Apple Techstep I have almost all of the ROMs here and some info!

[jajan547]

Recently picked up a Techstep on ebay.. following this thread with interest as it only came with 3 carts.

Only 3 most get the SCSI HDD tests and the CPU Tests Vol 1 or 3

 

[jajan547]

Recently picked up a Techstep on ebay.. following this thread with interest as it only came with 3 carts.

Nice find though hope this thread will turn out to help many people with these devices!

 

[pocketscience]

I will need to buy some "newer" machines to use it on.. only have a Plus and a 512Ke currently..

The carts mine came with are:
* CPU Tests Vol 3, v 1.0
* CPU Tests Vol 1, v 1.1.1
* SCSI HD Tests, v 1.0

The display on mine is very dim - I'm hoping I can replace it with a more recent 1604 display..

 

[jajan547]

I will need to buy some "newer" machines to use it on.. only have a Plus and a 512Ke currently..

The carts mine came with are:
* CPU Tests Vol 3, v 1.0
* CPU Tests Vol 1, v 1.1.1
* SCSI HD Tests, v 1.0

The display on mine is very dim - I'm hoping I can replace it with a more recent 1604 display..

Definitely remove the 9V battery it will corrode its way down the wires. Nice cartridges to be included in yours. As far as displays go I believe it should’nt be too hard to find a replacement, send some pics here of the front and back of the screen and I might be able to help.

 

[olePigeon]

here is everything except for CPU Tests Vol.4 I have also provided the labels for the TechStep floppies.

Just FYI: there's a second support folder. Not sure how common it is. It has some copies of some commercial database software. The database software itself is nothing special. Double Helix and Dimension something-or-another, I think, plus literature on how to use it. I would imagine it was used for tracking warranty repairs. Probably connected to a now-dead Apple database. They do come in some nifty plastic floppy holder inserts that fit perfectly in the TechStep envelope/folder thingy.

I can still make images and labels if anyone wants them. If nothing other than for completeness.

 

[jajan547]

Just FYI: there's a second support folder. Not sure how common it is. It has some copies of some commercial database software. The database software itself is nothing special. Double Helix and Dimension something-or-another, I think, plus literature on how to use it. I would imagine it was used for tracking warranty repairs. Probably connected to a now-dead Apple database. They do come in some nifty plastic floppy holder inserts that fit perfectly in the TechStep envelope/folder thingy.

I can still make images and labels if anyone wants them. If nothing other than for completeness.

I would love the images, gotta add to the nostalgia!

 

[jajan547]

Just FYI: there's a second support folder. Not sure how common it is. It has some copies of some commercial database software. The database software itself is nothing special. Double Helix and Dimension something-or-another, I think, plus literature on how to use it. I would imagine it was used for tracking warranty repairs. Probably connected to a now-dead Apple database. They do come in some nifty plastic floppy holder inserts that fit perfectly in the TechStep envelope/folder thingy.

I can still make images and labels if anyone wants them. If nothing other than for completeness.

go ahead and upload them if you don't mind

 

[jajan547]

Hey I don't know if you all caught this little easter egg in the 4th ROM, I have a feeling they knew it was the last ROM that was to be made and this was the development teams way of a sendoff.

 

[olePigeon]

Oh, nuts. It's not as special as I thought. Looks to be demo disks and literature for selling the database software. Seems odd that it'd be apart of a TechStep package. Unless it's for selling the software package to Apple Authorized dealers.

I can still upload them if people want demo disks.

 

[jajan547]

Oh, nuts. It's not as special as I thought. Looks to be demo disks and literature for selling the database software. Seems odd that it'd be apart of a TechStep package. Unless it's for selling the software package to Apple Authorized dealers.

I can still upload them if people want demo disks.

Hey upload away I’m currently putting the rom 4 board together and hopefully it works.

 

[jajan547]

Bad news 4th ROM is messed up I figured the 4 bits would be an issue, We have to wait for @SuperSVGA 's ROM 4 dump.

 

[olePigeon]

I have a ROM 4, but no way to dump it. Unless someone is near the South Bay Area who wants to give it a go.

 

[jajan547]

I have a ROM 4, but no way to dump it. Unless someone is near the South Bay Area who wants to give it a go.

I can dump it I’m in North Carolina and would be willing to cover shipping it back and dumping the ROM

 

[elemenoh]

@olePigeon I have a reader/programmer and am near you as you know. Will DM you.

 

[jajan547]

@olePigeon I have a reader/programmer and am near you as you know. Will DM you.

Sweet thanks @elemenoh & @olePigeon

 

[SuperSVGA]

Here's the copy I have of Vol. 4. My Windows 98 computer used for EPROMs died so I had to buy a USB to IDE adapter to get to it, but it's likely still intact.

 

[jajan547]

Here's the copy I have of Vol. 4. My Windows 98 computer used for EPROMs died so I had to buy a USB to IDE adapter to get to it, but it's likely still intact.

so it’s best to put this on the c010? What chip works best for you?

 

[SuperSVGA]

so it’s best to put this on the c010? What chip works best for you?

I've tested it on the SST39SF010A so far, but it should work fine on the AT27C010 and MX27C1000, theoretically it should even work on the AT27C020 despite it being 2Mb chip.

 

[jajan547]

Okay good news this ROM works perfectly, I used the AT27C010. I would like to add some interesting finds upon using the TechStep with ROM 4 and using it with a color classic that has an LC575 board and a Color Classic II that has the stock/LC550 Board. As you can see in the ROM all you can use in terms of computers to test is a Color Classic, LCIII/Perfomra 450, and the LC520. Now because my Color Classic has an LC575 board this was tricky to use I found that a mix of swapping between the LC520 and Color Classic diagnostics got most features to work but not all due mostly to it being an entirely different machine. When it comes to the LC 550/Color Classic II I found that the Color Classic diagnostics gave me issues and it was very fussy, however, The LC520 diagnostics almost perfectly work with this board and computer type, albeit not everything such as CPUID, ROMID, etc. mostly the obvious. I did find I could test video patterns on both as well as test the floppy drives and even test VRAM and many other features. I'll mess around with the other ROM compatibilities a bit more meaning CPU Tests, Vol 1.1.1, CPU Tests Vol.2, and CPU Tests Vol.3. I was also looking through some of the TechStep floppy software and found something about video card tests, more in a bit.

 

[olePigeon]

Awesome work on the ROMs. So many people are missing all the cartridges. Maybe some cleaver peeps can come up with new ROMs. A SCSI low level formatter would be useful. Or maybe a file duplicator that can copy or image one HDD to another on the same SCSI BUS. That way you could get files off a wonky machine that's having issues booting.

In any event, here're the disks from the SupporTools folders. The Help Stack (useful HyperCard stack with info for Mac error codes, known viruses at the time, etc.) Also attached are the demo disks in the second SupporTools folder. I think these were demos to sell to potential store owners.