jasona@pro-europa.cts.com (Jason Asbahr) (05/31/89)
I think posting my general pleas reaches the most ears on this topic...
OK! I went flea-marketing last weekend and brought home a Novell terminal
and some Atari junk... Needing assistance and knowledge boosting!
The Novell Data Systems terminal is a two piece model (detached keyboard).
The part containing the CRT and support hardware describes itself as model #
850-19-005, serial # 779. The keyboard claims to be model Nexus I, serial #
697. The keyboard is a 119 key QWERTY (many fuction keys). On the back, the
terminal has three plugs: two RS-232 types (DB-256), one 9-pin that looks
like my //c's joystick port, and one long blue thing that looks like it would
accept a PC board or a big rainbow-colored cord. I bought this for only $7.50
from a surplus dealer and it seems to work. Any and all information would be
appreciated!
I also purchased ($3.50) a "Supercharger" for an Atari 2600. Made by
Starpath/Arcadia, it is like double-long cartridge with a walkman-earphone
plug on the end of a cord. The label instructs me to insert it into the Atari
and plug the cord into the audio output on my cassette player. I did that.
(Using Kitaro as the message... :) ) The screen showed a starfield with the
words "Rewind Tape" and "Press Play"... The only response I've received so
far is when I tuned the radio to weird sounding AM noise... This leads me to
believe that the Supercharger is meant to play DATA cassettes. (Wow) Does
anyone know about this toy or have Atari 400, 800, or 1200 cassettes to use?
(Public domain, of course...)
Thanks for the time,
-Jason Asbahr
-=-
UUCP: {nosc, uunet!cacilj, sdcsvax, hplabs!hp-sdd, sun.com}
...!crash!pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-europa!jasona
ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-europa!jasona@nosc.mil
INET: jasona@pro-europa.cts.com - BITNET: pro-europa.uucp!jasona@psuvax1jasona@pro-europa.cts.com (Jason Asbahr) (07/12/89)
Ok, here's a few questions for the Apple gurus...
o Is it possible to use an Apple ][e without a disk card in slot 6?
Without a disk card at all? (I have a //c, so I've never been
able to try :)...) If so, can it be "booted" from another computer...
say a Vax or another Apple?
o Hows does an Apple ][e deal with slots, anyway? As extra memory
locations? As just something-to-throw-data-at-with-firmware?
o In my //c tech manual it lists some differences between the //c
and the earlier models. The //c doesn't have an "internal game
I/O connectory (hence no game output)." Game output? Internally
controlled switches for blinking lights or some-such gizmo?
Anyone have any details on this?
Thanks a lot,
-Jason
-=-
UUCP: {nosc, uunet!cacilj, sdcsvax, hplabs!hp-sdd, sun.com}
...!crash!pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-europa!jasona
ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-europa!jasona@nosc.mil
INET: jasona@pro-europa.cts.com - BITNET: pro-europa.uucp!jasona@psuvax1secrist@msdsws.enet.dec.com ("Richard C. Secrist") (07/12/89)
; o Is it possible to use an Apple ][e without a disk card in slot ; 6? Without a disk card at all? (I have a //c, so I've never been ; able to try :)...) If so, can it be "booted" from another ; computer... say a Vax or another Apple? Yes, it simply boots into Applesoft BASIC, where you can use cassette for I/O. Of course if you burned your own ROMs it could boot into something else. The only alternative ROM product I know about is FORTH ROMs for a ][, ][+ (not //e,etal.). If you had some of alternative code stuck in a ROM at the disk card place you could boot into anything you wanted like a LAN or something. If you still wanted ProDOS though this would get sticky booting it after you downline loaded it, and then you'd have to have a net driver for it -- and you'd have to do all this without tramping on ProDOS in RAM, and not use his zero page locations, and so on... all this before you write the driver to use the net as a disk. Most schemes have a local disk to boot with and then share a central hard disk elesewhere for the big files. Check out the Apple SchoolBus for ideas, perhaps. ; o Hows does an Apple ][e deal with slots, anyway? As extra ; memory locations? As just ; something-to-throw-data-at-with-firmware? The slots are reserved places in the memory map at $Cn00, where 'n' is the slot number. User space runs through like $BFFF, and backwards from that are generally O/S buffers and what not. Firmware kicks in at $D000 through $FFFF, and then you're out of memory (so you bank switch). The //gs layered some kind of brain damage on beyond that. ; ; o In my //c tech manual it lists some differences between the //c ; and the earlier models. The //c doesn't have an "internal game ; I/O connectory (hence no game output)." Game output? Internally ; controlled switches for blinking lights or some-such gizmo? ; Anyone have any details on this? There is a 14-pin (16?) DIP socket in real ][s with annunciator ports that can be used to control gizmos -- the 9-pin on a //c is only a subset of reality. A friend of mine built a lights, swicthes, and joystick box that could be run off the port, turning on and off LEDs with peeks and pokes. Details are in the //e ref. manual, and the old, old red Apple manual that came with Rev. 0 Apple ][s (you could bit bang a slow serial line off of one, for example. rcs
