Re: unknown card/ram/gsmodem?

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <4ktv22$s8j@kryten.awinc.com>,
Mike Sentlinger <none@awinc.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> 	I'm trying to get this iigs I picked up in working condition
> and have some questions for the ii gurus out there. First of all, I
> have the "APL B" printer card which I asked about a couple weeks ago.
> Thanks for the "PR#n" suggestion someone  gave me, which worked, but
> I still can't get it to work with appleworks. Is there some special
> parameter I have to set?

Nope.  The Epson APL B card is not compatible with a standard version
of AppleWorks.

AppleWorks checks the slot to see if there appears to be a valid ROM
there, by testing whether the contents of the $Cn00-$CnFF space is
stable (where "n" is the slot number).  The Epson card has an area
within this space which does not contain ROM (or the ROM changes - I'm
not sure which), which causes AppleWorks to think the slot is empty.

It is necessary to patch AppleWorks to get around this.  I tried to
set up a patch some time ago, but it didn't work.  I don't have access
to one of the cards, which makes it rather hard to track the problem
down more precisely.

> I have only 1 drive controller card in slot 6 (by the way, how do you
> change to your second drive from the " ] " prompt).

Assuming you are using DOS 3.3, you type:

CATALOG,D2

With ProDOS, "CATALOG" gives you an 80-column catalog, so you can use

CAT,D2

to change to the second drive and get a 40-column catalog.

You can also specify the drive on any other disk command, e.g.

RUN HELLO,D2

> Is there any electronic documents out there I could download on llgs basics?

The above isn't IIgs basics.  It is Apple ][ or ][+ basics, dating
back to 1979.

> 	I also have the "apple iigs memory expansion" card with only
> the 256k soldered in chips. What chips go in the rest of the sockets.

The same type as the soldered-in ones: 41256 (256Kx1) or equivalent.
You need to add chips in groups of eight, which will give you an
additional 256K bytes.  If you are not fully populating the card, you
need to make sure you add the banks in the right order (they may be
numbered on the board to make this easier to determine).  Make sure
the RAM you get has an access time of 150 nanoseconds or less
(41256-15 is 150 ns, 41256-12 is 120 ns, etc.)

If you can't get them from somewhere for free, your best option would
be to buy a new 4MB RAM card, which will cost about the same as buying
24 256Kx1 RAM chips (assuming you can get them at all), and give you
four times as much memory.

> Could I pull the ram out of an old ii+?

No.  The ][+ uses 16Kx1 RAM chips, and they are much too slow anyway.

> 	I also found some weird looking card in an old apple ii+ [snip]

Doesn't ring any bells.  It sounds like it might be an 80-column card
or some other kind of video card, but without some identifying marks
or a list of chips on it, I can't tell you much about it.  In any
case, it is not likely to be useful in a IIgs.

> 	And finally, I can't find a serial card anywhere to hook up a
> modem.

Why do you need a serial card?  The IIgs has two built-in serial
ports.  All you need is the right cable (and software).  The serial
ports have the same pinout as a Macintosh (SE or later), so you just
need to get hold of a Mac-to-modem cable.

> I was wondering if I could make or find an adapter to plug into adb
> modem port on the back of the llgs

You have the port names confused.  The ADB connector is the 4-pin one
under the power supply, and is labelled with a bus icon (three nodes
coming off a vertical bus).  The two ports at the other end of the
computer, labelled with a telephone and printer, are the serial ports.
They use Mini-Din-8 connectors.


-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand