Re: What is the best clock card?

[David Wilson <david@uow.edu.au>]

markREMOVE@syndicomm.com (Mark Percival) writes:

>On Mon, 04 Aug 2003 16:49:56 GMT, "Ernest"
><leucoplast@seanet.NOSPAM.com> wrote:

>>I know that there are several good clock cards for the Apple II but I was
>>wondering if there is one that is superior to the others?

>Interesting you should ask about this.  I recently found a source for
>"No Slot Clock" chips.

>What is a "No Slot Clock"?

>- It is exactly what it say it is.  It gives your Apple IIe or IIc a
>ProDOS compatible clock without the usage of a slot.
>- Yes they are still available.

>http://www.syndicomm.com/~mark/NSC.jpg

>From the photo above you can see that it is a clock chip inside of a
>28-pin ROM socket.  All you do is carefully pull a 28-pin ROM from
>your machine (CD or EF ROM), place the NSC into the ROM socket and
>then replace your removed ROM into the socket on top of the chip.
>Patch ProDOS, run the utility to set the clock and your done!

A more "Apple approved" way is to have a NOSLOT.SYSTEM file on your boot disk
that installs the driver into the same RAM that holds either the //gs clock
driver or the ThunderClock driver (and then executes the next .SYSTEM file
it finds).

Of course at this point there will never be another release of ProDOS 8
from Apple so we do not have to be forward compatible but this method
would work for ProDOS 1.0.x to 2.0.3 without needing mods.

>I am considering doing a group purchase of these.  I'm not sure what
>price we can get them for but I'd guess for around $20 + postage each.
>I won't know for sure until I know how many people are interested.

Maxim's shop lists the prices for the DS1216E as:

1-24	$23.26
25-99	$18.35
100-999	$15.11
1000+	$12.40

>These will work in any Apple IIe (enhanced or not), IIc or IIc+.  The
>lack of a 28-pin ROM in a II or II+ prevents it from working there.

If you have a suitable peripheral card in a slot it could be done.

>I recently picked up one to try and put it in my Platinum IIe.  Works
>great.  It also keeps track of the year so you don't have to patch
>ProDOS every 7 years.

I have a couple I bought from Tandy when they were getting rid of them.
I hope the batteries still work in the ones I have not used yet.
-- 
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia