboard!

RS-232 / Keyboard Interface Assembly

2010-04-20T00:23:00.006-04:00

PS-2/RS232 to ASCII Keyboard Adapter Assembly

(designed by Mike Willegal)

I spent about an hour assembling the adapter PCB tonite. I took my time, otherwise I suppose you could build this board in about 30 minutes. I started off by cleaning the board with a tissue splashed with a bit of isopropyl alcohol. I soldered all of the jumper wires first, which took about 40 minutes. This was the most challenging part of assembly, the rest was a breeze. The only thing I have left to do is solder the ZIFF socket (when I receive it). Notice that I used a pair of needle nosed vice-grips to crimp the ribbon cable. This worked perfectly, I was amazed at how it snapped right into place!.

Tips:

1. Use "helping hands" if you can. Otherwise, tape the PCB to your workbench so the PCB doesn't slide around on you.

2. After inserting the .1uF caps, GENTLY pull the leads through with a pair of small pliers.

3. Cut and strip all of your jumper wires beforehand. (See my previous post)

4. Use really thin solder (e.g. .020)

5. Use masking tape on EVERY component you solder including the jumper wires. The only exception is the RS-232 connector (DB-9), which easily snaps into place before soldering.

7. Check your connections with a magnifying glass and multi-meter (set to measure OHMs) to make sure there are no shorts between adjacent soldering points.

8. Solder a BARE wire between pins 16 and 5v. THEN solder a wire from pin 15 to the bare wire (Thus providing 5v to pin 15).

Completed Mimeo by Cameron Cooper

2010-04-18T22:12:00.003-04:00

PS2/RS-232 to ASCII Keyboard Adapter cont'd

2010-04-17T23:02:00.002-04:00

After reading the instruction pamphlet, I measured, cut and stripped the jumper wires. I decided I wanted to solder these first, before soldering the DIP sockets -- mainly because this board is really tight and I wanted the extra space to work. I ordered a few more ZIFF sockets, which I'll be installing on this PCB as I did with the Apple II keyboard interface. Having a "quick disconnect" from the motherboard is a luxury, but it is worth the extra few dollars it costs to install a ZIFF socket. Unfortunately, I won't have them for several weeks due to a backup in the postal system.

PS2/RS-232 to ASCII Keyboard Adapter

2010-04-12T23:15:00.005-04:00

Mike Willegal has done it again. I mentioned awhile back, while working on my A-1 BASIC firmware card, that my Apple II keyboard stopped working. I've decided to replace it with a PS/2 keyboard for now, until I can find another affordable ASCII keyboard. To do so, I will need Mike's adapter. These photos show 2 kits that Mike sent to me. You can see the high quality DIP sockets Mike included in these kits. It's also a good thing he included the 16 connector ribbon cable, because I only have 200 feet-- (I bought some extra just in case I "run out") ;D

Mike's kit includes an instruction booklet, and PCB diagrams to aid in assembly. I will post my progress as I build these kits. (The kits also include wire for jumpering, not pictured)

Wow! New Apple-1 Memory Test Utility...

2010-04-03T11:42:00.005-04:00

Can't get into the Monitor? Tired of RAM chip swapping?

Check out Mike Willegal's Apple-1 Memory test utility!

Comparison: Mimeo PCB to Obtronix PCB

2010-04-03T11:20:00.009-04:00

Mike Willegal's Mimeo is on the left, underneath Stephen Gabaly's Obtronix board on the right.

The inset is an original Apple-1. Aside from the obvious Apple logo differences, note the trace differences; The Mimeo has thicker traces, and rounded corners, vs. the thinner and more jagged traces found on the Obtronix board.

Also note the stencil differences and the via diameter differences.

Mike Wllegal's Mimeo

2010-04-03T11:17:00.001-04:00

2 Mimeo boards end to end, front and back.

Obtronix Apple-1 Reproduction Kit Instructions

2010-04-03T11:15:00.002-04:00

These kits came with instruction sheets. My first kit did not, but I was able to find the instructions on the internet. (They were posted on my blog as well sometime in 2009).

Obtronix Apple-1 Active Parts Kit (chips & regulators)

2010-04-03T11:09:00.005-04:00

Obtronix Apple-1 Reproduction Kits

2010-04-03T11:04:00.006-04:00

2 Obtronix kits crammed into one box (as I received them). One bag of parts omitted in the photo as I put them in another box for obvious reasons. When the kits arrived, the ribbon cable pins were bent, so I straightened them out, placed DIP sockets on each end, then capped the pins with antistatic foam. I put all of the parts back into a large ziploc bag.

Apple 1 Cassette Interface Kits

2010-03-31T19:58:00.007-04:00

These kits are made by Obtronix. These appear to be very nice quality.

I will be replacing the plastic A3 and A4 PROM chips with 6301-1J ceramic chips that I have already had programmed. Note also that these kits include the DIP sockets! These were not included in the Obtronix kits (at least not mine).

UPDATE Apr.11.2010: Increase the reliability of the ACI by replacing the .01uF filter capacitor with a .1uF capacitor - see Mike Willegal's detailed analysis and conclusion here.

Another very nice Apple-1 sold on ebay yesterday

2010-03-24T19:56:00.006-04:00

Here is the full description from the auction:

Apple 1 - ORIGINAL, with Keyboard, RF Modulator, Cassette Interface Card and Tapes

The offering includes:

• Apple 1 motherboard, 4K RAM installed (other 4K RAM sockets empty), all ORIGINAL Apple 1 components

• Keyboard with modified cable for the Apple 1

• RF Modulator

• Apple 1 Cassette Interface card, all original components

• Six Apple 1 program tapes (Monitor/Disassembler, Integer Basic, AppleTrek, Hamurabi, Maze Creator, and Blackjack)

• Statement of Authenticity, signed by Steve Wozniak (Apple Employee #1)

Apple 1 Condition Notes:

• On the front of the Apple 1 are a few (appropriate!) configuration wires.

