umsmit72@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Kenneth G. Smith) (03/05/91)
I own an apple II+ which I use mainly to telecommunicate with
the mainframe at the university which I attend.
I have recently purchased an 80-col card (which is obsolete
now, I believe) for my dinasaur to simplify the display of
80-col text. The card isn't an original Apple card.
I was wondering if anyone could tell me where the small red
wire coming from the card is supposed to be connected to.
The person I purchased it from did not have an original Apple
but rather a 'clone', and he tried to tell me it is to be
connected to a transistor/resistor near the game port.
I could not locate the component he was refering to and ended
up blowing up my video in the trial and error process
(which I fixed with a simple chip replacement).
I believe that it has something to do with lowercase and shift
mod capapbilities, but I'm not really sure. I have a shift
key mod (wire) installed, and I can display lowercase and shift
key works, but I was wondering if anyone could describe where
this wire is to be connected soas I could possibly dispose of
the wire shift key mod and/or possibly utilize any other
enhancements this card may be able to produce.
Thx,
Ken
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= umsmit72@ccu.umanitoba.ca =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean
you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar."
----------------------------------------------------- Edward R. Murrow --toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (03/05/91)
Question. Do you have any trouble turning the card off when you go into graphics mode or otherwise? The card I have has an option where you can connect a wire to it and one of the chips so it will turn off when you go into graphics modes. Does the board have any markings, names, copyright notices, etc. ? If we knew who made it (Videx maybe, they were the original standard -- Apple never made an 80 column board for the //+, just the //e) we might have some clue as to what it was for. It may well be for the shift key mod, but if you don't have any trouble using it then I wouldn't worry about it. Todd Whitesel toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu
umsmit72@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Kenneth G. Smith) (03/05/91)
I previously posted an article (Apple II+ 80-col card wire) and was
asked to identify my card somewhat in order to assist those who are
willing to help. The only problem here is that the card has
no markings. Two things that I found rather distinctive about it
were: 1) has rather large (~42 pins) chip #HD6845SP
2) has three white (?) Mitsubishi chips; 2 - #MB8516, 1 - #MBM2716
Also, I found it rather odd that the RCA-type video jack points
toward the front of the computer rather than the back (although I don't
really know whether or not this is actually peculiar since I have
never actually seen another one of these beasts). This small red
wire in question connects to the card right below the jack. Does
this ring a bell with anyone, yet?
As for the question asked about turning the card off for graphics
mode or otherwise; it seems to deactivate (via pr#0) alright, but
I haven't ran any graphics as of lately (I'll have to try some).
You see, most of my DOS 3.3 stuff doesn't seem to load quite right
since I blew up my video trying to hook up this damn wire (granted
that's a whole different problem, though!), and that is what most of
my current graphics stuff is written under. Actually, I find it rather
odd that the DOS 3.3 "HELLO" programs seem to bomb on "TEXT" cmd
(possibly related to the card or it's wire?).
Any help in diagnosing this problem would be greatly appreciated
(since whenever you talk to someone at Apple about problems related
to my dinasuar, they just act like there's really no point talking
about AppleII+'s anymore or they 'forget').
Thx,
Ken
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= umsmit72@ccu.umanitoba.ca =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean
you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar."
----------------------------------------------------- Edward R. Murrow --sb@pnet91.cts.com (Stephen Brown) (03/19/91)
umsmit72@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Kenneth G. Smith) writes: > >I previously posted an article (Apple II+ 80-col card wire) and was >asked to identify my card somewhat in order to assist those who are >willing to help. The only problem here is that the card has >no markings. Two things that I found rather distinctive about it >were: 1) has rather large (~42 pins) chip #HD6845SP > 2) has three white (?) Mitsubishi chips; 2 - #MB8516, 1 - #MBM2716 The HD6845 is a Hitachi 6845 CRT controller. I think the Videx card works better with the Hitachi part than it does with the Motorola part. The three white chips sound like the EPROMs (eraseable, programmable, ROMs) -- these contain the firmware (the one by itself), and the bit maps for the characters (the two at the top). One of these character generators contains the "normal" characters; the other contains the "alternate" (graphic, dim, inverse, or foreign) character set. They're either 2708's or 2716's. The latter were commonly used because they were cheaper. >Also, I found it rather odd that the RCA-type video jack points >toward the front of the computer rather than the back (although I don't >really know whether or not this is actually peculiar since I have >never actually seen another one of these beasts). This small red >wire in question connects to the card right below the jack. Does >this ring a bell with anyone, yet? Some cards had a built-in softswitch to make it easy to switch between 40 and 80 columns. I'd have to see the card, as there were so many different 80 column cards in the golden days of the II. >As for the question asked about turning the card off for graphics >mode or otherwise; it seems to deactivate (via pr#0) alright, but >I haven't ran any graphics as of lately (I'll have to try some). >You see, most of my DOS 3.3 stuff doesn't seem to load quite right >since I blew up my video trying to hook up this damn wire (granted >that's a whole different problem, though!), and that is what most of >my current graphics stuff is written under. Actually, I find it rather >odd that the DOS 3.3 "HELLO" programs seem to bomb on "TEXT" cmd >(possibly related to the card or it's wire?). > Pr#3 will turn the card on. Pr#0 doesn't properly turn it off, unless you do a in#0 as well. (In deferred mode, these are DOS commands, and must be preceded by a chr$(4) or control-D). If you have the latest version of the firmware, then I think these control codes will be helpful: control-Z followed by 0 -- home cursor and clear screen " " " 1 -- turn off 80 column card completely " " " 2 -- select standard character set (right one) " " " 3 -- select alternate character set (left one) control-A shift lock for computers without the shiftkey mod. Stephen Brown, Toronto, CANADA UUCP: lsuc!graham!pnet91!sb INET: sb@pnet91.cts.com