Apple II Analog Gamepad

I always like to having the option to use a game controller for my computers. I only like joysticks for certain types of games. I prefer gamepads for a lot of game types. The Apple II Joystick is an analog joystick, much like the IBM Analog Joysticks. I was not interested in tracking down a vintage joystick. I also again often prefer a gamepad form factor, and I like making things myself. I came across Swetland’s Apple II Gamepad project on Github. The project has good documentation for the rather simple project it is. I will just go over any variations or considerations I had with it.

The project worked like many projects I tend to do. Some little oddities in that it has not went through very many revisions. This project is fine, and can be built as is. If I had read the provided information before ordering the PCBs in, I would have probably implemented some of his suggested revisions.

The simple revisions that could be done.
Swetland indicated making a switch to swap the button positions. I think this may very well have to do with him testing it with Lode Runner, which is the game I tested with. The buttons should be swapped for that game in perticular.

It was also indicated to potentially use the joystick’s button. I hate that on the Nintendo Switch though in some games.. I like having options though. I think the Apple II can address 4 buttons? I only think that as there is a PEEK for 4 buttons, and I don’t know how often that there were 4 on a joystick or if any games use them all.

It also was indicated that the range may be adjusted by adjusting the capacitance. To add more, it would be easy to just add some pads to add another capacitor or two.

My thoughts might be to increase the footprint size for the capacitors and resistors by one SMD size. It may just make more people consider building one, as I feel many people either have limited SMD experience or may just not be able to do it. It does take magnification for me, and my hands are pretty steady. It wasn’t bad for me, but I have a bit of experience with SMD soldering now. It would also be easy to add alternate through hole footprints for the resistors and capacitors. I had the required resistors and capacitors in stock (one size larger than specified I think though on the capacitors, they just could fit.), but I also have the parts in typical through hole type of the same values. SMD parts are cheaper, and take up less space, though space in this project itself is not an issue.

If I were to go to that trouble, I would also upsize the traces to make them more robust, that may also open up some options for customization and bodges for those old hacker types out there if someone comes up with something. The other thing I would probably do is look to put the wires on the pcb in the same order as they are on the DE/DB9 connector in hopes to reduce the chances of making mistakes. I might put some instructions and such on the silkscreen. If I find these other 4 unused PCBs in 10 years, I won’t know what the component values are etc to finish assembly and there is plenty of space to put the required basic information on the board itself.

I would also look into building in an optional auto fire circuit directly into the pcb design.

There is an oddity (at least to me) with the threaded inserts. The holes are basically 5mm in diameter. My threaded inserts are 5mm in diameter, which are designed for 4.5mm holes. As they were to small, I then went and ordered some that said they were 5mm, and they turned out to be identical to the ones I have. So you need some rather large M3 inserts. I happened to have a single giant M3 insert that I don’t know where it was from, and I used it, I then added some glue to the remaining ones and used the 5mm diameter ones. So another revision I would make myself is sliming down the holes in the 3d model.

None of the issues I had were a any kind of big issue. It is just the kind of little things I think would be easy to refine on the project. If I had noticed the suggestions, I would likely have taken time to make those changes to the PCB design. I am just not one to throw away the PCBs after ordering them because they could be just a bit better. Now that I have 5 of these PCBs, I have no drive to do the revisions myself.

Below you can see the threaded inserts installed in the case, the one to the left of the cable there is that single large diameter m3 insert I had, the black around the other two is a bit of the glue. The case printed flawlessly in a nice color change PETG that I like, and also in a filament I am nearly out of, so the little bit of glue is fine. If I ever assemble another of the PCBs, I will do that minor change to the case so the inserts I have fit it.

I didn’t look at the DB9/DE9 port on my IIGS recently, or read the specifications before building the joystick. I then proceeded to buy a molded DE9 Female cable for the gamepad and installing, which the Atari 2600, 800XL, Commodore 64/128 etc all used. So I have some nice photos of the Gamepad with a nice molded DE9 Female connector. I then quickly removed that really nice cable and attached a black piece of Cat5e stranded patch cable and a solder on DE9 Male connector and shell. I didn’t have any tapered m3 screws, so I used some button head screws.

