Laser 128

[bugman2112]

I just purchased a laser 128 and I was hoping someone could help me. I understand that it has an expansion slot to use apple ii cards. The manual says an expansion box is needed which then can house two apple cards. I have read some posts saying you can plug one card directly into the port without a box. But the box had external power, so I would be hesitant to do that.

Does anyone have information on this expansion device? I cannot find one for sale. If I could find some schematics, I might be able to build one. SOme say it was just an extension of the bus, but I would hate to guess.


Thanks,
Brian

 

[david__schmidt]

I understand that it has an expansion slot to use apple ii cards. The manual says an expansion box is needed which then can house two apple cards.

You can plug one card right in the side of the Laser (the card will kind of hang out there in space with nothing to keep you from touching it). There is a protective plastic cover on the expansion slot, but you can remove it and recognize the familiar connector. So, you get one for free. If in fact you want to plug two in at once, you'll need that elusive expansion box.

There's a switch on the bottom of the computer (behind the ROM door) that decides if your expansion slot is mapped to slot 5 or slot 7.

Here's the manual for your Laser:
http://www.apple-iigs.info/doc/fichiers/laser128.pdf

 

[bugman2112]

The manual says that the expansion box provides protection, and takes some burden off the power requirements from the mother board. It doesn't come right out and say you can plug a single card into it (at least as far as I can tell, I didn't read every word yet). However, based on that theory, I suppose it would be safe to plug one in especially if I didn't have many other external devices attached drawing power. The worst thing that could happen is insufficient power and the computer to become unstable (I would guess!)

Thanks for your help.