Apple Computer 1, also known later as the Apple I, or Apple-1, was released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. It was designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak’s friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer.

The Apple I was Apple’s first product, and to finance its creation, Jobs sold his only means of transportation, a VW Microbus, and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500. It was demonstrated in July 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California.

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Apple 1 (Mimeo / Mike Willegal Clone) Assembled for a friend of mine; Paolo Cognetti.

Many thanks for the Technical & Moral support to: Piero Todorovich and Alessandro Polito.
I also thank for some electronic components: Gabriele Molesto Zaverio of Museo Dell’informatica Funzionante, Piero Todorovich.

I had several problems with this Apple 1 clone, i very briefly describe the problems below and i attach some photos of the assembling stages.

• 1 – No video image, all voltages are ok.
• 1 + MPS3704 Transistor failure replaced with a 2N3704 pinout not compatible.

• 2 – Garbage screen during boot.
• 2 + Replaced 2 of 7 Shift Register 2504V

• 3 – Keyboard inputs not working, the WOZ monitor is freezed and shows an “@ \” but the “\” does not wrap.
• 3 + Replaced a 27k resistor half broken, probably during transport the capacitor has crushed the resistor.

• 4 – The keyboard does not respond correctly, typing A they print @, typing 1 they print 0 … and so on …
• 4 + Keyboard adapter from Apple II/+ to Apple 1 in short circuit. A wire is skewered in a pin of a Socket.

• 5 – The computer does not respond correctly, but it seems to work. The WOZ monitor responds to commands but does not write to memory and print random locations.
• 5 + Replaced a 7410 which had a pin always at high level.

• 6 – The keyboard has several problems, some switches are completly dead.
• 6 + Replaced switches.

Photos of the assembling stages:

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Video:

The Macintosh Classic is a personal computer manufactured by Apple Inc.. Introduced on October 15, 1990, it was the first Apple Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000. Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the Macintosh Plus and the Macintosh SE. The system specifications of the Classic were very similar to its predecessors, with the same 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, 512×342 pixel resolution, and 4 megabyte (MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers.

Apple’s decision to not update the Classic with newer technology such as a 68010 CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display ensured compatibility with the Mac’s by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price Apple intended for it. Nevertheless, the Classic featured several improvements over the aging Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple’s low-end Mac computer. It was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive 3.5-inch (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard.

The Classic was an adaptation of Jerry Manock’s and Terry Oyama’s 1984 Macintosh 128K industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions that ranged in price from $1,000 to $1,500. Reviewer reactions were mixed; most focused on the slow processor performance and lack of expansion slots. The consensus was that the Classic was only useful for word processing, spreadsheets and databases. The price and the availability of education software led to the Classic’s popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.

Gallery:

Macintosh Classic reCap:

source: wikipedia

Repairs and calibrations made:

• After a few days of normal use of the Apple /// is died the Keyboard Encoder (341-0035-00). I have replaced the chip with the Keyboard Encoder SMC KR3600-075B1 which fortunately is still available.
• Removed the filter capacitor.
• Replaced the bulb of the power-on that is embedded in the keyboard.
• Replaced all rubber feets.
• Calibration of the Floppy Drive.
• Replaced some switches of the keyboard.

Repairing keyboard Apple ///:

It seems incredible but there is always a button that doesn’t work ;-D

I found on some keyboards of the TI-99/4A the same buttons but with the plunger much smaller. I have used the plunger of the Apple /// button on the TI-99/4a button and i have fixed the problem elegantly ;-D

Thank to my friend Ninetyniner Iuc for the donation of spare parts.

Gallery:

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The Apple III (often rendered as Apple ///) is a business-oriented personal computer produced and released by Apple Computer that was intended as the successor to the Apple II series, but was largely considered a failure in the market. Development work on the Apple III started in late 1978 under the guidance of Dr. Wendell Sander. It had the internal code name of “Sara”, named after Sander’s daughter. The machine was first announced and released on May 19, 1980, but due to serious stability issues that required a design overhaul and a recall of existing machines, it was formally reintroduced the following autumn. Development stopped and the Apple III was discontinued on April 24, 1984, and the III Plus was dropped from the Apple product line in September 1985.