The hole for the cable was just a little larger diameter than my cable, so I quickly made a gromet/strain relief sleeve in Tinkercad and printed it in TPU. That sleeve is just slid on, it is fairly snug, but can be moved, if I wanted to permanently attach it, a bit of thin superglue would fuse it to the cable jacket. Then for the Shell, the cable was to thin for the Clamp to grip the cable. If I had noticed that sooner, I would have slid on a couple layers of heat shrink tubing. As it was, I already had it all soldered up so I wrapped it with some glue backed Heatshrink and heated it to shrink it tight and fuse the glue. For the DB/DE9 Shell (and the reason I wanted a molded cable), the front holding lip that goes over the metal of the DB/DE9 connector needs to be shaved down to the minimum so that it inserts deeply enough into the IIGS Joystick port. This is the same issue that I had with the RGB Monitor cable shell. The casing around the ports is just too close, it is kind of annoying that Apple did that, I can’t think of a DB/DE Shell design that I have come across that will fit nicely without modification.

It was a very nice clean easy build. I wish it had the nice molded cable, which would have also made it an even quicker build. If you look at the Github project, you may notice I used different buttons. I did not use the ones with the square cap posts. They are the same height and footprint minus the little posts. I actually have both types. The difference is the button tops (which I printed in TPU) are not snapped/locked to the buttons, but they sit just on top, there is no extra space so they are not flopping around. I felt this may be less likely to make the buttons bind, that is not to say they actually would have bound up at all.

That other cable did not go to waste, it prompted me to finish another Gamepad project that has been sitting to the side for a few years. That other Gamepad was actually finished before this one, as I had no DB/DE9 male connectors left and had to wait for them to arrive.

It was a bit odd I used Lode Runner to test the Gamepad as well. It is not a game I have really played much at all, it is one I have seen and I am familiar with though and figured it would work with a joystick. It was somewhat frustrating having the buttons in the wrong order as the right one digs to your left and the left digs to your right. The cap keeps popping off the joystick, which is not the Gamepad design’s fault. I did turn both adjustment pots all the way to the left (counter clockwise) so I would get the full use of the joystick, it was staying pegged at 255 when centered on both axis with the pots centered. It feels good to hold and works well.

I’ll figure something out on the Joystick cap issue, and I look forward to using this to help me explore some of the many game possibilities in the IIGS. I have a second one of those types of joysticks, but I believe the stem design on the joystick is a bit different.

Apple IIGS RGB Monitor & SCART Cable

In a prior post I mentioned I have the Apple II RGB Monitor cleaned up and I needed to make a cable for it. Since I was making a cable, I decided to make a RGB to SCART Cable. This will go with the GBS Control devices and let me use modern displays. I had an old piece of cable used for a VGA cable originally that I thought would be a good use. I had a SCART Connector that in my spare parts that I had ordered awhile ago. I just needed the 15 Pin DE15 Male connectors.

I based the SCART Cable on https://roger.geek.nz/apple2/scart.html

Based on the source post at VintageWare, I need to wire the Red (2), Green (5), Blue (9), Sync (3), Audio (11) and three Ground pins (1, 6, 13) from the DE15 to the proper Pins of the SCART connector. It also requires using the 12V pin (8) wired two two other pins on the SCART connector via some resistors. The 12V should be wired by a 1k Resistor to Pin8 on SCART to select AV Mode. The 12V should be wired to by a 270 Ohm Resistor to Pin 16 on the SCART Connector to set the SCART input to RGB Mode. I am not using this cable on a true SCART TV, so those two pins should not have any impact for me, but I might as well make it to the proper specification.

This SCART cable was nothing but trouble due to the wire I have used. Everything just kept going wrong with it. The cable has Coax lines in it for the video etc, which is great, but very problematic to work with, this may not be as common an issue, but I am expect working with multi pair coax will commonly have at least some of these difficulties. The core wires for the signals kept breaking off at the solder point. The cable is overly thick making it not flex easily, and break them more. The DE15 connector Pins push inward out of the plastic housings (which I have never seen before, but may be common on cheap connectors..). The IIGS has thick plastic around the ports, and the Shells for the DE15s don’t fit, they don’t let the connector go in far enough to make a connection. That is common on Commodore 64 Joystick ports as well (although that is a metal surround). It was very frustrating. When testing, I just removed the Shell from the DE15, it went it great, except some pins started to push out, then when I removed it more of the coax signal wires broke off. When testing it before trying to take it out, I didn’t have the blue signal. I figured another broken coax signal wire. On inspecting I couldn’t find an issue, well visually inspecting, although the sync wire had broken off by then it couldn’t have been broken before unplugging it..

Next I repaired the DE15 end, cut down the Shell “lip” that holds it on as much as I could. I pulled all the extra DE15 pins out. I used Liquid Electrical Tape to insulate, and basically “glue” the pins into the connector and keep the coax signal wires from flexing and breaking. I also used the Liquid Electrical Tape on the SCART Connector. Then I let that fully cure. I reassembled the connectors and tested again. I again didn’t have Blue, only Green and Red. I further shaved down the Shell lip, thinking maybe it just wasn’t making contact. That made no difference, still no blue. I tried the old SCART to HDMI adapter box, and I got no video output from it. I decided I would make the cable for the RGB Monitor by cutting the cable in half and installing DE15 connectors on both making it into two cables. This cable was awful the worst I ever made. I took a week or so away from it as I didn’t want to mess with that cable again.

