new batch of 20 MHz Z80 cards

[Alex Freed]

The very slow boat from China finally made it to California so I have
the new batch of the PCBs. Apparently I have all the parts for a few
boards and it's easy to get more from DigiKey. So now's a good time to
send a payment if you want one.

My account is associated with an address alex_paypal at the domain you
already know.
The kit with a programmed CPLD, PROM, a 20 MHz Z80 and all the parts is
$60 plus $5.80 domestic priority mail.

-Alex.

[Howard Poe]

I ordered one. It'll be interesting to compare with my vintage Applicard.

[Chuck Morris]

i also ordered a kit, assuming I got the domain name correct. Never having assembled such a kit, I'll be inordinately pleased if I can get it right. Sounds like a fun thing to try regardless.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 03/15/2013 12:35 AM, Howard Poe wrote:
> On Thursday, March 14, 2013 4:42:53 PM UTC-7, Alex Freed wrote:

>> The kit with a programmed CPLD, PROM, a 20 MHz Z80 and all the parts is
>>
>> $60 plus $5.80 domestic priority mail.
>

> I ordered one. It'll be interesting to compare with my vintage Applicard.

I predict you will notice quite a difference! Particularly if the host
computer is running an accelerator.

[Howard Poe]

I guess I'll have to try it on my Rom 03 GS with the Microdrive Turbo and Zip GSX.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 03/15/2013 12:00 PM, Howard Poe wrote:

>>> I ordered one. It'll be interesting to compare with my vintage Applicard.
>>
>> I predict you will notice quite a difference! Particularly if the host
>> computer is running an accelerator.
>
> I guess I'll have to try it on my Rom 03 GS with the Microdrive Turbo and Zip GSX.

That will be a very nice combination. You can use my ProPartition package to
setup a hard drive volume and boot the system out of ProDOS. Let me know if
you have trouble finding it.

Steve

[Alex Freed]

Update:

the so called 20 MHz CPUs I got from China proved to be fakes. They
don't run at 20 MHz but do work at 12 MHz. So they are not broken, but
apparently re-labeled parts.
Not to worry. I have ordered more from Future Electronics.
I'll wait for the real parts before shipping anything.


-Alex.

[Marcopolo]

Le 16/03/2013 00:04, Alex Freed a écrit :
> Update:
>
> the so called 20 MHz CPUs I got from China proved to be fakes. They
> don't run at 20 MHz but do work at 12 MHz. So they are not broken, but
> apparently re-labeled parts.

> -Alex.
>

For our information, it could be usefull to say us where you bought your
fake Z80?

Could you post a photo?

A good site on counterfeit components:
http://www.aeri.com/detection-of-counterfeit/

Marco

[Steven Hirsch]

On 03/16/2013 04:49 AM, Marcopolo wrote:
> Le 16/03/2013 00:04, Alex Freed a écrit :
>> Update:
>>
>> the so called 20 MHz CPUs I got from China proved to be fakes. They
>> don't run at 20 MHz but do work at 12 MHz. So they are not broken, but
>> apparently re-labeled parts.
>> -Alex.
>>
>
> For our information, it could be usefull to say us where you bought your fake
> Z80?
>
> Could you post a photo?

Seconded. I'd like to know who to avoid.

> A good site on counterfeit components:
> http://www.aeri.com/detection-of-counterfeit/

Thanks for the tip!

[Olivier Zardini]

On 15 mar, 00:42, Alex Freed <alex_n...@alexfreed.com> wrote:

> My account is associated with an address alex_paypal at the domain you
> already know.
> The kit with a programmed CPLD, PROM, a 20 MHz Z80 and all the parts is
> $60 plus $5.80 domestic priority mail.

What would be the shipping cost for Europe ?

Regards,

Olivier

[Alex Freed]

Shipping to EU:

If I use standard priority US mail, it's about $9 as I recall, but there
is no tracing. The good news is that in my limited experience the mail
always get there. Traceable parcels, UPS, etc. are unreasonably expensive.

BTW more people sent payments than originally expressed an interest. So
please confirm by e-mail there are boards left before rushing to PayPal.



-Alex.

[Sean Fahey]

Hi Alex - I'm returning from vacation today. Did you set aside 2 cards for me or is ordering first come, first serve?

[Olivier Zardini]

On 16 mar, 19:39, Alex Freed <alex_n...@alexfreed.com> wrote:
> Shipping to EU:

> BTW more people sent payments than originally expressed an interest. So
> please confirm by e-mail there are boards left before rushing to PayPal.

I'm interested, but I'm not in a hurry. So if there are no card
left on this run, that's fine. I can wait for another turn.

Of course, if you had a web site where I can grab information like
the # of cards available, date of next batch, shipping information and
waiting list, that would be perfect.

