In the early 80s, the Apple II had was selling well but it was expensive. This is where foreign companies stepped in and started making clones. These machines were much cheaper but also illegal due to them using copied ROMs.
Here we have one of these clones but this machine is broken, very broken. So let’s try to get it working.
Small correction: It turns out Franklin did not have a clean-room ROM, and were eventually found to be infringing. There isn’t much detail about why Franklin was able to sell computers until 1988. See the pinned comment for more.
Part 0: https://youtu.be/31WAE83FPoE (SMMC video featuring this computer)
Part 1: This part!
Part 2: Coming soon
— Links
News report on these illegal clone computers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFjGq55BglM
Scan of schematics and photos of the clone PCB:
https://archive.org/details/apple-ii-clone-pcb-bare-overlay
Adrian’s Digital Basement Merch store:
https://my-store-c82bd2-2.creator-spring.com/
Adrian’s Digital Basement ][ (Second Channel)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbtwi4wK1YXd9AyV_4UcE6g
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— Tools
Deoxit D5:
https://amzn.to/2VvOKy1
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1602/.f
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
https://amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
https://amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
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Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
https://www.rigolna.com/products/digital-oscilloscopes/1000z/
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
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TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
https://amzn.to/2wG4tlP
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33000308958.html
TS100 Soldering Iron:
https://amzn.to/2K36dJ5
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MINI-Digital-OLED-Programmable-Soldering-Iron-Anti-static-Structure/113382669853
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
https://www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DSLogic-Basic-Analyzer-16Ch-100MHz-4Ch-400MHz-Xilinx-Spartan-6-FPGA/202543965672
Magnetic Screw Holder:
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https://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-magnetic-parts-tray-90566.html
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/14-16-18-20-24-28-32-40-pin-IC-Test-Universal-ZIF-Socket-Fs/303206721971
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
http://www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
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Heat Sinks:
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Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
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— Links
My GitHub repository:
https://github.com/misterblack1?tab=repositories
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA – Portland, OR – PDX Commodore Users Group
https://www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
— Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQVjwPsVFd8
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Intro music and other tracks by:
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source
Small correction: It turns out Franklin did not have a clean-room ROM, and were eventually found to be infringing. I can't find exact specifics about this as even Wikipedia lacks citations, but this seems to be the general consensus. Even this article specifically about the case lacks detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Franklin_Computer_Corp.
It talks about how Apple "won" in 1983 but Franklin continued to sell its very compatible Franklin Ace line until 1988, when "Apple was able to force Franklin to withdraw its clones by 1988." That doesn't exactly make sense to me — so If anyone can dig up more detail about how Franklin continued to sell large numbers of machines with supposedly infringing code, I'd love to know.
My dad told me once that there were vendors that sold the motherboards without ROMs as "replacement motherboards" for defective Apples and you just needed ROMS
Wow! A Laser! Haven't seen one of those since summer computer class in '92 where we learned to write a dice-roller in BASIC.
The Franklin ACE 1000 was actually an illegal clone. It was the ACE 2000 that included Franklin's first legal Apple-compatible OS.
What usually happens (Not sure back then, but certainly these days), is that the company (in this case Apple) will send out to a variety of suppliers a request for an example product that meets the specifications that Apple sends to them (Such as the Apple IIe case).
The suppliers then either come back with an example product or a 'can't supply', Apple then looks at each example that comes back to determine which supplier (or suppliers) they will use for the final product.
Now, the losing suppliers should then destroy the specifications that were sent to them, but hey, they just spent all this money setting up tooling to make the example product, like they are really going to let all that tooling go to waste.
So, they when Apple finally releases the product to retail, the suppliers who didn't win the contract and who didn't destroy the specifications, start manufacturing 3rd party products, just not officially endorsed or badged.
This then means that companies like Laser, etc… have a ready to go product that they can utilise.
Other ways it occurs is buying the retail product and then getting all the measurements, etc… to create your own clone of a particular part of it.
Fantastic that you put the board scans online, it looks to make fault finding and modding a breeze using the GIMP scans front and back overlay.
"ILLEGAL COPY"
The police are on their way :sirens:
(Come on, don't fall into the YouTube clickbait thumbnails pit)
Honestly it was painful to watch you stumble around blindly, I couldn't get past half way. Power, Clock, Reset, Data bus, Address bus are the first things to check and will find most faults. Try a paper clip next time.
Hi Adrian, I had strange problems with my 2e forty years ago. I found litz strands in the ground of one of the expansion ports. HIH…
You should complete that empty pcb. Might be interesting.
When I was a kid, I bought an Apple 2 clone like the one you have there with the keypad. That was many decades ago and it's since long gone (I had bought an Apple //e afterwards). Apple clones were on the market before IBM PC clones existed. Most of these Apple clones are long long gone. I found and picked up an Apple 2 clone (no keypad) which is so blatant that it actually says "apple computer" in apple's font on the badge. It's pretty funny.
the coco has a hires text mode (it might be part of extended basic included with the disk controller) with upper and lower case characters. i don't remember the command you type at the prompt, but it's really short… something like: mode(4)
i haven't typed it into a machine in 35 years or so… i don't remember the exact command
I love your repair videos `Adrian. That was a joyous experience 😀
There were Apple clones named peach, orange and even banana.
They were in magazines like Computer Shopper, Byte etc and they were all over the SF Bay Area here where I live and Apple was suing these clone makers like crazy back then.
As a test, replace chip f14. This is the 74ls259, which is not only controlling the display modes, speaker and tape but is also connected to the game io connector c040. Maybe a dodgy apple paddle ot joystick fried the chip. There is no chip protection. Also f14 is connected to a3
So China was pulling this stealing crap even back then. Sellers on eBay are making new PCBs for Apple II’s. Brand new, not NOS.
Wayback when I owned an 'Orange' a ][+ clone/copy. They had a storefront until they, without warning, they didn't. I imagine Apple smacked them out of existence
I wonder if any of those clone makers tried to be "fully legal" , by buying the genuine Apple ROM chips as spare parts through authorized servicing dealers and building them in? Or were the chips priced expensive enough to make this excersize uneconomical? Or was Apple catching on and disallowed mass sales of the chips? It would have been easier (and more ethical) for the hobbiest bare-board builder to just buy the ROM chip than copy a friend's?
Here is how you quickly find a short like the A3 to D2. Pick a ROM and take a resistance reading. It won't be 0 ohms, but something like 0.6 ohms. Then keep one probe on D2 and find A3 on another chip and take another resistance reading. If the resistance reading is higher, as in 0.7 ohms, you got physically farther from the short. If it's 0.5 ohms, you got closer. Keep going until you get the lowest number you can. Then keep that end of the meter lead on D2 on the chip with the lowest resistance number, then start over with A3. Move the meter lead to A3 on other chips, take a ohm reading, and find the point you got the lowest reading. It will often be near your D2 point. At then point you have the lowest ohm reading, is really close to your short.
If you break up the board into a search grid, you can speed up the process more. If you get a higher ohm reading on a chip on the upper left of the PCB then the lower right, then focus on the lower right.
That said, before doing the above, I check the user damageable things first. Like the card connectors. If the two shorted pins are near each other on a connector or cable, then they could have been damaged or shorted.
Thanks for keeping me entertained on the North Sea ferry service from Shetland to Aberdeen in the UK! Man shorts between data/address bus lines what a pain, maybe there's somewhere those traces run together or maybe that prototyping area has a bridge, oof could be lots of things, good luck, I'm looking forward to pt2, hopefully I'll be watching on dry land next time!
Extra points for reading the EPROMs and burning copies on an Apple II eprom programmer card 😂
Several of the Taiwanese cloners moved onto making cheap/nasty PC motherboards. Several of them are household names nowadays
I knew several people in the 1980s who would make buying trips to Taiwan . In general they got around Apple by importing systems without roms and burned them locally
A lot of these boards suffered from broken vias. I wouldn't trust any plated-through holes on them
There was a whole industry in Toronto, Canada selling "kits" from small computer stores. A "kit" could be as simple as a bunch of parts you put together at home as far as a whole set of components and a motherboard that you could solder yourself. They were rampant with names burned onto the roms other than "Apple ][" – (Orange, Banana, and a bunch of other variations). Most of the boards were blatant clones of the original board rather than re-engineered work-alikes. I guess these kits got around some of the import restrictions as they had no roms onboard (but the guy in the store would include a set under the counter).
What the heck is "super mini mail call"…
If all the chips are socketed, make sure to check for pins bent under or sideways. The previous owner may have caused a new problem while troubleshooting an existing one, and you're discovering it now. I've seen a bent-under pin soldered to a plated through-hole pad that worked (not socketed) but in the process of getting bent under it cut cleanly through an unrelated surface trace running under the chip. Fun to find, relatively easy to fix.
Why are we still using the equivalent of stone knives and bear claws to diagnose circuit boards. An advanced diagnostic platform was depicted in 2001 (the movie) released in 1968. Vision systems today should be capable of recognizing where on a PCB a probe is touching and translate the view to highlight the trace on the schematic.