The cable would have been a little neater, but I didn’t initially intend to use the 12V line so I had to solder on that blue wire to the stub of one of the remaining wires. The various wires kept breaking off at the solder points and I kept adding in little bits to extend and try to get tension off of them. I am not happy with this cable. Hopefully as I went on further below I will get this working and it will be a solid cable after all the trouble and fixes listed lower in this post.

Above you can see the Liquid Electrical Tape applied to the connector. I put it all over the pins to the base. I has a good bond to the pins and case, this has locked the pins in so they don’t push out. It also holds the thin coax cores giving them support preventing them from breaking off easily.

Moving on to the RGB Monitor Cable

I decided to start fresh with the RGB Monitor Cable, I wasn’t interested in working with the other SCART cable again. I had a piece of shielded cable that isn’t individual coax for the signal wires that I decided to use for this cable. It is much smaller and flexible. I again pulled all unneeded pins from the connectors (partly as they like to fall out of these, but also as I needed them for another connector for the IIGS). This cable took nearly no time at all to make. It was easy to work with, had the exact wires in it that I needed. I even soldered the shield to both DE15 housings without any issue. I did take the modified DE15 Case Shell from the SCART cable. This cable took nearly no time at all to make, it was refreshing and was a joy to put together compared to the SCART cable.

For this basic strait through cable, I used pins 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 13 as well as soldering the Shell to the Shield wire. This is a lot easier than the SCART, as I don’t need the Audio, the 12V, any resistors, the Grounds are just “strait through”. With the SCART most of the grounds were tied together, which is just more work in itself. I usually only wire the Shield wire to one end Shell or the other to prevent ground loops. In this case, the specification was to wire the Shell to ground, so I figured I would do it.

This cable I did not put on the Liquid Electrical Tape, as I had with the Scart Cable. Nothing here is binding, pulling etc, there isn’t excess loose bare wire, the Shield Ground is soldered directly above one of the Ground Pins and can’t reach the R, G, B or Sync pins easily unless it breaks off. I did not have issues with the pins pushing out yet, I think it helps that so many pins are “removed”, creating less friction, less chance of minor miss alignments etc. Granted I did go back and remove the unused pins in the Scart cable as well. The pins were repurposed for the wDrive DE19 to IDC20 adapter in another post.

I connected up the monitor and it worked great the first time. Well I didn’t have the right colors initially as the cable fell partly out of the back of the IIGS. I pushed it back in and everything worked properly. I then used the screws to screw it in. I didn’t have to modify the shell on the monitor end, it has enough clearance for the shell.

I do think this monitor has been used a fair bit, it is clear and bright enough though. It looks better in person than in pictures. I noticed a crack the lower left front corner of the case just above the Apple Logo.

Back to the SCART Cable

On getting the RGB Monitor cable working, I looked at the SCART Cable again. Not that I wanted to after all the problems with it, but I had it apart after taking the DE15 Shell off. I checked for loose or broken wires, although everything is covered in Liquid Electrical tape making that difficult. I didn’t see anything. I then started checking continuity. I was checking all of the ground wires, checking that I didn’t solder wires to the wrong pins. On checking the ground wires, I found the Blue signal wire was shorted to ground. I had checked that pins went where they should and that the Blue pins were connected, what I had failed to check the first time was if it was shorted to another pin such as Ground.. That will cause the Blue to not work. I inspected the DE15 end and it didn’t look like anything was wrong there. I carefully removed the liquid electrical tape from the Blue signal and the Ground pin beside it on the SCART end. I found the blue somehow jammed itself into the ground. Initially I thought the blue signal wire in the coax had broken, but somehow the blue was pulling into the shield ground around it. I hate that cable. I got it worked loose, and covered it in liquid electrical tape again. Then I let that cure, checked for shorts again and reassembled it. This SCART cable is wired differently than the ones I have made in the past. I have added the resistors and used the 12V power to Pins 8 and 16. That won’t matter to the GBS Control, as those pins don’t do anything on it, but I do wonder if it will make the SCART to HDMI act differently, or if it will make the SCART work on the Sony LCD TV which I have never been able to get to take any input. I figured I had the wire for it, (and I did do pin 16 in the other cables, but not pin 8) and it was easy enough to wire up. I then tested it on the GBS Control and the SCART Cable is now working properly. I then tried it on the SCART to HDMI Adapter box, and it worked on that as well. There was some “noise” in the display, but I think I had seen that is actually there on the IIGS and masked on the CRT Monitor.

