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1. Embed this notice
   paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:37 JST paulrickards

   COPS 421 emulator board complete. This will go in the IO board and control keyboard and soft power functions.

   #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:35 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     An #AppleLisaClone side note: this may be a source for the weird open-side expansion board edge connectors.

     https://edac.net/series/737?fid_p=56&fid_8784=Dual+Row&fid_8785=P.C.+Tail&fid_8788=.550%22+%2813.97mm%29+Notched+Ends

     Mouser has the high-point contact short-tail version in stock. Almost $10/ea! O.o

     https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/587-737-056-525-206

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     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:35 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     I asked VintageMicros what kind of memory should be used in the SunRem 2MB RAM card. They sent this picture of SIMMs. The top module looks like the chips are NEC D41256L-12. The sticker says 70ns but doesn’t the -12 denote 120ns?

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

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     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:35 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Today I brought my rig over to Kennet Classic Computer Museum in Kennet Square, PA where Bill has a Lisa 2/10 that he graciously let me take apart to troubleshoot my #AppleLisaClone.

     #RetroComputing

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     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:35 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     I had a little trouble removing the card cage. There are small metal levers on the corners of the cards to aid in removal. One of them was sticking up too far and caught the case. Fixing that it slid out easily. There are two 512K Apple RAM cards in this machine. It has a VintageMicros sticker on the inside dated Nov 07.

     Let’s pop one of the RAM cards out and see if my rig throws the error 45 again.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:35 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Ok Apple 512K card installed in the #AppleLisaClone. Will it blend?

     #What RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:35 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Wowowowow the #AppleLisaClone just passed the startup tests and is asking for a disk!!

     This means my system (and especially the MMU) seems to be working! This also means the SunRem 2MB card may be faulty. Going to test it in the Lisa 2/10 later to confirm.

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Plugging in the IO board into the motherboard, the PSU doesn't automatically turn on. But this is good, because it's soft power!

     However, grounding the /PWRSW line on the motherboard floppy connector does not turn on the system. Hmmm.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     The COP421 emulator is powered by +5v standby to manage time of day and soft power functions. At the PSU, it measures 5.3v. At the COP421 emu, it measures 4.7v. This is still in range of the COP402 (4.5 - 6.3v). My PSU delivers 1.8A of +5v standby.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Probing pins 1 and 2 of the COP402 (which are the clock pins) I'm getting just high and no pulsing. Does the issue lie with the COP402 microcontroller or with the crystal circuit (which is on the IO board)?

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Some progress on the #AppleLisaClone today.

     -Received a new COP402 processor to replace the COP402M (microchannel version).

     -Replaced the two new W65C22N with real MOS 6522 chips (from a 1541 floppy drive!)

     -Replaced a 74HC132 with a proper 74LS132 (IO board clock).

     With that, soft power now works the way it should!

     Next problem: it gives a single beep at startup with a scrambled screen (see video). Fault: CPU or RAM?

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     It’s been a while since the last #AppleLisaClone update, but I’ve been busy behind the scenes.

     First, the W27C512 to 6309 PROM adapters came in and they seem to work just as well as the hand built versions, just smaller.

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Next, I designed a board to plug into the #AppleLisaClone motherboard that breaks out the keyboard jack, power switch, power LED, and floppy drives. This powers on the Lisa as expected!

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Finally, I obtained a bare 2MB SunRem RAM card and the parts to build it up. It uses 8x256K parity SIMMs.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • DosFox

     So when you combine all of these things together, the #AppleLisaClone has shown the first stable screen and begins to do the self test!! Signs of life! This is a huge step forward.

     Many thanks to @DosFox for the guidance along the way!

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Anyone have experience with the RGB2HDMI project (based on a RaspPi)? I’m trying to figure out how to use it with the #AppleLisaClone to get a better video out. I see it’s supported but I can’t find a wiring diagram.

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • 48kRAM

     Thanks to @48kRAM for the tip on wiring the Lisa to a RHB2HDMI (use the monochrome analog YUV connector (shield to pin 1/GND, video to pin 4/V). I’ve got a picture, but I hope to be able to improve this as the halftone pattern really rings.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Hey that’s not bad looking! There’s a dizzying number of settings in RGB2HDMI so it takes a lot of time trying things, back tracking, etc.