• There are two spots on the back where the solder mask has been removed, traces were cut and then repaired expertly (see close-ups).

• The LM323 voltage regulator was replaced, using a part taken from another Apple 1.

• Date codes for all chips may be found here. (date code is usually YYWW - 2 digits for Year plus 2 digits for Week).

• Otherwise, it is very clean. Wendell Sander, who has inspected a number of existing Apple 1s, proclaimed it the most pristine he'd seen.

NOTE: This offering is of Historical Artifacts, not as functioning electronic components. None of the electronic items in this offering have been powered up in over 20 years. Although fully functional then, all electronics in this offering should be considered UNTESTED. Likewise, the program tapes may or may not be functional.

Other Information:

Board Size: 9" x 15.5" x 1.5"

Shipping Weight: 5 lbs.

Shipping: UPS (Insured, Signature Required)

This auction item is only offered within the United States of America, for delivery in the USA only.

This item is part of a collection of early Apple products and prototypes.

For a look at more items in the collection, Visit our eBay Store: Early Apple.

Back Story:

The founders of Apple knew that one of the keys to long term success was Customer Support. In the beginning that meant Steve Wozniak took customer phone calls to help in any way he could with the Apple 1. With the launch of the Apple II, everyone in engineering (and some of the production line technicians) took calls... but most Apple 1 questions still had to be taken by Woz. It was decided that to best support the Apple 1 owners the easiest thing to do was convert them to Apple II owners. Apple offered a trade-in deal to Apple 1 owners: trade in the Apple 1 for an Apple II (by late 1978 the offer also included a Disk Drive!). Most were traded in. This freed Woz from phone duties, rewarded early Apple adopters with a more capable computer, and allowed Apple to fulfill its commitment to great Customer Service.

Cliff dropped into Steve Jobs' office one day and couldn't help but notice the huge pile of Apple 1 boards - those that had been traded-in for the Apple II. "What are you going to do with those?", Cliff asked. Steve told him that they were to be destroyed. "Mind if I take one... Oh! And one for my brother?", Cliff asked. Steve reached into the pile and pulled out two boards and handed them to Cliff. Many people around Apple were amused and asked, "Why would you want one of those?" "It's history," was the reply, "just history."

Though hundreds of Apple 1 computers were sold, the trade-in deal reduced the population to the few that exist today. This is one that that got a last minute reprieve from the band-saw death pile!

Payment and Shipping

Payment Method

We accept payments via PayPal only. PLEASE NOTE: We will only ship to your PayPal address in the United States, so please make sure that PayPal has your correct USA shipping address on file. You must not change your address after your bid is placed.

Return Policy:

No returns. Please be certain about what is being offered by reading the description carefully. When in doubt, contact us for clarification before placing a bid.

Shipping & Tracking

We will only ship to your PayPal address in the United States, so please make sure that PayPal has your correct USA shipping address on file. You must not change your address after your bid is placed.

Items with a closing bid lower than $250 will be shipped USPS "Flat Rate". You will receive notification of shipment via email the evening of the day of shipment. Tracking is not offered for USPS shipped items.

Items with a closing bid greater than $250 will be shipped via UPS ground only. You will receive UPS tracking information via email the evening of the day of shipment. Items shipped via UPS will require a signature at the time of delivery.

Most orders paid before 4:00pm PST will be shipped on the next business day.

Stated Handling Charges:

Items shipped via UPS will be insured to the full closing bid price. The handling price is the cost of insurance based on the starting bid. We will pay any additional insurance costs and signature fees.

Customer Service & Feedback
:

We want you to be satisfied with your purchase. Please Ask a Question before buying if you are not certain. We will answer your questions as soon as we can. And If you have any issues once you have received your product, please let us know as soon as possible, and before leaving feedback, so that we may resolve your problem.

About the Offerings:

Many of the items were rescued from being lost during office and laboratory moves in the early days at Apple. They were "just prototypes" and "junk" that were cluttering up the place and weren't deemed worthy for storing. Management approval was always obtained for taking the rescued items... The items accumulated at their homes in boxes, closets, and drawers. What might have been lost, all these years later, are now historical relics that deserve better treatment and appreciation as collector items or museum pieces.

Some other items are being offered that are merely memorabilia. No suggestions of historical value are made for these items.

As much as practical, the rare or one of a kind items are accompanied with "Providence" - written documentation and statements by their creator and/or a witness that they are indeed the genuine article. Please read the the offering description carefully, before bidding, so you understand exactly what is included in the offering.

About the Sellers:

Brothers Dick and Cliff Huston were early Apple engineers, employee numbers 25 and 27 respectively, from late 1977 to mid 1984. They were there to celebrate when Apple shipped 100 computers in a single month. Working along side Woz, both were involved with the creation of the Apple II disk drive - Cliff designed the analog board in the drive, while Dick wrote the 13-sector "boot" ROM and fixed bugs in DOS. They also contributed to other early peripheral products, including the printer card(s), high speed serial card, and graphics tablet. Dick worked on DOS 3.2, Apple III SOS, ProFile hard disk, ProDOS, and Apple IIc. While working at Apple's Disk Division, Cliff "moonlighted" with the Macintosh group to integrate the Sony 3.5" floppy drive into the Mac design (have you ever seen a Macintosh with a 5.25" Twiggy drive? - they existed).

