What's this AppleIIGS card?
Joe Kohn
>fingerprint switch attached to it. If you press this switch during
>startup you get into a sort of typewriter application.
The FingerPrint GSi card is a hardware based screen capture utility. If you
see a graphics screen you like, just press the button and it will save the
screen to a file on disk. It's a little flaky with current versions of
GS/OS.
>Then there is an Echo II card installed. with an Echo box attached to
>it through the back plate. What is this card for? The Apple IIGS seems
>to have a built-in speak er anyway, and there is a sound-out port on
>the motherboard.
It's a speech output device. There's a utility disk that hopefully came
with it. Using it, you could have your telecomm program talk. It can be
used by someone who is blind to 'surf the net.'
>There is a weird "Adaptive Firmware Card" produced by Don Johnston
>Development Equipment Inc. Attached to it by cable is a box which sits
>on the side of the Apple IIGS case. The box has an on/off switch, a
>centronics socket and two mini-jacks label led "switch 1" and "switch
>2". What's it for?
You're kidding? You got all that for $30. The Adaptive Firmware Card is the
most amazing thing ever created for the IIGS, as it allows people with
massive disabilities to use the Apple II. Unless you're disabled, it's
basically worthless, but it's a liberating device for people that are
paralyzed.
It sounds to me like a person with disabilities owned the computer. Please
do not toss out the Adaptive Firmware Card. It'll help someone with
cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis to use an Apple IIGS. Please please
please, call your local Red Cross to find out which local organization
could make use of it.
I've seen people who can't talk and who can only move their head use an
Adaptive Firmware Card to communicate with the outside world, essentially,
for the first time in their lives! The AFC card is a miracle.
If you can't find anyone local, please send it to me and I will donate it
to the Alliance for Technology Access, a US organization, located in my
home town, who is working to get computers into the hands of people with
disabilities.
Joe Kohn
c/o Shareware Solutions II
166 Alpine St
San Rafael, CA 94901-1008
USA
Andrew Cripps
for $30. It came with some strange cards installed, and I would like to identify them.
In one slot, there is a "FingerPrint GSi" card, which has a little tiny fingerprint
switch attached to it. If you press this switch during startup you get into a sort
of typewriter application.
Then there is an Echo II card installed. with an Echo box attached to it through the
back plate. What is this card for? The Apple IIGS seems to have a built-in speaker
anyway, and there is a sound-out port on the motherboard.
There is a weird "Adaptive Firmware Card" produced by Don Johnston Development
Equipment Inc. Attached to it by cable is a box which sits on the side of the Apple IIGS
case. The box has an on/off switch, a centronics socket and two mini-jacks labelled "switch 1"
and "switch 2". What's it for?
Finally, attached to a socket on the motherboard labelled "Games" (board reference is J21),
there is a chip with a cable coming off it, out of the back plate and terminating in an
RJ45 adaptor. What the heck is it?
Please email with your responses.
Thanks for your help.
Andrew
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% Andrew Cripps _|\| |/|_http://www.mda.ca%
% Vancouver, B.C. > < CANADA %
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Joe Kohn
>
>Don Johnson still sells this . . . . . . for $485. Just got a new
>catalog two days ago.
I'm glad to hear that. If I remember correctly, they used to cost nearly
$1,000. Which of course sounds lot a lot of money, but isn't...considering
what an Adaptive Firmware Card can do for a person with severe disabilities.
When I wrote the first of two article for inCider/A+ about how people
with disabilities use Apple II computers, I visited a day treatment
center for people with cerebral palsy. What I saw there was simply
unbelievable, bordering on the miraculous. I met someone who was in his
30s who'd never really been able to communicate with other people...until
the center got an AFC. With a speech synthesizer connected to the GS, I
was able to talk with the person at great length. He responded to me by
tapping his adaptive keyboard with a mouth-stick, using AppleWorks
Classic. It really was something to see.
I've likewise visited the local Alliance For Technology Access workshop,
and they had AFCs on all the GSes they had. It was heart warming to see
kids with severe disabilities enjoying the same computer games I do.
The Apple II has really done a lot to make life better for people with
disabilities.
Joe Kohn
Publisher, Shareware Solutions II
(e-mail or finger jo...@crl.com for subscription info)
( or point your favorite web browser to )
( http://www.crl.com/~joko )
LA County Outdoor Science School
>
> >There is a weird "Adaptive Firmware Card" produced by Don Johnston
> >Development Equipment Inc. Attached to it by cable is a box which sits
> >on the side of the Apple IIGS case. The box has an on/off switch, a
> >2". What's it for?
>
> most amazing thing ever created for the IIGS, as it allows people with
> massive disabilities to use the Apple II. Unless you're disabled, it's
> basically worthless, but it's a liberating device for people that are
> paralyzed.
Don Johnson still sells this . . . . . . for $485. Just got a new catalog
two days ago.
Greg
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Los Angeles County Outdoor Science School - Colby Ranch site
Internet email: lac...@cello.gina.calstate.edu Phone: (818)792-0160
Please note: This is a multi-user account. If sending email to a
specific person, include their name in the subject line. Thanks.
JEBuckley
I believe the Fingerprint si is a parallel printer interface card. The
push button does a printer dump of whatever screen is being displayed (
text or graphics) It might not support the Super-hires screen.
Echo II is a voice synthesizer card. It predates the GS which has its own
different sound chip buit-in. It will work on a //e as well. Fair amount
of educational software for it.
Adaptive firmware card is for alternate keyboard device (which you
evidently didn't get) Used mostly in special needs education.
