Weekend-ish Haul: Apple IIe System w/ 2x Disk II, Apple Monitor II + MacBook, Floppies, CRT monitor, Keyboard, Books, & More

[macinbot]

For a guy who tells people he's downsizing his collection, I sure came back with a lot of stuff this weekend!

Saw an ad post on the Eugene, Oregon Craigslist for an Apple IIe system. Made arrangements and headed north on Friday and broke up the 630+ mile round-trip with an overnight layover to visit my son in Ashland, and then another overnight layover to visit friends in Grants Pass on the way back down Saturday.

On the way I hit up some thrift stores and craigslist to make the trip even more worthwhile. Quite a haul!

• Apple IIe system with Monitor II, 2x Disk II drives, and several peripheral / controller cards
• Apple MacBook Pro Late 2009
• Compaq FS7600 17" Flat CRT monitor
• Box of 3M 5-1/4" floppy disks
• (2) Tandy 5-1/4" floppy disk cases (w/ misc PC floppies inside)
• Disk Notcher (!)
• CompuTutor - Apple IIe Using Visicalc VHS
• MacAlly iKey "Frosted Ice" keyboard
• Books: "Hello World: Computer Programming for Kids...", "Color 2" (graphic design color theming book), and "Look Inside: How Computer Computers Work" kids picture-flap book
• Mitsubishi Component System w/ Power Amplifier, AV Preamplifier, Dual-Cassette and CD player

 

[Juror22]

That's SO great! The Mac and Apple items are terrific, but I'm particularly envious of the Mits system - that is just the right age to be a nice setup, without having to rebuild everything to make it work. Nice haul, and it sounds like you had a fun time traveling as well.

The first line in your post reminded me that I need to be thinking where my own collection is headed, and I believe that this coming year will be one where I change how I collect as well, but I hesitate to use the word downsizing or any variant of that, because I too have seen opportunities, which are just too good to pass up. Rather, I think it will be one of focus (as soon as I decide on one - sigh!) and refinement (read a LOT of finally finishing all my remaining projects - although I worked through a lot of them this year already).

 

[CC_333]

@Juror22 Refinement is a good way of putting it.

My collection needs much 'refinement'....

c

 

[volvo242gt]

Not bad at all. For the Mitsu home audio system, find a pair of Infinity RS6b speakers... Medium-sized bookshelf/floor standing speakers that sound larger than they are.

 

[LaPorta]

How much was all of that?

 

[macinbot]

How much was all of that?

• The Apple IIe was $200 for the CPU, monitor, 2x Disc II and various installed cards.
• The Mitsubishi audio component system was $40
• The iKey keyboard was $18
• Compaq FS 7600 17" CRT was $10
• Books were $2-3 each
• Visicalc VHS was $1
• The rest was free (friends getting rid of extras)

 

[bibilit]

The IIe was a steal…

 

[macinbot]

The IIe was a steal…

Agreed. Worth the drive, even with gas prices.

The IIe was a former education computer and from the look of it, saw light use. Person I picked it up from got it directly from the school storage. He had some fun with it for a few months and put it on Facebook.

It has a couple issues: RIFA cap popped in the power supply. And former owner being inexperienced with Apple II, shifted the Disk II drive cable off by a pin set on Disk II controller card header, and burned out an IC(s?). The card still works for drive #2. I haven't had/taken the time to deep dive into it. My understanding is it can be as simple as replacing the socketed burned out IC?

Question regarding that: Is it the controller card or the drive itself where the over volt damage usually happens?

 

[bibilit]

Disk drive analog board (the one on top of the drive itself)

IIRC the 74LS125 chip is the one that goes bad when cable is shifted.

 

[macinbot]

Disk drive analog board (the one on top of the drive itself)

IIRC the 74LS125 chip is the one that goes bad when cable is shifted.

thanks!

 

[volvo242gt]

Yup, it acts like a fuse. I have seen where the MC3470 chip also goes bad at the same time, though. The 125 chip is readily available, the 3470 can be hard to find. With respect to the 125, you can use any version. The regular 74125, the high-speed CMOS 125 (74HC125 or 54HC125), or the stock TTL 74LS125 chip.