After leaving Apple, the brothers teamed up with other ex-Apple employees to found a company called "The Engineering Department, Inc.", also known as TED. The President and CTO of TED was Wendell Sander (Apple employee #16), who had done the digital design of many Apple peripheral products, cleanup of the Apple II design, the "Integrated Woz Machine" (IWM) disk controller chip, the Apple III, and many other projects. TED continued working with Apple as an outside contractor, producing prototypes such as Apple's first ARM-based project (the ARM was used later in Newton), chip designs such as the SWIM disk controller ("Sander-Wozniak Integrated Machine", not "Super-Wozniak Integrated Machine" as reported!), and support for Apple projects such as the Apple IIc-plus (TED integrated the 3.5" floppy disk). TED also design ed(hardware and software) "Little Blue", better known as Applied Engineering's PC-Transporter fpr Apple IIe and Apple IIGS.

Dick returned to Apple to work in Newton group from 1994 to 1998. He worked on the Newton Connection Kit application and later on the Newton OS for the MP120/130 and MP2000/2100 series of Newtons.

The Mimeo 1 - Mike Willegal's beautiful PCB

2010-03-20T12:23:00.008-04:00

Mike did a beautiful job laying out this board -- based on images of the original Apple-1. This probably wasn't an easy task. Very nice work. I have 2 of these boards, and may someday get around to building one. Visit Mike's website for more information.

I will post additional higher quality images soon.

6820 PIA - AMI and other hard-to-find chips from 1976

2010-03-14T23:32:00.013-04:00

UPDATE May.21.2010 - 6820L (A little easier to find than the AMI)
2513 (All of the above are programmed with other-than, Apple-1 character sets! SUPER hard to find). In any case, had I known they weren't the correct charsets for the Apple-1, I wouldn't have purchased them!

(2504 and 1404a cross reference -- very hard to find in small quantities)
2519B (EXTREMELY hard to find)

6820 PIA by AMI (EXTREMELY hard to find)

Giant on a board, the Orange 1

2010-03-14T22:47:00.007-04:00

Interface Age, July 1976

(I was tipped off by Cameron Cooper about this article)

The "Woz bible" - Small Computer Handbook 1967

2010-03-14T18:16:00.013-04:00

I'm not 100% sure about this.... but Woz referred to a "book on computers" as his Bible in the 1996 documentary film, "Triumph of the Nerds" hosted by Robert X. Cringely. Woz did not mention the name of the book, but it is believed the book he was referring to, was one of the editions of the DEC Small Computer Handbook for the PDP-8 (I read this somewhere a few years ago... I am still digging to find out where I found this information originally).

Here are 2 that I have in my collection. One is the third edition, and the other is referred to as the 1967 edition. Both were published in 1967.

These copies are somewhat fragile and have significant page yellowing, but are still readable.

UPDATE: So this is correct... per Woz

==========================

UPDATE: From Woz --

"Early in my life I found a journal with some computer articles. At that time, it was my bible.

In high school I came across a Small Computer Handbook (PDP-8) and it became a 'bible' to me, although that's a poor phrase. It took me to the next level but then I found how to get many other manuals and I lived on them all. The one I remember was the second of those on your web page. I'm sure that was what was being referred to on the TV show.

In Apple design days, my card that showed the op codes for the 6502 microprocessor would have been my bible. "

Floppy drive, early (Apple II) schematics, and stuff hand-wired by Woz

2010-03-13T07:40:00.006-05:00

Wendell Sander informs us of some very interesting items going up for sale in the near future, you are not going to want to miss this:

"This Apple 1 is the best Apple 1 I have ever seen. It is clean and looks like no mods were ever made. It looks like it just came out of the box.

I'm not sure if people will appreciate the importance of the Floppy Drive development but that was an amazing piece of work by Woz and Rod Holt with Cliff''s help and was a pivotal point in Apple's growth. Apple was the first to have a practical, reliable and useable solution to floppy drives on a personal computer and that established them as the leader against much larger companies such as Radio Shack and Commodore and thus assured Apple's survival.

I have seen all of this material and it is quite remarkable.

Wendell "

Early Apple (Cliff and Dick Huston's site)

UPDATE Mar.20.2010: These items are currently up for auction on Ebay

The $50,000.00 USD Apple-1 recently sold on ebay

2010-03-04T22:39:00.010-05:00

I asked the previous owner if I could use these images on my blog, and was granted permission... So here we are....

This unit apparently sold for 50,000.00 USD

This is the original text of the auction that I had gathered at the time, it may have changed afterwards, but this is what I have in my records:

Apple 1 computer for sale.

Perhaps the best condition, best documented Apple 1 in existence.

*** NOTE FROM SELLER ***

Please stop contacting me directly with Buy-It-Now offers. If you have such

a good price to offer, enter it as a bid at the last second like everyone else

watching this auction will do. Any more e-mails with offers will be simply

deleted. I'm sorry if that is rude, but I can't keep wasting time sending the

same "No," and ending up in a "How about $x more?" thread.

*** ADD'L NOTE FROM SELLER ***

I can't seem to get my reply to a question posted so I'll do it this way.

I have replaced two of the photos in this ad with pictures of the back

of the computer. The first shows the entire back of the system.

The other picture provides detail of the modification: several thin

wires connect a keyboard socket with pinouts on the motherboard

and two strips of electrical tape fasten the wires to the board.

Any Apple 1 is rare but this unit has impeccable provenance and is so clean...it literally may be the best surviving Apple 1.

Provenance:

Included in this sale are the following items to provide complete history and provenance for this unit:

◦ The original invoice for the sale, dated December 7, 1976. The sales person, Steven, is presumed to be Steve Jobs.

◦ A letter, typed on plain notebook paper and signed by Steven Jobs. Though undated, the letter refers to sending the buyer a dealer application in January or February, 1977.

◦ The original packaging in which the computer shipped, with a return address of Steve Jobs' parents address at the time.

◦ Photographs of every owner of this unit. The original owner was photographed holding the computer, the next owner did the same and the current owner took his picture with both the system and with Steve Wozniak

Clean condition:

To appreciate how clean this unit is you must consider that the Apple 1 was a hobbyist's toy. It has an open breadboard area on it specifically left open for folks to wirewrap their own modifications. Most Apple 1's out there are covered in solder and chips and wires every which way.

This unit has but a single addition, a keyboard port added in a mid-80s attempt to get it to boot up.

(btw, When Steve Wozniak saw this unit he told me that the first batches of Apple 1's used a brand of chip they later replaced because they blew out easily. He said those chips were on this unit, which is probably why the unit didn't boot in the mid-80s.)

List of items included in sale:

• The computer itself

• The original shipping box, with Steve Jobs' parents' house as a return address

• The original manual, with schematics to build your own Apple 1

• The tape interface card

• The manual for the tape interface

• A plain Scotch-brand cassette tape with a simply-typed label "BASIC" that came with the unit

• A letter, signed by Steven Jobs in 1976, explaining connecting a keyboard and monitor, as well as detailing when dealer applications would be available

• An original full-page glossy advertisement for Apple, included when the Apple 1 computer was shipped. (The ad is almost unrecognizable as an Apple ad due to its elaborate Isaac Newton logo. The artist who drew that logo was the third original partner in Apple Corp. His stake in Apple was bought out for a couple thousand dollars when the company started getting serious.)

• Photographs of all prior owners of this unit

Special Terms:

Due to the irreplaceable nature of this item, I am placing a $3,000 additional fee if the item is chosen to be shipped. I do not do this for the money, I do it to discourage shipping. I want it to be dramatically more expensive to have this relic shipped than to pick it up and safely transport it to its new home personally.

September 1976 Issue of Interface Age

2010-02-13T16:51:00.005-05:00

The famous advertisement for the Apple 1 first appeared in the September 1976 issue of Interface Age, not the October issue as is widely believed. This issue also has an article on a 6502 dis-assembler, which was written by Steve Wozniak and Allen Baum, with source code listing included. Apparently, this code was available on an Apple-1 Cassette. I don't know if this code is available on the internet (maybe Vince Briel's Replica 1 includes this utility?). I just received this magazine today, so I have not read the whole article yet...

More info on the datanetics keyboard

2010-02-13T16:36:00.004-05:00

Wendell Sander informed me today that he believes the first Apple II keyboards may have been manufactured for Apple, by Datanetics, Inc. He sent me this early Apple II keyboard schematic scan from the 1979 Apple II Reference manual.

I also contacted Steve Wozniak yesterday, but he said that if he has any info on the Datanetics, that it is probably somewhere in storage. I also asked him about the modifications, but he did not know / doesn't remember, if the electrolytic cap was original or not.

UPDATE: from Cameron Cooper: "John, the early Apple II keyboards were definitely made by datanetics. You can see one of Mike's on this page: Apple II Keyboard

From what I gather around the keyswitch patents, it looks like Apple may have acquired either Datanetics or some of their technology."

Thanks Cameron!

Datanetics Keyboard V

2010-02-10T23:48:00.005-05:00

Datanetics Keyboard IV

2010-02-10T23:42:00.003-05:00

Datanetics Keyboard III

2010-02-10T23:36:00.003-05:00

Datanetics Keyboard II

2010-02-10T23:33:00.002-05:00

1976 Datanetics Keyboard (Serial # 0010)

2010-02-10T23:29:00.003-05:00

Discouraging start to the day...

2010-02-06T13:42:00.005-05:00

Well, I don't know what the heck happened here, but my keyboard decided not to function today. It was working fine last night... I burned a new BASIC EPROM chip, plugged in the firmware card, powered up the board, and now the keyboard is not working. Some keys work: 1, A, S, D, E, H, J, K, L, Q and that's about it. Most of the other keys do not work. My keyboard has always been flaky, and restarting usually worked. But today, no deal!

UPDATE: I hooked the keyboard up to an Apple II Plus and verified that the problem is the keyboard.

So...

AVR time

Apple-1 BASIC Firmware Card

2010-02-03T13:00:00.012-05:00

Another EUREKA moment... well, sort of...

I spent some time over the last few weeks building an expansion card with Apple-1 BASIC programmed on an EPROM. I am able to see the code starting at address $E000. I had initially included a 7404 inverter on the card (as in the picture) but it is not needed and the wiring has all been disconnected and the chip removed. I will post details on how I built this card soon... I am still trying to get BASIC to actually run.

After a little more research it looks like I'm going to be adding a 7410 3 input NAND gate, so that I can AND and invert VMA * clock(00) * J3 pin 11 and the output will be connected to /CE on the EPROM. When all 3 inputs are active HIGH, the output will be LOW, thus activating EPROM.

UPDATE Feb/3/2010: After looking at the schematics again, I guess I don't need to add any gates.

I have been trying to get BASIC to run using the following commands without any luck:

Start system

Clear screen, Reset

enter: E000R

output: E000: 4C@

At this point, I can't do anything except for a reset. No keyboard input is accepted.

4C is the first byte of BASIC. I should be getting the ">" prompt according to the manual.

=====

I also tried the following:

Start system

Clear screen, Reset

enter: E000.E000R

wait until the "\" appears (as stated in the manual when loading from cassette)

output afterwards, these are the last 3 bytes I see, plus the cursor: E_\@

enter: E000R

output: E000: 4C@

A14F Rectifier Diode

2010-01-27T23:30:00.003-05:00

I've received quite a few emails on where to find the A14F rectifier diode, and my answer has always been: http://www.talonix.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=8334

It turns out talonix.com doesn't have them and I do not know where to find them -- if anyone does, please let me know. (I obtained my A14F in a trade for a 2519N with an Apple 1 owner who has long since, sold his board, and I have lost contact with him, so I'm not sure of the source).

News tidbits

2010-01-13T18:36:00.005-05:00

If you are interested in obtaining your own Apple 1 reproduction kit, you might want to check out willegal.net to see Mike's progress on the Apple 1 he is reproducing. Hopefully we'll all be able to purchase boards and kits soon!

I was also informed today that Cameron C. is starting a new community for Apple 1 enthusiasts : www.apple-1.org Cameron is still working on the site but stay tuned.

There are 2 guys working on wire wrapped Apple 1s.

I am working on short videos of my progress -- although my camera sucks, I'll see what I can make available (probably on youtube because of blogger's video size limit).

Second PCB Bug

2010-01-13T18:21:00.008-05:00

Mike Willegal had posted a question on applefritter.com awhile ago for someone to check/verify that pin 12 of the Address Decoder / 74154 was connected to ground. From the scans he was working with, he found that pin 12 was not grounded. I checked the board that came with the kit and could see visually, that pin 12 was grounded. At the time I assumed there was nothing wrong with the non-kit board I have, but I assumed wrong. Earlier this week I removed the DIP socket where the 74154 resides, because I wanted to check for solder-bridges under the DIP. I then placed multimeter leads (set to Ohms) from pin 12 to ground and verified that pin 12 is not connected to anything.

I resoldered a new DIP socket, and added a jumper from pin 12 to the ground side of the closest ceramic capacitor. Unfortunately, I am still picking up a 1+ volt signal on ground... more to come on this when I know more.

BTW, it appears at quick glance that the schematics omitted showing GND on each component.

PCB Bug

2010-01-01T11:10:00.005-05:00

For all of those who purchased an Obtronix board (not the kit) on ebay several years ago, there is a bug on this board. I can't say we all have the same board, but the board I have is missing a trace on D7 (74161) from pin 7 to pin 10. This bug was causing characters to repeat after a reset. I soldered a jumper wire across these pins, and the repeating chars stopped. This bug was found by Mike Willegal (willegal.net). I verified these pins were not connected by using a multimeter.

DS0025CN vs DS0026CN

2009-12-23T11:24:00.003-05:00

I tested the DS0026CN chip last week. Although you can enter a program which the system appears to accept, displaying the bytes in memory afterwards shows completely different data. Why bother? Because the DS0025CN is pretty hard to find. I believe I paid $13 USD for a single chip!

Mounting everything to Plywood

2009-12-13T16:24:00.003-05:00

On Dec 12, 2009 I used anything I could find laying around in the basement and garage to mount all of the parts to plywood. I mounted the transformers, the power switch, the keyboard interface PCB, and the keyboard.

Clear Screen Button

2009-12-13T16:17:00.005-05:00

On Dec 11, 2009 - I added a momentary switch for Clear Screen, per the schematics.
The switch uses +5v which is supplied by the ZIFF on the "CPU" side of the small PCB.
I also worked on mounting the keyboard and motherboard to plywood.

Keyboard connected, up and running!

2009-12-09T14:56:00.010-05:00

On Dec 8 at 1:15AM I finally had reset working and dropping into the monitor program. After building the keyboard circuit, I keyed in the test program from the Apple 1 manual. Eureka! Well, one board works (the one that came with the kit). The board I built from scratch components doesn't pick up keyboard events yet, so this board will need additional debugging. But as you can see on the board that works, the ASCII charset is being dumped repeatedly just like it is supposed to.

I started the night with building the Apple II keyboard -> Apple 1 mapping circuit based on WSander's mapping schematic. I did not wire up the Repeat -> Clear mapping yet (which requires one trace modification on the keyboard).
Pin 1 (+5v) on the Apple II keyboard ribbon cable was broken clean off, so I had to separate the wire from the ribbon. I did this with an Exacto blade. Then I extended it about 5 cm by soldering another piece of wire. I didn't have any heat-shrink on hand, so I had to use electrical tape to cover up the bare connections. This made the wire long enough to sneak it underneath and into the DIP socket. As you can see in the photos, I used 16 pin ZIFF sockets on each of the ribbon cables. I also added a DIP socket to each end of the ribbon cable to protect the pins.

One thing worth mentioning, as I am not that familiar with Apple II keyboards -- there is a switch on this particular 1979 model, underneath the keyboard on the encoder PCB. This switch has 2 settings: Ctrl and Reset. My keyboard Reset button did not work until I flipped the switch from Ctrl to Reset.

Apple II Keyboard to Apple 1 mapping/schematics

2009-12-05T15:02:00.007-05:00

All of the preceeding images were sent to me by W.Sander
I will be using Sander's design for my keyboard rig. He was kind enough to go out of his way to obtain the video signal images and a nice image of the Apple 1 screen when the system is first booted.
Note that the ampersand symbols flash, but the dashes do not flash. Check out the cool case for the Apple 1, also designed by Sander.

Clock Signal on Clone number 2

2009-12-05T03:50:00.010-05:00

This is a shot of the clock signal on the 6502 / PIN-37
The peak is at 4 volts, and the frequency is 1.020 MHz. Horiz sweep is 500.0 ns.
I'm not sure why there is a negative spike in each cycle?
You can see the same spike in one of the photos below, on the analog scope taken from Clone number 1.

First Glimpse of Working Video on Clone number 2

2009-12-05T03:43:00.004-05:00

This image shows the first time I had ever seen video. I don't know why one of the chars is blank, but that only happened the first time I powered up the board.

Building the 2nd Clone

2009-12-05T03:18:00.008-05:00

I started working on the second clone (the kit version) last night. I finished it tonite, and this one works. I haven't figured out what is wrong with the first one I built (the non-kit version), but I still cannot obtain any video.