Another tool we should have in our test kit is a Hall effect current probe. While a voltage probe can tell you where a trace connects, the current probe can further refine the information and tell you the path and direction the current is flowing. Commercial Hall effect probes are rather pricy but the tech is simple so home brew solutions should exist.
The 2SC1815 transistor is a Japanese TO-92 pinout, with
E C B
But the 2N3904 is E B C.
That seems to be the reason why it tested good but didn't work in circuit. They should be replaced with the 2N3904 which has slightly better switching specifications.
Thanks.
In the 80s I had one of the Apple versions and I sold it to a local school. I got plenty of money for it. Which enabled me to find anorther computer to find that needed repair.
This video made my stomach tickle because I literally loved that time when pretty much everything was "home brew". The community was much more tightly knit and everyone was willing to share. GREAT video!
You need a Toneohm! Low-ohms meter with a tone output, so you can chase around the board with the probes looking for the nearest place to the short just by listening to the tone. It's indispensable on the repair bench.
Having repaired a genuine Apple ][ Plus (rev RFI) that I purchased last year which had 11 separate faults I’m really enjoying this video and I’m looking forward to the next one (or two). I only used a logic probe and multimeter to find all faults and didn’t need to crack out the scope. Not all faults will necessarily be chips or components. I had several that were due to corrosion of pins. That book you used is awesome and was the one I used as it has all Apple ][ plus circuit revisions (just have to make sure you are using the right revision). In your case there is that extra difficulty factor of it being a clone with some variations from the book.
I have a multi-board Space Invaders machine where the CPU reset pin was shorted to Address line 15 of the CPU. A15 isn't used by the software but was pulsing due to the CPU reset watchdog circuit. That was fun to track down!
Funny, I have a Franklin (complete with monitor) as well as a Laser but i don't have an actual Apple… lol
Congratulations for the tenacity Adam, I would check on the new pcb without components if there is already a short circuit! At this point it could be a manufacturing defect of the pcb. greetings from italy.😅
Apple II has interleaved memory access. With the bus transceiver disconnected, you will still see activity on the address lines because the video generation logic generates addresses on the odd phase of the clock. The whole purpose of the bus transceivers is to ensure the CPU is off the bus during video/slot DMA.
this is like Mr. Carlsons Lab, but hip with class. we've all blown up a chip, Mr. Carlson… you arent fooling anybody.
I was frequenting a Dutch electronic store which sold blank apple and later ibm pc PCBs like hotcakes. As there were only standard TTL ICs on those boards, people could just build them. The only proprietary chips were the roms, but nothing an eprom could replace…
Interesting thing is, Apple made the computer very open with the slots, and then went snobbish by closing their systems totally down.
The one thing I seriously want to do is fabricate clones of some motherboards that used the NiCd batteries and have them use coin cells in place of them or only a header for a 4.5V battery holder. For example, the one Jetway 3/486 board I have (or had, cannot recall if I still have it or not since I cleared some clutter out of my room recently) was under heavy battery leakage/corrosion and a lot of traces were damaged and repairing it was complicated and it almost worked. I have a working one that had 2 small drips, but I got it cleared up and it runs great.
Heck, even for OEM system motherboards, I would do the same thing.
This system having chips from different makers everywhere makes me think of some of my projects… XD
I'll use whatever parts work! (that goes for more than just chips)
Guessing vintage computer repair isn't something you should do for the money, am I right?
Love the video's but please try to cut down on the irellevant manic forced laughter it ruins it
milliohm-meter was (still is?) the solution to locate shorts back in the day. Much more complicated or funny (it depends) to repair is the Galaxian pcb. It's a computer and a lot of innovative TTL hardware solutions to have a smooth game on a Z80
Could you please, please, pretty please take a look at the keyboard PCB? There's an outside chance it has the same board as mine, which had sanded chips. Quite a few got cooked when the PSU went bad. If it is the same and it works you're lucky. Partially because of rarity and partially because it had key combination based macros baked in.
Awesome. Never got anything this harry, but did encounter defective delay lines to memory chips on TRS-80 model-2's and thought abought solder shorting two pins of dip sockets.
Given how important the clock circuit is to the computer's operation, I would argue for removing all the non-IC sockets in that section and soldering everything.
Just me or did it feel like he wanted to say “clone wars “?
Taiwan was NTSC, and uses 110v @ 60hz for perfect compatibility with both US and Japanese electronics (120 and 100v, respectively).
I wish those old Apple IIs and/or clones were not so darn expensive. At least in Europe you rarely find working ones for less than 500€. Are they more affordable in the US? Maybe I should try and find one on my next trip over there