The Apple III could be viewed as an enhanced Apple II – then the newest heir to a line of 8-bit machines dating back to 1976. However, the Apple III was not part of the Apple II line, but rather a close cousin. The key features business users wanted in a personal computer were a true typewriter-style upper/lowercase keyboard (as opposed to the Apple II which was based on a teletype keyboard) and 80 column display. In addition, the machine had to pass U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) qualifications for business equipment. In 1981, International Business Machines unveiled the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) – a completely new 16-bit design soon available in a wide range of inexpensive clones. The business market moved rapidly towards the PC DOS/MS-DOS platform, eventually pulling away from the Apple 8-bit computer line.

Despite numerous stability issues and a recall that included the first 14,000 units off the assembly line, Apple was eventually able to produce a reliable and dependable version of the machine. However, damage to the computer’s reputation had already been done and it failed to do well commercially as a direct result. In the end, an estimated 65,000–75,000 Apple III computers were sold. The Apple III Plus brought this up to ~120,000. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak stated that the primary reason for the Apple III’s failure was that the system was designed by Apple’s marketing department, unlike Apple’s previous engineering-driven projects. The Apple III’s failure led to Apple reevaluating their plan to phase out the Apple II, and eventual continuation of development of the older machine. As a result, later Apple II models incorporated some hardware, such as the Apple Scribe Printer, a thermal printer, and software technologies of the Apple III.

source: wikipedia

Gallery:

The Macintosh SE is a personal computer manufactured by Apple between March 1987 and October 1990.

This computer marked a significant improvement on the Macintosh Plus design and was introduced by Apple at the same time as the Macintosh II. It had a similar case to the original Macintosh computer, but with slight differences in color and styling.

Features:

The SE’s notable new features, compared to its similar predecessor the Macintosh Plus, were:

• First compact Macintosh with an internal drive bay for a hard disk (originally 20 MB or 40 MB) or a second floppy drive.
• First compact Macintosh that featured an expansion slot (SE stood for “System Expansion”).
• Used the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), introduced with the Apple IIGS, for keyboard and mouse interface.
• Improved SCSI support with faster data throughput.
• Better reliability and longer life expectancy due to the addition of a cooling fan.

source: wikipedia

Apple IIc Rom v4 Upgrade & Repair.

Defect:

• The second RAM in the auxiliary memory is faulty.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x RAM 4264 (ARD1)

Upgrade:

• Apple IIc ROM upgraded to the latest version V4 (MON)

Download:

• Apple IIc v4 ROM + Installation Manual (1473)

Autopsy Apple IIgs / Keyboard (A2S6000W):

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Autopsy Apple 3.5 Drive (A9M0106):

Autopsy Apple 5.25 Drive (A9M0107):

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Autopsy Apple IIgs Mouse (A9M0331):

Autopsy Apple IIgs RGB Monitor (A2M6014Z):

The Apple IIGS (stylized as IIGS) is the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The “GS” in the name stands for Graphics and Sound, referring to its enhanced multimedia capabilities, especially its state-of-the-art sound and music synthesis, which greatly surpassed previous models of the line and most contemporary machines like the Macintosh and IBM PC.

The machine was a radical departure from any previous Apple II, with its true 16-bit architecture, increased processing speed, direct access to megabytes of RAM, wavetable music synthesizer, graphical user interface, and mouse. While still maintaining full backwards compatibility with earlier Apple II models, it blended the Apple II and aspects of Macintosh technology into one. Keeping with Apple’s “Apple II Forever” slogan of the time, the IIGS set forth a promising future and evolutionary advancement of the Apple II line, but Apple paid it relatively little attention as the company increasingly focused on the Macintosh platform.

The Apple IIGS was the first computer produced by Apple to use a color graphical user interface, as well as the “Platinum” (light grey) color scheme and the Apple Desktop Bus interface for keyboards, mice, and other input devices. It was also the first personal computer to come with a built-in “wavetable” sample-based synthesizer chip, utilizing technology from Ensoniq. The machine outsold all other Apple products, including the Macintosh, during its first year in production.