The image above shows the PCB with DIP sockets, 22uF capacitors and diodes soldered into place. The resistors all came in one bag, so they had to be checked with a multimeter and sorted.

Looking at the image above this, you can see that this system is generating video. When I power up the board, I see a screen filled with flashing "_@_@_@_" symbols. I know that this is the correct behavior (An Apple 1 owner recently sent me this info). I don't have a keyboard hooked up yet, so what you see here is the expansion board I built a few months ago, being used to send a reset (recall that after you power up the Apple 1, you hit "Clear" then "Reset"). I don't always get the same results, but I am seeing the "\" and the "@" symbol most of the time after hitting reset. I believe this is correct behavior.
I decided to go ahead and test some of the chips I had laying around. I briefly swapped out the DS0025CN with a DS0026CN and I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think the DS0026CN might work. I need to play around with this a bit more to be sure. While I was at it, I also checked a few of the PROMs I had programmed.
I learned a few things while building this second board, and the first thing I learned was that .032 solder was too thick. I ended up using .020 63/37 rosin core on the second board (See video below). I really thought it was going to be too thin to work with, but it turned out to be perfect. I did use .032 on the components with larger PCB holes and thicker leads (e.g. the power regulators, and the big blue caps).
I also found that the first little PCB I built for the video RCA jack is messing up the signal. I suspect the LED, resistor and IN914 diode. The second board I put together last night works fine, but this one has no LED, resistor, or IN914 diode.

Soldering resistors

2009-12-05T02:56:00.004-05:00

I actually didn't know I could take video on this camera. This clip shows a few moments of soldering a handful of resistors onto clone number 2 motherboard.

Solder Bridge Found...

2009-10-29T23:00:00.006-04:00

A few days ago, I noticed that the LED for address line A4 on the expansion card was not illuminated. I removed the expansion card and connected it up to a 5v power supply and probed the header connectors. All of the LEDs were working fine. I figured there must be either a bad chip somewhere or a solder bridge. After poking around for about 30 mins with a magnifying glass, I finally found the solder bridge under one of the 74S257 DIP sockets. After dragging a hot solder iron through the bridge, and powering up the clone again, I had an illuminated LED for Address line A4. Very hard to see! (I need to get some flux remover I guess .... that would probably make things a bit easier to see).

Clock Signal Fixed...

2009-10-24T05:16:00.005-04:00

Note the square wave on the scope... I finally have a clock input signal on pin 37 of the 6502 processor. I found that replacing the Philips 74HCT04N with a National Semi 7404N (D12 in the schematic) gave me a square wave. I found this problem by first checking pin 37 on the 6502, then checking the schematic, and seeing that the output from the crystal clock circuit is sent to pin 9 on the 74175 (C13 in the schematic). I then checked pin 9 with my scope and what I saw was certainly not a square wave, so I immediately thought this chip must be bad and replaced it (the 7404). After powering down, then back up again, I was pumped to see my expansion card LEDs flashing away as they should be! Finally. In the image above, you can see the square wave generated while I have my left hand holding the oscilloscope probe on pin 37, and the camera in my right.
The video is still not working, but it is late (5:30 AM) so I will take a closer look at the video issue "in the morning".

-- 9-dec-2009 UPDATE: The video section needs a 7404. 74HCT04 and 74LS04 will not work. I replaced the 7404 with a new one and now have video.

2513 Character Generator

2009-10-20T17:41:00.005-04:00

This description of the 2513 Character Generator is from Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter Cookbook. The description explains clearly how this thing works. Compared to the datasheet, I thought this was easier to understand, so figured I'd share it with the community.

I've been spending a bit more time on the video section of my Apple 1 clone, trying to locate the source of the problem (I have a signal, but no video). I re-soldered most of the points on the back of the board thinking maybe I had either a solder bridge or just a bad connection. I pulled and reinstalled the chips. Still no video. I tried removing and reinstalling all RAM chips, still no video. I tried swapping out a few of the chips, still no video. I checked all of the 1404 voltages, and everything looked fine. I'm going to have to spend a little more time with the scope, the schematics and the datasheets to figure out what's wrong here....

2009-10-12T01:14:00.011-04:00

On Sunday, Oct 11, 2009 I decided to put together an expansion card to plug into the Apple 1 motherboard. This card provides the ability to send a "reset" signal to the CPU, read the address bus, and provide +5v and ground pins for a logic probe or oscilloscope probe. The above image shows the card with power applied, and the logic probe connected. The card is connected using the exact same 44 pin connector that is on the motherboard.

Lights off, first test. The green LED is the power indicator letting me know the board is getting power from the motherboard : +5 volts

Here you can see the 16 address LEDs, with sibling 300 ohm resistors. Note just to the left of the "+ 5v" label (bottom left) and the ground label (top left) there is a single molex pin. These 2 pins are for debugging the motherboard (i.e. the pins are used to hook up a logic probe).
The LED for the reset will be removed -- mainly because I wired it up wrong, and the signal for reset was blocked. Cool to have, but not necessary. Just above the switch is a .1 uF ceramic capacitor - for debouncing. The cap is connected to each pin on the switch.

Rat's nest on the back of the board. What you see here are the address lines, reset, +5 volts running across the top of the board from connector pin 1, ground across the bottom of the board from pin 20. The reset line is held high with a 10k ohm resistor. When the momentary switch is pressed the line is forced low, sending a reset signal to the motherboard / CPU. Testing with a logic probe shows we are good to go.

I attached the 44 pin header to the card using super-glue and a couple of C-clamps. What you see taped onto the board are (6) 16 pin DIP sockets which were soldered into place later on. These will eventually be used for hex displays.