Olivier

[Alex Freed]

On 3/17/2013 11:10 AM, Olivier Zardini wrote:
>
> Of course, if you had a web site where I can grab information like
> the # of cards available, date of next batch, shipping information and
> waiting list, that would be perfect.
>

I guess a bit of a clarification is due. I don't run a business. I mean
I do, but it has nothing to do with selling Apple boards. I made one
batch of cards about 4 years ago. When a number of people recently
asked, I agreed to order more PCBs.

$60 is a lot for electronics, right? You can buy a brand new DVD player.
If they are mass produced. With these boards I'm not making a minimum
wage even though all the design is already done. It just barely puts me
in the positive territory. I'm buying a lot of parts for my business
that I write off the taxes. With a tiny "profit" I don't have to
separate business purchases from hobby ones for accounting purposes.

The bottom line is there will not be an on-line store of any kind and
very unlikely any more boards made. However the design is open and
anyone is welcome to make your own. Obviously ordering a single PCB is
not cost effective. That's why I had offered to order a second batch.
The somewhat tricky part is programming the CPLD and PROM as it requires
special tools. Which is another reason I did what I see as mostly a
service to the Apple 2 community.

After I get the CPUs and mail the kits to everybody already on the list
I'll post the number of boards left if any.

-Alex.

[Olivier Zardini]

On 17 mar, 19:49, Alex Freed <alex_n...@alexfreed.com> wrote:
> On 3/17/2013 11:10 AM, Olivier Zardini wrote:
>
> >     Of course, if you had a web site where I can grab information like
> > the # of cards available, date of next batch, shipping information and
> > waiting list, that would be perfect.
>
> I guess a bit of a clarification is due. I don't run a business. I mean
> I do, but it has nothing to do with selling Apple boards. I made one
> batch of cards about 4 years ago. When a number of people recently
> asked, I agreed to order more PCBs.

I don't see the link between running a business and having web
site. I have a web site but I don't do any business with it. I have a
web site because it is the most convenient way, today, to share
information with others, espacially when this information may interest
people more than 2 days. Posting stuff on csa2 is efficient to annouce
or to link but hoping to publish inofrmation for a long term usage is
complex due the poor search engine and the fact that the primary
information may be surrounded by noise or split into sevral different
topics.

If you want news about the clone of the Transwarp, you have to
search into 2 / 3 topics and about 70 messages to extract what you
really care about, which is :
- Technical information about the product
- Price / Shipping cost
- Date of availability
- # of card available in the frst batch
- e-mail address or web site URL of the guy

So, yes, sometime a Web site is a better option than a post.

Olivier

[Alex Freed]

On 3/17/2013 1:15 PM, Olivier Zardini wrote:
>
> I don't see the link between running a business and having web
> site.

I do have a page with technical info about this board.
I'm not planning to put any sales related information there.
There is not likely to be any more runs. There is no waiting list.

-Alex.

[Leandro Polimeno]

Alex,

Please ... how many left ?!? Shippinf cost to Brazil, is ?!?

Regards,

Leandro Polimeno

[Ralf Bürki]

Wishing you all a happy new year!

I've been an avid Apple II fan for 40 years and that's why I bought a PCPI-Z80 card with 20 MHz from GGLABS a few weeks ago.
Therefore I wanted to put Steven Hirsch's ProDOS / PCPI-CP/M hard disk driver into operation.

Unfortunately I can't find any working ProPartition disks - the versions on asimov.net are broken and the Apple-CPM group page on yahoo (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/applecpm) is down.
Otherwise I cannot find any working ProPartition disks on the Internet.

Can somebody please provide me the ProPartition floppy disks and the current drivers for the PCPI-Z80 card?

That would be super nice!

Thank you and best regards
Ralf

[Eric N]

I have the working pro-part software and I also recently published a walkthrough for installing a bootable CP/M system on the Applicard. The walkthrough and links to download the software are located here:
https://planemo.org/2020/06/18/bootable-cp-m-system-on-the-cffa3000-compact-flash-hd-for-the-apple-ii/

The link to the software is at the .zip file link at 'What You Need, Item #7' in the walkthrough.

Good luck,
Eric N.

[Wyatt Wong]

Someone told me that the pcpi_intf.v file downloaded from https://web.archive.org/web/20120518100741/http://alexfreed.com/FPGApple/Applicard.html is NOT a complete version. Would it be possible to read out the binary code from the XC9536XL Xilinx chip so I can make the card ?

[Wyatt Wong]

On Friday, 15 March 2013 at 14:23:41 UTC+8, Chuck Morris wrote:
> i also ordered a kit, assuming I got the domain name correct. Never having assembled such a kit, I'll be inordinately pleased if I can get it right. Sounds like a fun thing to try regardless.

Do you still have the kit to program the CPLD in the Applicard ?