Apple IIgs booting from Iomega Zip Drive:

source: wikipedia

The horizontal measuring was made calculating the ledge at the base of the monitor.

Unfortunately, this monitor suffers from a serious problem of image quality.

The monitor become very hot and the adjustment resistance (trimmer) of the Focus controls that is inside the flyback loses its original value.

After nearly an hour of operation, the image becomes blurred and we must adjust the trimmer of the focus located inside the monitor, that’s why i have made this modification to the external case of the monitor.

The flyback is NOT longer exists as a spare parts.

Datanetics Apple Keyboard Fix.

After a few cold solder joints redone the keyboard works almost perfectly.

Todo:

• The “V” key is totally dead.
• The keys are a bit tired, don’t return always in the original position.

Overall is fine.

Datanetics Apple Keyboard *update*

I found a temporary solution for the tired keys they don’t return always in the original position. I have put a small spring (see the picture). Now the keys works correctly.

About the “V” key completely dead, i have desoldered it and i have tried to spray a air into the slots without having any results, so i have tried a extreme thing, i have used the key switch like a whistle. ;-D I have blown inside several times, the result is the key switch now are working again. I have made the same thing for the “right arrow”.

Apple II Europlus / Keyboard and Floppy Disk Drive Repair

Defects:

• The peripheral slots are totally dead.
• Don’t runs programs that take up more than 16k
• The keyboard doesn’t respond properly.
• The Floppy Disk Drive don’t read anything.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced [H12] Decoder/Demultiplexer 74LS138 in the position [H12]
• Replaced 3 x 4116 RAM in the row [D]

Keyboard:

• Cleaned the blades and the contacts on the pcb. Work not recommended to those who have little skill.

Apple Floppy Disk Drive:   

• The Floppy Disk Drive (Drive 2) had to be cleaned and oiled.

Macintosh Plus repair.

Defect:

• Mac sad face with error code not readable.

Replaced parts:

• 2 x ROM (342-0341-B / 342-0342-A) replaced with two EPROM 27C512 (pinout compatible)

Note:

All roms that i have found on the net or sent by friends are not working.
I had to do a dump of the Rom of my Macintosh Plus and at this point everything has worked immediately.

Download: Macintosh Plus ROM (27C512 Splitted) (1431)

Thanks go to: Damiano (manosoft) and my Brother Alessandro.

Things that have been donated:

• 4 x Box of Verbatim Datalife 3.5  2HD Floppy Disk.
• 1 x Apple Keyboard for my iMac G3 “Bondi Blue” M5521
• 1 x Iomega Zip Drive SCSI + Cable.
• 1 x Iomega Zip Drive USB + Cable.
• 11 x Zip Disk.
• Some 3.5 Floppy Disk.

Autopsy:

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I have removed the main filter capacitor of 0,47μF 250v (RIFA), avoiding that can explode.

from Wikipedia:

The Apple Monitor // was a CRT-based green monochrome 12-inch monitor manufactured by Apple Computer for the Apple II personal computer family. Apple didn’t manufacture the monitor until halfway through the lifespan of the II series.

The business-line Apple /// had its own Apple Monitor /// long before. Many home users of Apple II computers used their televisions as computer monitors before the Monitor // was released. It featured an inner vertical-swiveling frame. This allowed users to adjust the viewing angle up or down to suit their taste without the addition of a tilt-and-swivel device.

The Monitor // was widely adjustable for the time, as it included adjustments for the size and location of the image on the screen. These adjustments had a very small influence on the picture, however, much to the disliking of some users. The Monitor // was designed for the Apple II+, but was used widely throughout the Apple II product line, most recognizably on the Apple IIe.

Download:

• Apple Monitor II User\'s Manual (1481)
• Apple Monitor II Circuit Diagram (457)

source: wikipedia

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This gallery shows some stages of cleaning the computer Apple ][ Europlus, Apple Disk ][.

I have also made minor repairs which i describe below:

• Replaced the Lamp of the power-on.
• Removing the RIFA filter capacitor (the capacitor was exploded)
• Fixed the center hub of the Apple Disk ][.