     This is a repurposed iPad LCD with an external driver. I think it’ll make a fine display for the #AppleLisaClone.

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • DosFox

     Ok, display sorted out, now to the next big hurdle. The #AppleLisaClone is throwing a error 45 which is a “bus error” and it happens as soon as RAM is being tested. So, @DosFox and I suspect the issue lies on the new RAM board.

     I’ve tested the SIMMs in a Mac Iix and they work. I’ve also pulled all of the TTL chips and they tested good on the Chip Tester Pro.

     Kinda stuck at this point. Having another RAM card would be very useful now.

     Ideas?

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Current status.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     A couple of posts about troubleshooting bus errors in a Lisa.

     https://lisalist2.com/index.php/topic,263.0.html

     https://lisalist2.com/index.php/topic,266.0.html

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Deep diving into buss error handling by reviewing the previous posts and the Lisa Boot ROM assembly.

     http://bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/lisa/firmware/Lisa_Boot_ROM_Asm_Listing.TEXT

     If I understand this correctly, memory $282 should hold the address that caused the bus error. In my case, I get

     282 0002 0000

     which I think is $020000 (high byte is ignored). Does that mean the problem is occurring at position 128kbytes in the RAM card? Not sure how to map that to a component/components yet.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Using the service menu and the display memory command 01FF00 with a length of 100 shows the contents of memory just fine.

     As soon as I cross the boundary into 020000 (say, with display memory 01FF80 length 100), the machine abruptly reboots and beeps twice (lo/hi).

     Is this a RAM card problem or a MMU problem?

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     It seems the Lisa thinks it only has 128Kbytes of memory, according to these memory locations ($294-297 maximum physical address and $2A8-2AB total memory). Need to look into the boot rom to see how memory size is determined.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • iconicbits

     This is curious: @iconicbits also has a SunRem 2MB card that hasn’t worked either. And combined with an Apple 512K card, was also able to produce an error 45.

     https://mastodon.social/@iconicbits/111131652337404316

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:37 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     With that and a few missing chips later, the IO board is complete with two emulator boards 😅

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 03:28:37 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • DosFox
     • Jason P 🌈

     With the help of @DosFox I’ve been able to test the PSU, motherboard, and CPU cards (sans IO and RAM). It’s not much, but this flickering screen of a grid like pattern is exactly what is seen from their rig in the same state. And the scan converter I’m using detects the right sync rates of 22.73Khz @ 60hz (which are the rates @compu85 got using a projector). So this is promising!

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 04:43:09 JST paulrickards

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it :)

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Sep-2023 04:44:57 JST paulrickards

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs Nah! We've got RAM cards to debug next 😅

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:25 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • DosFox

     Another #AppleLisaClone update! I was experiencing some read and write errors in the Finder copying files while using MacWorks. I’ve been hammering away at the hardware but ultimately it looks like it was software! I added some finer grained timeouts to the code and it seems to be working much better now! @DosFox confirmed today that it’s working on their rig!

     To celebrate, have some flying toasters!

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:26 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     The #AppleLisaClone printing from MacWrite over LocalTalk to a HP LaserJet. Still amazed this all works!

     #RetroComputing #moof #LocalTalk #MacWrite #LiveLaughLocalTalk

     Thomas 🔭🕹️ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:27 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • iconicbits

     Good news on the #AppleLisaClone and the SunRem 2MB RAM card. Thanks to @iconicbits we now know that these boards are missing a critical trace of an enable line to GND.

     I added the bodge wire to my board and installed 2MB of RAM. Guess what: it actually boots this time!! 🤩

     Although I’m randomly getting 70 and 71 memory errors. 🧐

     https://mastodon.social/@iconicbits/111257483656871396

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:27 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • iconicbits

     When I bought the ICs for the SunRem 2MB card, I missed the fact the top two chips (highlighted in yellow) are supposed to be 74LS373. Instead I stuffed 73S373 chips (note S vs LS) just like the bottom three (highlighted in red).