I don't know wht an RJ45 adapter is. The motherboard game port, in
addition to supporting game/paddle joystick inputs also provided 4 TTL
outputs. What this was used for, I don't know
Rod O'Brien
>In one slot, there is a "FingerPrint GSi" card, which has a little tiny fingerprint
>switch attached to it. If you press this switch during startup you get into a sort
>of typewriter application.
>
ble that can be hung outside the GS case with a fingerprint sign on it. You just press the fingerprint and it automatically captures=
an image for printing or saving.
>Then there is an Echo II card installed. with an Echo box attached to it through the
>back plate. What is this card for? The Apple IIGS seems to have a built-in speaker
>anyway, and there is a sound-out port on the motherboard.
This is an early external speaker card for the IIgs, I think it can be useful for games with soundtracks on them. Anyone else know?
Hope this helps
Toby Reiter
wrote:
> cri...@mda.ca (Andrew Cripps) wrote:
> >Then there is an Echo II card installed. with an Echo box attached to
it through the
> >back plate. What is this card for? The Apple IIGS seems to have a
built-in speaker
> >anyway, and there is a sound-out port on the motherboard.
>
> This is an early external speaker card for the IIgs, I think it can be
useful for games with soundtracks on them. Anyone else know?
> Hope this helps
I thought it was just made for the ][e?
___________________
|OBYLARONIOUS
*********************************************************************
Please feel free to send all appropriate offers for free Apple II items to tre...@comet.net. Offers of money accepted. IBM's (shudder) are not!
Tom Zuchowski
I have seen it used with some nifty front-end software which
enabled it to read the screen aloud. It is in wide use among
sight-impaired Apple users. There used to be a very active user
on GEnie who was blind, who used one of these.
TomZ
Tom Zuchowski
It is a regular slot card that will work in any Apple II. I used
to have one and used it in an Apple II+ running DOS 3.3.
TomZ
Will Baguhn
Rod O'Brien <ak...@lafn.org> wrote:
>cri...@mda.ca (Andrew Cripps) wrote:
>>Then there is an Echo II card installed. with an Echo box attached to it through the
>>back plate. What is this card for? The Apple IIGS seems to have a built-in speaker
>>anyway, and there is a sound-out port on the motherboard.
>
>This is an early external speaker card for the IIgs, I think it can be useful for games with soundtracks on them. Anyone else know?
>
>
>
>Hope this helps
>
Not quite. The Echo II is a speech synthesizer.
Steve Thomas
Reiter) wrote:
> In article <1996Feb17.0...@lafn.org>, Rod O'Brien <ak...@lafn.org>
> wrote:
>
> > cri...@mda.ca (Andrew Cripps) wrote:
> > >Then there is an Echo II card installed. with an Echo box attached to
> it through the
> > >back plate. What is this card for? The Apple IIGS seems to have a
> built-in speaker
I have an Echo][, an old dos 3.3 version, and it was a speech synthisizer
card for the // series. I don't know of a version made specifically for
the GS, but if you got the upgrade to the prodos software, it should work
on a GS.
Steve
Mitchell Spector
>
>The only use I have seen for the Echo II is as speech synthesizer.
This is the main purpose of the board, it can generate a
a typical synthesized robotic-like voice (unlimited vocabulary)
or a very realistic sounding human female voice using a limited
vocabulary of 700+ fixed words.
The Echo+ is also usable as a music and sound-effect board.
Like the Mockingboard, it has a pair of General Instruments sound
chips (AY-8913). Each chip has 3 voices and 1 white noise generator,
which can generate basic waveforms envelopes. There's two 1/8" phono-
connectors on the board, one for mono and one stereo output.
>I have seen it used with some nifty front-end software which
>enabled it to read the screen aloud. It is in wide use among
>sight-impaired Apple users. There used to be a very active user
>on GEnie who was blind, who used one of these.
It works great with the large amount of speech-supporting
software out there, but it doesn't seem usable as a Mockingboard
replacement. Perhaps it has to do with the fact it uses the GI
AY-8913 chip rather than the AY-8910? (Anyone know the differences
between the two chips?).
And once on the subject of the Echo card, has anyone out
there ever managed to get 'Echo+' emulation to function on their
AE Phasor sound card? AE claimed it could emulate one by configuring
DIP-switches, but it doesn't seem to work on my board. I guess I'll
have to keep both my Phasor and Echo+ since one cannot emulate the
other (the Phasor has four AY-8910 chips, one speech chip with a
socket for a second).
>TomZ
Mitchell Spector
spe...@vax2.concordia.ca
RUBYWAND
spe...@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) writes:
>
> The Echo+ is also usable as a music and sound-effect board.
>Like the Mockingboard, it has a pair of General Instruments sound
>chips (AY-8913). ....
>
> It works great with the large amount of speech-supporting
>software out there, but it doesn't seem usable as a Mockingboard
>replacement. Perhaps it has to do with the fact it uses the GI
>AY-8913 chip rather than the AY-8910? (Anyone know the differences
>between the two chips?). ....
The only difference between the AY-3-8910 and the AY-3-8913 is that
the '8910 is a 40-pin IC with two 8-bit I/O ports whereas the '8913 is a
24-pin IC with no I/O ports. Evidently, Sweet Micro Systems used the '8910
for its MockingBoards because it was the only '89xx Programmable Sound
Generator IC available at the time the first MB's were designed. No MB
uses the '8910's I/O ports.
If Echo uses the '8913 and, yet, is not MB compatible, the explanation
must be a difference in the way the two boards let the Apple II talk to
the PSG(s). MB's employ the 6522 peripheral interface IC to send data and
strobe the PSG command lines.
Rubywand