2009-10-09T20:26:00.003-04:00

I added the IN914 diode previously mentioned to protect the Apple 1 from unwanted external video surges, and I also added a "power on" LED indicator just for kicks.

2009-10-08T15:34:00.002-04:00

On October 6, 2009 I built this external circuit to bring the video, ground and +5v out to a separate PCB with an RCA jack. Eventually I'll add an LED and I should have included a diode to protect the Apple 1 from any surges coming from the video terminal. It's on my list.
In any case, I did not see anything on the video monitor other than a gray screen. I don't have a keyboard set up yet, with reset and clear, but I was thinking I might at least see random characters.

Miscellaneous images while populating the PCB

2009-10-05T03:44:00.002-04:00

More power supply images...

2009-10-05T03:34:00.008-04:00

Above: prepping to solder the ON/OFF switch.

Above - prepping to solder the female connector to the power supply lines. I don't know why I waited so long to buy "Helping Hands"... let's see how long it takes before I finally break down and purchase a solder-sucker...

Above: soldering the molex housing pins, one at a time.

Above is the completed power supply. At some point the transformers will be bolted to the floor of a home-made case, or maybe just a piece of plywood...
BTW, that is a 0.5 Amp 250v fuse.

Building the Power Supply

2009-10-05T02:46:00.004-04:00

Note that the 4 pin header looks a little rough, because it's actually a cut down version of the 6 pin header. If I took crapier pictures you wouldn't notice :D.

Today I pulled out the 2 Stancor transformers and put together the power supply. I didn't have all of the parts. After spending too much money on hard-to-find chips and carbon composite resistors, I decided it was time to do what we all should do, a little spring cleaning!
So I dug through the basement and garage and found a decent 2 prong power cord, and a fuse housing wire (from an old Panasonic car stereo equalizer) . There were also 4 nice nuts and bolts probably for mounting the stereo equalizer that I snatched out of the equalizer box to use for mounting the (2) Stancor transformers. While digging around I also found a brand new 125v ON -OFF toggle switch that was perfect for this project, in one of my parts bins down in the basement. I grabbed a handful of various old male/female wire connectors I thought I'd find useful as well.

I first started with assembling the 6 pin Molex connector housing and pins. I soldered each connector pin to each of the corresponding Stancor transformer wires after crimping them. I added wire connectors between the fuse wires and also for the ON/OFF switch. Every minute or so I referred back to the Apple 1 manual I had displayed on my computer screen just to make double sure I wasn't screwing up. I had never built a power supply before, so I was a little worried I was either going to hurt myself or fry the board. I took my time, and everything came together just fine. I powered up the board (after soldering the 6 Pin and 4 Pin headers to the board) with the supply and checked a few points to make sure I had the expected voltages (-5, +5, -12, +12). I did this using 3 tools:

1) Oscilloscope
2) Logic Probe and
3) Multimeter set to measure DC voltage

Everything looked OK to me except for one area, which I am still confused over....
The Apple 1 schematic (drawing 101 - Power Supply) shows J3 pins X, Y, and Z where X = GND, Y = +12v and Z = -12v. I measured 22.5v and -22.5v for both of these points. However, the manual said that these 2 pins should not be used, and if they are used need to be regulated (the voltage is not regulated as is).

After cleaning up a bit, I went ahead and soldered the jumper points above the 74154. I used a combination of the Apple 1 manual - schematic notes, and the scant instructions (from the web) from Obtronix. They are slightly different, but I don't know why:

Apple 1 Manual (schematic notes) jumper connections:
Y => CSF
Z => CSD
W => CS1
X => CS0 (zero)

Obtronix:
Y => F
Z => D
W => E (Note Apple jumps W=>CS1)
X => 0 (zero)
R => C

I took a look at a few Apple 1 images, and found a couple with jumper wire from W=>E so that is what I went with as well.

I powered up the board again and checked a few more points. I shut everything down, cleaned up a bit more, then proceeded to install the chips. After installing all of the chips, I powered up the board again looking for smoke, arcing, fire, flames, explosions, and nothing happened. But this time the board started producing heat. The 74154, the ROMs and the LM323k were all generating heat. The 6502 was not, however. I checked the voltages for 5v on the 6502 and everything looked fine.

So, enjoy the photos, and tomorrow after work maybe I'll see if I can knock out the keyboard and video.

oops...

2009-09-24T23:31:00.004-04:00

I just realized all four of the A14F are installed backwards...

OK, so it took me about 2 hours to fix this major screwup. The A14Fs are back in business.

LM323K Voltage Regulator Installation

2009-09-24T22:40:00.006-04:00

UPDATE: Feb.17.2010 - Please note that the A14F recitifier diodes are installed backwards in the above and below images.

I fixed this soon afterwards, before I applied power. See my later posts!

Tonite I installed the LM323K voltage regulator (5v / 3a).
A pair of magnetized wire strippers came in handy to drop the screws into place. Needle nose plyers would have worked fine too I guess. I used a tiny amount of masking tape to tape the washers to the screws so that I could drop them into place easily. The area is too tight to get your fingers into (maybe you can, but I could not).
This was a bit more frustrating than I thought it would be, but everything is now soldered into place. There are 2 insulating washers in the upper left of the image above. You do not need these insulating washers - Just bolt the LM323K as is, to ensure a good grounding connection to the PCB.

Soldering resistors and ceramic capicitors

2009-09-24T00:37:00.005-04:00

So today I got a package in the mail from Surplus Sales.... which contained all of the carbon composite resistors (EXCEPT for the (12) 3k ohm), the ceramic caps, the 47pF capacitor, and the 100 ohm video trim potentiometer. I soldered the A14F rectifiers, the MPS transistor (video signal), the .1uF, .01uF and .001uF ceramic disc capacitors, the 47pF dipped cap, and the 14.138 Mhz crystal.
In the image at the top, you can see that I shorted the (2) "6502" bridges, as well as the No DMA bridge. I used wire that was trimmed from the resistors to short the (2) "6502" bridges.
(The No DMA short only has one hole in the PCB, not sure why?)