 

[macinbot]

Yup, it acts like a fuse. I have seen where the MC3470 chip also goes bad at the same time, though. The 125 chip is readily available, the 3470 can be hard to find. With respect to the 125, you can use any version. The regular 74125, the high-speed CMOS 125 (74HC125 or 54HC125), or the stock TTL 74LS125 chip.

Thanks for the additional info. Good to know incase replacing the 74125 doesn't solve the issue.

 

[bibilit]

Just collected the same setup for 180 € (IIe, monitor and a pair of drives)

Already have two but this one was cheap, and pretty close from my office, the deal was done in half an hour.

Have not been able to test anything yet.

But upon close inspection, one of the cards is a rare RGB « Le Chat Mauve » that is worth the price i paid for the lot !!

 

[François]

one of the cards is a rare RGB « Le Chat Mauve »

Trop bien !

 

[macinbot]

But upon close inspection, one of the cards is a rare RGB « Le Chat Mauve » that is worth the price i paid for the lot !!

Very nice! I had been casually picking up Apple II items in hopes of stumbling across a IIe PDS card. So I have the Unidisk 5.25, the Apple 5.25 Drive, a Laser (VTech Laser 128 clone) 3.5" floppy, and a pair of Apple branded game paddles. My IIe looks to have the controller card for both the Disk II and also the card for the later floppy drives, so I should be set to go on hooking up the updated drives, which I think are more in line with the aesthetics of the IIe.

And discovery through some recent reading: Despite being designed for VTech's Apple II clone, apparently the Laser 3.5" is NOT compatible with either of the Apple floppy controller cards, and cannot be daisy-chained to the Unidisk, or Apple 5.25 Drive. Interestingly it DOES work on compact Macs (and probably others) from my testing. From what I'm reading, it takes a specialized VTech 3.5" controller to work on the Apple II. So it's just there for show.

The 800k Mac floppy drive would certainly look the part, but it isn't compatible with the Apple II from what I understand. Big-Mess-O-Wires has a "universal" controller card that seems to allow some of the Macintosh 3.5" drives, but not the Laser drive. Or maybe it does. They don't mention it on the webpage. The Apple II drive scene is just downright confusing.

Going to be on the lookout for an ImageWriter (MK 1) and a compatible, aesthetically matching joystick. Also low-key keeping an eye out for matching color monitor. The Apple Monitor 100 looks more the part to me, but it seems to be pretty rare. The Apple IIe Color Monitor seems more attainable, although that's a pretty relative term.

Still, even as it is now, I think the setup looks pretty cool.

 

[bibilit]

To use a 3,5 drive with the Apple II, you need the Unidisk 3,5 drive, not any 800k drive.

The drive itself is the same, but the Unidisk has a more complex logic board inside (with a 6502 processor and some logic chips to handle the slower Apple II)

In order to use a 3,5 drive in an Apple II you also need the rare 3,5 Apple card controller known as « Liron «…but you can only use the Unidisk 3,5 with it.

The Liron card supplies an IWM chip and more logic chips to do so.

Another even rarer card is (IIRC) able to handle not only the 800k drive but also the 1.44 one.

The card you have is probably only able to handle the second version of the 5,25 drive and the Duodisk.

The Vtech 3,5 you have don’t work with the Apple II because is lacking the 6502 and stuff, but also because on the Apple II side, you need an IWM chip.
Same problem with the more common 3,5 Apple drive, only suitable to the Macintosh (and IIGS)

 

[Skate323k137]

BMOW makes the Yellowstone disk controller that supports a lot of [3.5] drives. I recently tested one on my Laser 128. I use that disk controller for unidisk drives or the unidisk mode of a FloppyEMU. Also works with a FujuNet (pictured)

It's not super cheap but it is a heck of a device. Worth it IMHO.

 

[bibilit]

After spending a whole morning cleaning (was really gross), replacing capacitors here and there, fixing the drive speed acurately…

Everything works (some minor issues, but nothing serious)

The RGB card is working flawlessly when connected to my TV.

 

[badCaps]

That's looking really good!

 

[volvo242gt]

The Laser UDC card should run the Laser 128 3.5" drive. It also runs the A9M0106 and the 1.4MB SuperDrive (in A9M0106 800K mode) drives. I used one for a while with my old //e, as evidenced by the A9M0106 on top of the two disk ][ drives seen in the photo below.