• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Anyone else building an Apple-1 ?

Gary C

Veteran Member
Joined
May 26, 2018
Messages
2,256
Location
Lancashire, UK
As the title ?

If so, what are your intentions ?

I have a kit on the way with all the required IC's and what looks like a JCLPCB manufactured Mimeo clone PCB (from the German guy who did the replica manual)

Also ordered the Triad F40-X and F31-X as suggested in the original manual as both are still being made. Also got the original spec heat sink on order plus the original spec Sprauge new Electrolytic capacitors but they will be delayed until September while they are being manufactured (some same spec but radial connection caps will do in the meantime).

I know Uncle Bernie suggests adding several caps onto the +5V lines around some of the Drams and adding some terminating resistors under the PCB and I do think its probably a good idea to implement these mods to make the machine reliable, it probably would have been done in the day if it had been known about.

Not sure what to do with the keyboard or the case. I do have an Apple ][ keyboard without an encoder card and could just get the modern encoder replacement that includes an Apple-1 connection, that would be really simple but I might be able to get a vintage ASCII encoding keyboard with a numeric keypad but that wouldn't match the normal byte shop 'look'.

The case, I can't get Koa wood but some stained pine from Wickes might work, but I have also been looking at second hand solid oak dining room tables on Ebay which might work as a source of wood. I could go completely custom case of course but like a lot I think, I have the simple Koa case byte shop look in my head.

What are others doing/done/thinking ?

Yep, another project :)
 
Eeek, yep it looks the part (along with the Clair Pendar one).

but I'm looing for something vintage but maybe not quite so pricey :)

Apple just stated it needs any ASCII keyboard.
 
Those old GRI keyboards were something else completely unlike modern ones. Used a ring-shaped magnet around a sealed reed switch, precisely calibrated for actuation force. Probably works fine underwater. So they're not going to be cheap in any case.
 
Found a SD-16534 keyboard. From the same era using Hall effect SD keys and has a built in microcontroller producing ASCII codes. It does have a keypad but its from the right era so could have been used. Just hope it works.

I think first thing is to get a base board to build it all on, then fit a lid later once its working.

I will also need a 240/110V transformer because I'm using the original spec internal transformers

Still not had any parts delivered yet though.

Stupid to be so excited about building a computer that basically can't do anything :)
 
I got Uncle Bernie's IC kit (you can buy it via PM on Applefritter, its slightly cheaper than ebay and you won't have to bid against others) and the motherboard from the bloke who makes the perfect repro of the manual.

Original spec transformers (Triad ones are still made !) from Mouser along with the original heatsink and a back order for the original spec Electrolytic capacitors. Cant find the original closed & stamped IC sockets so gone with stamped and open frame ones.

Keyboard seems to be the hardest bit.

I have a couple of vintage options. I do have an Apple ][ keyboard without an encoder that could be fitted with the reactive micro encoder that works with the Apple-1, but that would render my second Apple ][ without a keyboard :(. I do have an ancient Micro switch (company name) ASCII keyboard that I might use.
 
This is on my wish list, but most likely next year. This years goal is clean up some the hoarde, find it homes, and get myself a mini-computer (something mid-late 70s, thinking s100 based). Right after that is an apple I replica on my list.(y)
 
It was the shift registers that convinced me to buy a set rather than trying to get chips individually.

But the unicorn kit for $666 without the ROMS makes the uncle bernie kits seem reasonable at less than half that (though its not got the transformers)
 
I remember Woz and Jobs pitching the thing at a Homebrew meeting: $666.66 back then. Most of us already had systems, so interest in a non-expandable board was lukewarm. Later on (ca 1977, I remember Apple setting up in an office building at the front of Bubb Road in Cupertino. We were on the other side of the street at 10101.
 
I remember Woz and Jobs pitching the thing at a Homebrew meeting: $666.66 back then. Most of us already had systems, so interest in a non-expandable board was lukewarm. Later on (ca 1977, I remember Apple setting up in an office building at the front of Bubb Road in Cupertino. We were on the other side of the street at 10101.

:) what memories, must have been an interesting time.

Did everyone else have S100 systems ?
 
I remember Woz and Jobs pitching the thing at a Homebrew meeting: $666.66 back then. Most of us already had systems, so interest in a non-expandable board was lukewarm. Later on (ca 1977, I remember Apple setting up in an office building at the front of Bubb Road in Cupertino. We were on the other side of the street at 10101.
The Altair 8800 seemed like pretty good value at $621 compared with that Apple 1 price.
 
A couple of the S100 owners (I had an Altair--still do) used a 6502 CPU card on their IMSAI systems, but I can't for the life of me remember who made it. I'd thought it was SSM, but maybe not.
 
The Altair 8800 seemed like pretty good value at $621 compared with that Apple 1 price.

The starter Poly-88 kit, which included the metal box and a far better video display system than the Apple 1 listed for $575 in early 1976. It was maybe a bit more comparable than an Altair 8800 to the Apple I given it included composite video output and a built-in ROM monitor instead of a front panel. (You could buy the VTI video card separately to chuck in any S-100 system for about $160 as a kit. Again, it was far superior to the Apple 1's built-in TV Typewriter, offering full high-speed memory-mapped video access with TRS-80 style 128x48 pseudographics.) Granted you'd be closer to a thousand bucks after you bought a memory card to add enough RAM to run BASIC, but it's arguably a lot more for your money.

(Some configurations of the Sphere 1 were also around that same price ballpark and theoretically went on sale in late 1975, *way* before the Apple 1, but the Sphere was kind of infamous in terms of the company actually delivering working hardware.)
 
Does make it seem insane.
Apple I came with 4K of RAM and video terminal built in though. This was a pretty strong selling point. $621 got you an Altair with a bunch of lights and switches, and you still had to buy RAM at $338 for 4K!!
 
Around December of 1975, I bought the "special deal" Altair kit. 8K of DRAM, SIO and CPU all for a measly $1000. You still needed a terminal to do anything useful. Still cheaper than a PDP 8/A back then.
 
Back
Top