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It sounded decent to me? Are there particular parts that are too quiet?

Yes, that's the hope! Although I guess if the drive head is already damaged you'd probably want to replace that as well.

Very true. It sounded like Karl Asseily was able to source a replacement but it just wasn't as good as the actual MC3470...

I bought a BUNCH of MC3470s. like in the hundreds. Those chips, after extensive tests, do perform better than the drive clones which do not have this chip. I will not get into the nitty gritty details because it can become a very lengthy subject, but suffice it to say that Motorola did an extremely thorough job in designing this chip. And I am not surprised Apple decided to go with this, as opposed to doing their own. You can still source the MC3470 from various places. But if(when) they become totally unavailable, I'll resort to an alternative option. But really, the people who still use floppies are very few and far between. But I am sure charmed by them !

Thanks for watching!

The developers put a lot of time & effort into the design and testing, so that's got to be factored in. But I certainly hear you - it's not cheap 🙂

@@CT6502 Agreed. I'm sure a lot of work and many prototype board were made and tested and parts scrapped. I get it, I've made PCB and shifted parts based on how things worked... I may still get one to be used for my Applesauce drive, just not today....

Very true! Thanks for watching.

I thought it sounded better - thanks for the explanation. Although maybe some people will miss the super loud drive noises 🙂

My pleasure! It's a great set of boards!

Well, I guess there's always eBay. Or come to KansasFest. Or run it in a browser: apple2ts.com

Unfortunately, no. I'm sure it's possible, just whether the team wants to put in the effort.

@@CT6502 bummer, still pretty awesome

Thanks for those tips - mine still wasn't working great and I wonder if that's part of the problem...

You're right, 80 x 48!!! I knew 80 x 24 didn't sound correct, but forgot to go back and verify. Thanks! I also found the directions confusing - I never did do any mapping, but I wonder if you made a map perhaps it would all start to make more sense?

Yes, I completely agree! Even if some people are only into arcade games or CRPG's, it's still great to see all of these new titles!

It's a Mockingboard sound card in slot 4, output to a pair of speakers. So it's definitely a setup you could have had back in the day.

Yep, I can imagine. I foolishly tried playing without pen & paper, but quickly started taking notes.

Yep! First thing I did was try the game in my emulator - luckily it looked great.

Hmm, probably not a coincidence...

Definitely! I was impressed.

You could try here: www.a2heaven.com/webshop/index.php?rt=product/product&product_id=125

@@CT6502 Thank you!

@@CT6502 Could you explain what the "main" file is that you put on the SD card to enable booting and where to get it? I am quite the noob, but I just got the adapter from Plamen and am anxious to start running programs and games.

@@RC-74 you can find detailed instructions here: ct6502.org/product/wdrive/ basically, you just need to download the zip file, and then copy the “wdmain.dat” file onto the root directory of your wDrive SD card.

@@CT6502 Thanks for your help, but for some reason even after I managed to get the files on the SD card and boot up the IIC, all I get on the computer screen is "check disk drive". The wdrive screen shows up with all of the .dsk files, etc. But I don't know what I did wrong to get the check disk message.

I should be getting more in stock in a few weeks/months, so maybe hold off a bit (just in case), but hopefully you can start tearing it apart soon :-)

@@CT6502 Awww, but I wanna tear it apart NOW! ;-)

@@Androctonus84 Just go for it. I'm 95% sure that I'll get more in stock. Be careful though, because like all tiny LCD's, it's pretty fragile. Please post comments (or a video!) with your rebuild!

Yes, I agree - there's lots more that could be done.

If they change the firmware to include ethernet, you would just need to update the firmware, you would not need a new card. I think the Booti should work just fine, but I have not done extensive testing.

@@CT6502 thanks brother. So would you need to get a usb ethernet adaptor to plug into this card? I dont see ethernet port on the card itself. thanks

@@sandyd6602 I guess? It doesn't have ethernet support yet, so I'm not sure how they might plug in the cable. I guess we'll have to just wait and see...

Hmm, I'm not sure - the keyboard had a few issues so it might have been difficult for ReactiveMicro to do tech support. I don't think it's going to be back in stock anytime soon...

Thanks for the heads up.

Do you what issues they were having with the keyboard? I hope they figure it out, it would be nice to have the ability to build completely new Apple II system.

@@jonlytle1725 I haven't tried the keyboard in several years but if I recall it was just flakey - some keys would just not work properly - it wasn't my soldering - I asked dfnr2 and it was a known issue. I think I did end up getting it mostly working but it wasn't perfect. Since I didn't actually need to replace my keyboard I just ended up putting it on a shelf.