Anyhow, here are a couple of things that I learned tonite:

1) The MR501 rectifier diodes have wire leads that are too big for the holes in the PCB so I used A14F rectifiers instead. (A friend of mine sent me these from Ca. as I could not find them anywhere -- apparently they are only 15 cents each at the electronics shops in the Bay Area)

2) If you are working with ceramic caps with really short leads, make sure that you tape them to the PCB before you solder them. Otherwise they might fall out when you turn the board over. And if they do fall out *while you are soldering*, as did for me, you will be swearing for the next 15 minutes trying to get the solder out of the holes so that you can start over. Luckily, it only happened once. I didn't have much luck removing the solder using copper braid. So I ended up using a piece of trimmed resistor wire and a pair of plyers to hold the wire (so I wouldn't burn myself). I reheated the solder in the hole while plunging the resistor wire into the hole until it came loose. After a few tries I was able to remove enough solder to get the capacitor back into place AND TAPED to the PCB before attempting to solder. (I will purchase a solder sucker soon...)

3) If you use too much solder on resistors, caps and diodes, the solder will seep through to the other side and "ball up", creating small BB like balls of solder on the top of the PCB. (Maybe my iron is a little hot?)

4.) I am finding that a setting of about 3.4 on my soldering iron is a good heat to work with.
I let the iron heat up for at least 5 minutes before using it.
(Model = Weller WLC100)

2009-09-15T23:38:00.002-04:00

Today a package arrived from Jameco.com, more parts for the Apple 1 clone! So tonite I soldered the 1N4001 diodes (4) and the (3) voltage regulators (-12v, +12v and 5v).
My Apple 1 board stencil was not readable, so I broke out the other board I have which does have a readable stencil around the regulators, so I've included a picture.

2009-09-12T23:24:00.006-04:00

So today I finally took the plunge and started soldering IC sockets, diodes and axial capacitors onto my Apple 1 clone. I guess it took about 3.5 - 4 hours total. I took my time in effort not to screw up. I taped each IC socket to the front of the board with masking tape, one at a time, as I soldered them so that they were nice and flat against the circuit board. After soldering all of the IC sockets, I soldered the IN914 diodes, then the 22uF axial capacitors. Then I did the large cap, and then the (2) 2400 uF caps.
Note the 11000uF 25v capacitor to replace the impossible to find 5300uF cap. ( Tip from a former Apple Engineer )

Interview with Monroe Postman, Original Apple 1 owner

2009-09-07T18:59:00.000-04:00

Monroe Postman Interview
=======================

Sep.2009

Hello everyone, I am here speaking with Monroe Postman, one of the few owners of the original Apple 1 computer.

Hi Monroe, can you tell us about your background, and what sparked your interest in computing?

I got my Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (BEE) before schools were offering Computers as a Major. My long term interest in computers turned professional when I joined the UNIVAC 1 staff at New York University in the early 1950s, which led eventually to a career in designing digital computers. I also taught microprocessor equipment design in the 1970s under a National Science Foundation grant.

What can you tell us about your experience as a HomeBrew Computer Club member?

I attended The Homebrew club after it started meeting at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) and stayed until it left that venue. I was not an "active participant;" I just listened with rapt attention as the revolution got under way.

Is it true the Lee Felsenstein thought he was in charge, but wasn't really?
Was it a free for all?

My recollection was that Lee did keep order, but wasn't "bossy." There were at least 100 people at a typical meeting, but it was hardly a free for all. And there were plenty of disagreements, but the atmosphere was generally civil.

Did you ever get to meet Steve Wozniak? If so, what can you tell us about that encounter?

I only met Steve Wozniak briefly, years later, when I asked him to sign my Apple 1, I believe at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. He was very cordial.

Did you ever see Woz demo the original Apple at the club?

Yes, I recall seeing a demo in the lobby of SLAC. I think that he was also at the First West Coast Computer Faire held in 1977 in San Francisco. That was very exciting!

Where and when did you purchase your Apple 1?

I bought it at an estate sale, in around 1980.

What made you decide to put your Apple 1 up for sale?

I guess as a collector, my interests have evolved over time. And there are so few of these Apple 1s out there, it’s time for someone else to enjoy it.

If you could give any bit of advice to people just getting into computers, who might be interested in either software programming or hardware design what would you tell them?

I've been a hardware engineer, using a bit of programming or machine code to modify and test my designs. If I were just entering graduate school, this time I would opt to study bio-engineering which is an exciting mix of many engineering disciplines. Every engineer should know which end of a soldering iron is hot! I know that is so 20th century . . .

It seems we’re always at the end of one exciting era in the history of computers and at the beginning of another. Leave it to Apple with the iPhone to have introduced one of today’s most interesting computing platforms, with wifi, location awareness, color touch screen, video and all of its other features it is changing the way people compute.

In my own life, I have recently been working at the Department of Veterans Affairs, using sensors, hydraulics and computer control to build solutions that provide rehabilitation and assistance to stroke victims, paraplegics and quadriplegics.

Monroe, thank you very much for your time, it has been a great pleasure.

Please visit: http://apple1forsale.com

An Apple 1 will soon to be for sale...

2009-08-29T10:31:00.005-04:00

Please visit: http://apple1forsale.com

Newsflash: This Apple 1, (number 49 sticker on back) SOLD on Oct 3rd, 2009 in the middle of the night, not too long after being posted to ebay!