     I finally got the LS parts and swapped those in.

     Much to my surprise the card now seems to work perfectly, at least with MacWorks! 🎉✨

     Thanks to @iconicbits for reminding me!

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:27 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Let’s talk.. AppleTalk! The #AppleLisaClone will happily connect to my RaspberryPi running MacIPGW via LocalTalk (with 25 pin adapter) via EtherTalk bridge. It also can see my desktop running Mini VMac via LToUDP with an AirTalk.

     So much media conversion but yet it just works. 😅

     #RetroComputing #LiveLaughLocalTalk

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:28 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Nope 😅

     Props for recognizing the Lisa though!

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:28 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Obtained some new 30 pin SIMMs for the SunRem 2MB RAM card but unfortunately these won’t make the card work either.

     #RetroComputing #AppleLisaClone

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:29 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Could it be?

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:30 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     So I was able to borrow both Apple 512K RAM cards, which is awesome! I plugged in the second one and I think there’s an issue. Parity error perhaps?

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:30 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • DosFox

     A troubleshooting document that @DosFox shared with me mentions using the service mode to peek at some memory locations for clues as to which chip on the 512k card is at fault. I can’t wrap my head around it at the moment, but here are the memory locations. Will need to look at this later.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:31 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     I put the SunRem 2MB card (configured with 1.5 MB of memory), bank 2 empty, memory slot 2 empty.

     Well, well. Hello error 45! This conclusively proves there’s a fault with this RAM card.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:31 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Hi, I’m a Mac! Sometimes a Lisa. But I’m also just a giant pile of cards 😅

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:33 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Inserting a disk (well, selecting one on the FloppyEmu) doesn’t seem to work though. I’m getting an error 38 which means no boot file on disk. So do I have bad disk images? Did I get the floppy interface wiring wrong?’does the FloppyEmu need a special mode to work with the Lisa?

     It does “eject” the disk though so something is working.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Oct-2023 04:31:33 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     • iconicbits

     Thanks to @iconicbits for the tip that the FloppyEmu has a Lisa mode that needs to be set. After that, it boots the Lisa Office System!

     Absolutely amazed that I was able to cobble this thing together. 😅

     I didn’t bring the ArduinoFile with me so I don’t think I can go further with LOS.

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:26 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     If you're curious, I've started a page on GitHub with the schematic and the board. Maybe you can spot what I did wrong?

     https://github.com/RolandJuno/Lisa_Breakout

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing #AppleLisa

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:26 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Another #AppleLisaClone update! You’ll remember I was debugging my new #AppleLisa breakout board. I was getting strange behavior: system would boot only once when cold, reboots after would hang and not progress to POST.

     I focused most of my time on my board. Cutting traces, bodging, testing. Nothing was improving.

     It wasn’t until I put in a new CPU card when things suddenly began working 100%!

     Soft power, floppy, Mac keyboard input all working! 😎

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:27 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     It’s #AppleLisaClone update time! I got the next rev of my Lisa breakout card (power, floppy, keyboard, sound, etc.) and put one together.

     It powers on correctly but doesn’t progress to the system test, it’s stuck at the very early power on stage.

     Voltages all look correct and in the right places. FloppyEmu powers on. If I hit reset a few times, it randomly progresses to an error 40 (MMU fault) but I think this is a red herring..

     #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:28 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     If you’re curious, you can read about the R/W issue I was having with the #ArduinoFile in this GitHub issue.

     https://github.com/alexthecat123/ArduinoFile/issues/2

     #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Tetris on the #AppleLisaClone!

     #RetroComputing #RetroGaming #Tetris

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:36 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     Awww so close!!

     #AppleLisaClone #AppleLisa #ShufflePuckCafe #RetoGaming

   • Embed this notice
     paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 07:47:37 JST paulrickards

     in reply to

     I also discovered an issue with #ArduinoFile that was preventing it from accessing data in hard drive images over ~16MB in size (while in MacWorks). Figured out the issue and now I’m almost running out of space on a 32MB image 😅

     https://github.com/alexthecat123/ArduinoFile/issues/3

     #AppleLisa #AppleLisaClone #RetroComputing