Ancient Boards

[ftit@engin.umich.edu (Sergej Roytman)]

I've got some ancient boards on my (equally ancient) ][+, and have no
idea how to make them work!  Perhaps someone here remembers some small
detail that could help me -- I certainly hope so; I've nearly got a
well-loaded machine here!

First-off, does anyone know where I can get documentation for a Hayes
Micromodem //e?  I've got one in my computer, and it seems OK -- there's
no crashing or fireworks on boot-up, and the ROMs seem to contain valid
code.  Only problem is, how do I talk to it?  The thing only goes to
300 bd, so I think that even a simple BASIC program might be enough to
do some stuff with it, with assembler coming later so I don't feel too
ashamed of myself :-).

Second, my 80-column card brings the machine to a grinding halt whenever
it's installed.  This happens no matter which slot it occupies, even if
it's downstream of the disk controller.  The screen blanks, the disk
drive rolls its eyes and plays dead -- the works.  Any ideas about this?
There's no clicking coming from the power supply, so I don't think it's
anything as straight-forward as a short.  An 80-column card seems to be
necessary to run Kermit, by the way, so this ties in quite nicely with
my first problem.

Last, one of my Disk ][s doesn't work.  It spins up OK, but the head
won't move.  As far as I can see, the head's stepper motor's signals
go from the Disk ][ interface to the UNL2003 driver directly to the
motor.  The interface works with another drive, so it must be either
the IC or the motor.  Is there an easy way to tell which it is?  I know
that the easiest way would be to get a new chip and try it out, but we
have finals here at umich.edu, and I really can't make it out to the
electronics store.  Also, I'll be leaving this city for good after this
term and the trip will not be possible again.  I'd like to make pretty
durn certain that I'm making the trip for the right part.  This also
begs the question, is this chip still called UNL2003 or does it have
a 74xx number?  And what's the modern equivalent of the stepper motor
used in the Disk ][?  Ah, so many questions...

In case you're wondering, I got my current setup in bits and pieces from
various sources.  It's nearly at the critical mass where it can do
something besides look nostalgaic, but has these three problems which I
can't solve.

I'd be grateful to anyone who can dredge up some old bit of knowledge
about ][+ trivia and share it with me.  Something this well-documented
just begs to be used in hardware projects, if only it can be gotten to
work.

-- Sergej Roytman