dlyons@Apple.COM (David Lyons) (07/15/89)
In article <8907121655.AA02954@decwrl.dec.com> secrist@msdsws.enet.dec.com ("Richard C. Secrist") writes: [...] >The slots are reserved places in the memory map at $Cn00, where 'n' is >the slot number. User space runs through like $BFFF, and backwards from >that are generally O/S buffers and what not. Firmware kicks in at $D000 >through $FFFF, and then you're out of memory (so you bank switch). The >//gs layered some kind of brain damage on beyond that. Brain damage?? The Apple IIgs adds another byte to the address bus, so we have bank numbers. (This is not bank *switching*--it's actual directly- addressable memory.) Bank 0 is the regular 64K; bank 1 is the auxiliary 64K. Banks $E0 and $E1 are arranged just like 0 and 1 (including I/O space and language card space), because certain parts of them (screen memory) get shadowed by hardware (writes to part of 0 and 1 also happen automatically to $E0 and $E1). $E0/1 are special--they run at 1 MHz for the video circuitry. Banks 2-$xx (depending on how much memory you have) are plain 64K directly- addressable memory. Where's the brain damage? --Dave Lyons, Apple Computer, Inc. | DAL Systems AppleLink--Apple Edition: DAVE.LYONS | P.O. Box 875 AppleLink--Personal Edition: Dave Lyons | Cupertino, CA 95015-0875 GEnie: D.LYONS2 or DAVE.LYONS CompuServe: 72177,3233 Internet/BITNET: dlyons@apple.com UUCP: ...!ames!apple!dlyons My opinions are my own, not Apple's.
jac@paul.rutgers.edu (Jonathan A. Chandross) (07/16/89)
Question:
; o Is it possible to use an Apple ][e without a disk card in slot
; 6? Without a disk card at all? (I have a //c, so I've never been
; able to try :)...) If so, can it be "booted" from another
; computer... say a Vax or another Apple?
secrist@msdsws.enet.dec.com ("Richard C. Secrist") responds
> Yes, it simply boots into Applesoft BASIC, where you can use cassette
> for I/O. Of course if you burned your own ROMs it could boot into
> something else.
I worked for some biophysicists a number of years ago doing instrument
computerization. We used an Apple ][+ with a custom ROM board in slot
0. This board has (6) 2716's on it. We used to write our software in
Basic (with assembly where needed) and ROM it. When the thing powered
up it would boot from the ROM card. We used this to drive all sorts of
strange gadgetry.
You may laugh, but at the time it was the cheapest (and easiest) way to
computerize an instrument. The Apple had slots which we used for: an
16 bit DAC/ADC board and the ROM board I mention above. And we often
used the paddle port when we needed a lot of buttons. You see, the
paddle port gives a value proportional to the resistance of the paddle.
If you replace the potentiometer with a bunch of switches, each of
which has a different resistor attatched to it, you can sense a bunch
of switches very cheaply:
Pushbutton switch
__|__ Resistor 1
+5 |--o o----/\/\/\/\----------|
| | |
|---| __|__ Resistor 2 |------- To paddle input
|--o o----/\/\/\/\----------|
Say R1 = 50K and R2 = 150. Then you'll have values of (approx) 255
when R2 is closed and about 80 when R1 is closed. Obviously, you
can't have more than 1 switch closed at a time.
There are still labs which use equipment driven by Apple ]['s. In
fact, (as of 1988) there are a few spectrophotometers which use Apples
as controllers. But, of course, they don't tell their customers that!
Jonathan A. Chandross
Internet: jac@paul.rutgers.edu
UUCP: rutgers!paul.rutgers.edu!jacbrisinda@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Dale Brisinda) (07/17/89)
>There are still labs which use equipment driven by Apple ]['s. In >fact, (as of 1988) there are a few spectrophotometers which use Apples >as controllers. But, of course, they don't tell their customers that! >Jonathan A. Chandross Sounds great, how about giving us a small list of some well known spectrophotometers????
jac@paul.rutgers.edu (Jonathan A. Chandross) (07/22/89)
brisinda@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Dale Brisinda) >> There are still labs which use equipment driven by Apple ]['s. In >> fact, (as of 1988) there are a few spectrophotometers which use Apples >> as controllers. But, of course, they don't tell their customers that! > Sounds great, how about giving us a small list of some well known > spectrophotometers???? Whatever for? Are you in the market for one? I don't remember the names of the commercial ones, but we built a few using a standard grating, and a D/A board driving a stepper motor, and an the A/D to digitize the data from a photometer on the end of the grating. It isn't particularly difficult. Jonathan A. Chandross Internet: jac@paul.rutgers.edu UUCP: rutgers!paul.rutgers.edu!jac
rlw@pro-embassy.UUCP (Ron Wilson) (10/08/89)
Network Comment: to #91 by obsolete!aramis.rutgers.edu!paul.rutgers.edu!jac%rutgers.edu In fact, some the experiments performed on the space shuttle are controlled by (modified) Apple ][ computers.