Unknown Apple 2 cards

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu Jun 5 06:44:01 2003

Hi,

I came across a whole boxful of Apple II cards at the weekend that I'd
forgotten I actually owned. Unfortunately nearly all of my Apple hardware is
too far buried to really dig out at the moment and play around with any of this
stuff, but there's still a few cards that I'd be interested in finding more
about if possible and getting necessary software for.

Card images [640x480 resolution and around 60KB or thereabouts] are at:

  http://www.moosenet.demon.co.uk/temp/apple2


PAL Colour Card: No idea as to manufacturer; mainly analogue circuitry on
board plus the modulator and a bit of TTL. Am I likely to need software for
this to work with a UK TV?

IC Test Card: Made by a Japanese company called Fairy, given the 20-pin ZIF
socket that (I assume) goes with this, I imagine it's a tester for TTL logic
chips. Most of the card's logic is buried beneath black gloop with black
cardboard over the top, so who knows what's under there - the 40-pin chip with
the 'test OK' sticker on it has had the markings ground off too. Anyone heard
of one of these or have software for one?

Vitalograph card: I gather Vitalograph these days make medical equipment.
Whether this card is from the same company or not I don't know - and ideas what
the 3-pin (XLR?) connector would have hooked up to? Some TTL on board, some
OP-amp chips. 40-pin chip is a 6522. All chips are date-coded 1980 or 1981.

Z80 Card: Actually a "Z80 Card II" made by Creative. Presumably software
exists for one of these somewhere still. No on-board memory, and 4 unknown
DIP-switches in the lower-right corner. CPU is Z80-A, card seems to have been
made in late 1982.

ROM Card: No idea what this is; presumably the 6 ROMs (2716 chips) contain
utilities that could have been accessed under software control? No idea what
the switch at the rear edge of the card does either.

80-column card: Marked as 'Chinex' and made by Creative, presumably necessary
software for this still exists somewhere? Any ideas what the 'middle' connector
(with no cable attached) is for?

ZIF-socketed card ("unknown_04.jpg" on the website): The ZIF socket is a
28-pin unit. I'd say it was a programmer, but wouldn't it need an external 24V
(??) supply if that were true? The 40-pin chip is marked as "S6821P", whatever
one of those is. The first 3 of the switches are labelled as '16', the next 3
as '32' and the last 4 (overlapping by 1 with the previous 3) as '64'.

Card with 8 LEDs and 4 empty 16-pin DIL sockets ("unknown_02.jpg" on the
website): Any ideas? Possibly a joystick controller or something and the
joysticks plugged in via the DIL sockets? The two 40-pin chips are 6522's.
There's a back of 8 DIP-switches on board, plus a switch in the top-right which
just seems to enable or disable the LEDs as far as I can see.

Card with remote pushbutton switch ("unknown_03.jpg" on the website): All TTL
logic on board, ROM is a 2716 chip. Underside is labelled "Wild card". Anyone
seen one of these or know what it is?

cheers for any help or pointers on the above,

Jules
Received on Thu Jun 05 2003 - 06:44:01 BST

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