@@CT6502 Thanks for the info.

cool, glad you enjoy the videos!

Hi Argentina, greetings from USA! I'm sorry that you are having trouble with the Caps Lock key. I found a close up picture here: www.applefritter.com/content/wtb-replacement-alps-skcc-caps-lock-normal-key-switches-apple-iie If that doesn't help, you might try posting on either the Facebook Apple II Enthusiasts page, or on the Slack Apple II Infinitum server. Best of luck!

yes, that would be good!

Sounds like you're well on your way. Best of luck with the repairs!

@@CT6502 Unfortunately, pretty much almost all of the wires are snapping off thanks to cold solder joints, and one of them snapped off so far inside I cannot get to without doing a full teardown which scares me, so it's being shelved for now since I don't have much time to dedicate for these projects.

@@term-827 Ugh, sorry to hear that. I hope you can get it working in the future. Just be sure to use a filter if you desolder those joints - they probably all used lead based solder.

Hmm, interesting idea but probably not. It doesn't have quite the same nostalgia for me that the Apple II does...

Yep, me too! Really wish my brother and I had had this when we were kids...

Definitely very cool!

Yes! Plus it’s cool that the FPGA card can simulate multiple cards in different slots.

I’m jealous, would love to see the Bayeux tapestry in person. I’ve seen the Book of Kells, which is impressive but you only see one page at a time 😀

@@CT6502 All you have to do is schedule a trip to Europe! I recently bought round-trip tickets for $630, so it can be pretty affordable.

Hmm, I don't recall where I bought it. I looked on my Amazon orders and it's not there. I do recall that it was just a bit big for the case opening, and I had to widen the opening with a dremel. So it wasn't perfect, and maybe it's better for you to just look on Amazon and find a different one.

No problem. Just wondered. Found one on Amazon that looks like it might work. Oh and thanks for replying.

Thanks for filling in that information - I should have pointed that out in the video. I'll add this to the show notes!

Thanks!

Arkanoid II and Rastan both use the Ensoniq chip for sound - that is not currently understood by the A2FPGA card - the sound just goes thru the motherboard speaker, not the powered speakers. If I had a stereo sound card like the "LiteSound" then I could certainly hook a set of powered speakers up to that, but I am hoping that the A2FPGA team adds support for the Ensoniq. For other programs, if you are using the A2FPGA card then you can use the DIP switch to toggle whether regular Apple II sounds go thru the HDMI or the motherboard speaker. With the A2FPGA card, Mockingboard sounds will always go thru the HDMI. So it is Ensoniq -> motherboard speaker always, Apple II $C030 sounds -> HDMI OR motherboard, Mockingboard -> HDMI always

Yes, the screen and menu definitely help. But you are right, Bluetooth is just a pain in general. At least this seems to work pretty well!

Thanks Dan!

Thanks!

Thanks for your comments. I think a lot more could be done with the ESP32 - let the community know if you build something!

@@CT6502 Thanks, will do. My channel has mostly robotic stuff. I have not posted any Apple/8-bit stuff yet. I plan to do a video in the future using the Lego control system, and programming in BASIC, as a means to do Home Lab, Home Automation, & robotics stuff.

Very true!

Well, that's an interesting problem. I didn't intend for the assembler in my apple2ts emulator to replace a full featured assembler like Merlin. I just added the assembler in apple2ts to make it easier to do some simple programs. I can certainly think about adding support for HEX. But note that "HEX" isn't a 6502 opcode - it's just something made up by assembler programs (like Merlin) to make it easier to input data.

Good question - it would obviously have to be a complete redesign of the board, but certainly doable. There is the Mockingboard 4c which came out a few years ago - that doesn't get you the HDMI or the Supersprite, but does at least give Mockingboard support...

Only the large version is available. The tiny one isn't officially discontinued but no one really seemed as interested - just too small! I agree with you about the bezel size, but since this is a hobby project, the tolerances are just not as "tight" - the case is a hard plastic, and it might be difficult to get a thinner border without switching to metal or going with a totally custom molded plastic, which would probably require a run of 10,000 rather than a dozen 🙂

No recent firmware updates. There would be a fair bit of work to support the IIGS. And Woz support would require floppy disk emulation which is much harder than simple ProDOS block reading/writing. But those would certainly be cool!

Yep, if you've got something that already works well, no need to spend the extra money.