Re: Franklin Ace 2000

[chucko4@aol.comeatspam (ChuckO4)]

>  Another thrift store find. I've went and bought what is my 5th apple2,
>depending on whether you are a purist or not. A Franklin Ace 2000, 

  Dunno what number apple2 type machine it is for me but I just came across an
Ace 2200 in much the same manner.

>On the inside, it has 2
>expansion slots (completely compatible with a2? partially? something
>different?)

 I'm guessing that they're as compatible as you could get in a machine that was
an apple //e "compatible".  I'm looking at mine now and I see one labeled S2
and the other labeled S4/S7.  I'm guessing the s4/s7 slot was in some way
switchable.

>and another square board on standoffs. This board has a ribbon
>leading to a DE9 connector. No idea what it is, but my guess is either a
>mouse card, or possibly just plain serial.

  Hmmmm...  Now that's a thought..  I was thinking some kind of RGB adapter
board.   My 2200 came with a cable attached  that was terminated with a DIN8
connector.  It reminded me of a cable that I had for an old Magnavox
RGB/Composite monitor.

>A second board on standoffs
>appears to be a memory expansion board (also possibly 80 column?).

  Yup..  Definitely memory expansion and 80 column.

>The only
>other item of note, is a side mounted card edge bracket, in 2 pieces. Not
>quite big enough to be ISA, and I have no clue what it might be.

  It was for an external box to house a few more slots/cards.  Again consulting
the silkscreen mask on the board we find the large one labeled SLOT EXP and the
small one labeled SLOT DECODE.  I'm guessing the EXP slot carried all the lines
that were common among all the slots and the small one just had the lines
needed to address the slots.

>Anyone have any interesting tidbits about this machine?

  And its just these tidbits that I'm looking for as well.   Permit me to make
a few more observations.    On the back of the machine is a set of 4 dip
switches labeled "Option switch".  In my case switch 1 is down/on the other
three are up/off.  What is the pupose of these switches??  On the motherboard
over near the external expansion slot are two jumpers labeled JP7 and JP8. 
Could these be used to set which slot the s4/s7 is??  I just did a little more
looking on the board and it would appear that my suspicions on the RGB board
may be correct..  The connector that the card hooks to on the motherboard
appears to be labeled RGB.  That being said, the "RGB" card has 8 jumpers on
it.  All of mine have jumpers except 1 and 4.  Any ideas on these??   Last but
not least does anyone have a clue about the pinout on the power connector?? 
Sadly the power supply that came with mine appears dead.  :-(    Any info would
be greatly appreciated.  Perhaps this info could be added to the FAQ???   


>Cost: $3.98

  Mine was $6 but it came with the original packing box (a bit beat up) and
what would appear to be the original joystick.  :-)

Thanks much
Chuck O.