Autopsy:

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The gallery of the Apple /// Monitor can be viewed by clicking here

from Wikipedia:

The Apple II series (trademarked with square brackets as “Apple ][") is a set of 8-bit home computers, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) and introduced in 1977 with the original Apple II. In terms of ease of use, features and expandability the Apple II was a major technological advancement over its predecessor, the Apple I, a limited-production bare circuit board computer for electronics hobbyists that pioneered many features that made the Apple II a commercial success. Introduced at the West Coast Computer Faire on April 16, 1977, the Apple II was among the first successful personal computers; it launched the Apple company into a successful business (and allowed several related companies to start). Throughout the years, a number of models were sold, with the most popular model remaining relatively little changed into the 1990s. It was first sold on June 10, 1977. By the end of production in 1993, somewhere between five and six million Apple II series computers (including about 1.25 million Apple IIGS models) had been produced.

The Apple II Plus, introduced in June 1979,included the Applesoft BASIC programming language in ROM. This Microsoft-authored dialect of BASIC, which was previously available as an upgrade, supported floating-point arithmetic, and became the standard BASIC dialect on the Apple II series (though it ran at a noticeably slower speed than Steve Wozniak's Integer BASIC).

Except for improved graphics and disk-booting support in the ROM, and the removal of the 2k 6502 assembler/disassembler to make room for the floating point BASIC, the II+ was otherwise identical to the original II. RAM prices fell during 1980–81 and all II+ machines came from the factory with a full 48k of memory already installed. The language card in Slot 0 added another 16k, but it had to be bank switched since the remaining CPU address space was occupied by the ROMs and I/O area. For this reason, the extra RAM in the language card was bank-switched over the machine’s built-in ROM, allowing code loaded into the additional memory to be used as if it actually were ROM. Users could thus load Integer BASIC into the language card from disk and switch between the Integer and Applesoft dialects of BASIC with DOS 3.3′s INT and FP commands just as if they had the BASIC ROM expansion card. The language card was also required to use the UCSD Pascal and FORTRAN 77 compilers, which were released by Apple at about the same time. These ran under the UCSD p-System operating system, which had its own disk format and emitted code for a “virtual machine” rather than the actual 6502 processor. The UCSD P-system had a curious approach to memory management, which became even more curious on the Apple III.

A TEMPEST-approved version of the Apple II Plus was created in 1980 by the Georgia Tech Research Institute for U.S. Army FORSCOM, and used as a component in the earliest versions of the Microfix system. Fielded in 1982, the Microfix system was the first tactical system using video disk (Laserdisk) map technology providing zoom and scroll over map imagery coupled with a point database of intelligence data such as order of battle, airfields, roadways, and bridges.

After the success of the first Apple II in the United States, Apple expanded its market to include Europe, Australia and the Far East in 1978, with the Apple II Europlus (Europe, Australia) and the Apple II J-Plus (Japan). In these models, Apple made the necessary hardware, software and firmware changes in order to comply to standards outside of the U.S. The power supply was modified to accept the local voltage, and in the European and Australian model the video output signal was changed from color NTSC to monochrome PAL – an extra video card was needed for color PAL graphics, since the simple tricks Wozniak had used to generate a pseudo-NTSC signal with minimal hardware did not carry over to the more complex PAL system. In the Japanese version of the international Apple, the keyboard layout was changed to allow for Katakana writing (full Kanji support was clearly beyond the capabilities of the machine), but in most other countries the international Apple was sold with an unmodified American keyboard; thus the German model still lacked the umlauts, for example. For the most part, the Apple II Europlus and J-Plus were identical to the Apple II Plus. Production of the Europlus ended in 1983.

source: wikipedia

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This gallery shows some stages of cleaning the computer Apple IIe and the Apple Monitor ///.

I have also made minor repairs which i describe below:

• Fixing the keyboard connector on keyboard side (some keys not working)
• Adjusting the yoke of the CRT tube (the screen is lightly rotated)
• Replaced the LED of power-on (CR1) of the Apple IIe (LED was off)
• Removing the RIFA filter capacitor (the capacitor was exploded)