I plan to likely use the IIGS with the SCART cable to the GBS Control more than anything. The Apple RGB Monitor has certainly seen better days, and if I use the IIGS very heavily I will probably not use the monitor with it. I actually didn’t intend to get the IIGS, and I don’t currently have room to setup yet another computer. I could put the G3 iMac away somewhere, as all I have for it is Oregon Trail..

Apple II wDrive and DE19 to IDC20 Adapter

I’m really not too sure about the Apple II projects out there. I wasn’t looking to get into the Apple II, I just came across the IIGS and well I wasn’t ready for it. I always liked the IIGS from school, in Jr High I had spent time writing programs in basic on one in my Science class during study hall. They were old at that time, but I didn’t have a computer at home yet and always liked computers. We had used Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, Logo and other programs up from first grade on various models of Apple II computers in school.

The IIGS came with just three 5.25″ floppy disks. Two of them worked, but the other has errors and won’t load the program fully. I looked into the Apple II storage options. Nothing I have for any of the other computers works on the Apple II. There is a paid firmware for the GoTek that can work in combination with special adapter cables, but that looks to be rather limited in what it can do. Doing some looking around, I don’t know what the best option is. There are a number of devices. The Floppy EMU was one I looked at, but shipping and cost are up there. I found the wDrive and that was in stock and cheaper, and seems to be comparable for the Apple IIGS even though the Floppy EMU can work on early Macs (I have no early Macs and I don’t at this time plan to get any). https://ct6502.org/product/wdrive/

Some things I didn’t like about the wDrive are, that while it looks to be one of the go to devices, it does not appear to be in active development any longer. I would also like to see more documentation on it. It took me awhile to figure out why it wasn’t showing me the menus on the IIGS on startup (you need to copy the wdmain.dat in the SD Card from the firmware download). Either device though, or any of the devices I found weren’t exactly in the budget that I wanted to just jump in and purchase on a whim. Many of the other 80s era computers have pretty decent cheap data storage options these days, I was disappointed to not find something similar with the Apple II. I think it may be a bit complex though, and the IIGS is a 16bit computer as well. Update: there seems to be more new projects that started coming out around the time I was looking for solutions. So there are certainly more solutions out there than the two primary ones I had found at the time.

My limited experience and time looking at devices for the Apple II computers means, I may or may not, have made the best choice. I think the FloppyEMU has various settings that are changed per the file type, or usage you want to do, with the wDrive it just takes the files and emulates what it needs if it can use the file type. That may be a plus if I am understanding the usage, in that it is simple. The wDrive won on price being $79 vs $118 for the Floppy Emu + the case. If I had chosen the Floppy Emu I would have went with the Deluxe bundle at $129 which includes the Floppy Emu + the case and a DB19 to IDC20 adapter similar to what I had to build myself that I cover below. It was measurably cheaper, but still not super low budget. I did still need a compatible DB19 to IDC20 adapter, but that wasn’t an additional $40.

Connecting the wDrive to the IIGS:

I mentioned above that the wDrive requires a DE19 to IDC20 adapter when used with the IIGS. It is a bit problematic that the store doesn’t carry them. They do have a link to two compatible adapters, but then you have more shipping yet (the FloppyEmu store is one of the sites.). This lead me to looking for another source, and specifications on these adapters. The information on exactly what is needed is not clear. Sure we see the two connnectors… we can find pinouts of the ports. I was quite concerned I would get the wrong adapter, and it wouldn’t work, or would damage the wDrive or the IIGS (or both).

Looking around I came across one marked with the Fujinet project on it. I found the Github for the project. This is a project I hear about on videos and such, but not one I am following. It they make a version of the Fujinet for the Apple II and the IIGS, and this adapter board must be for connecting up certain models in certain situations. I don’t know much about Fujinet, but this is not the exact use case for the adapter, so I still had some concerns this wasn’t exactly what I needed. They do have all the specifications and schematics, as well as build photos of the adapter on their github post, which is helpful. This adapter uses male pins pulled from a DE/DB Male type connector and a 3D Printed DE19 shell cover to make a DE19 to IDC20 adapter that perfectly fits to the IIGS. The Gerber files and 3d models are all there for download. https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-hardware/tree/master/AppleII/DB-19M-Adapter-Male-Rev1

This adapter is not exactly what I wanted as I wanted to be able to use the 5.25″ drive in combination with the wDrive, but it is what I needed at a minimum to use the wDrive with the IIGS. I downloaded the Gerber files, then ordered 5 boards from JLCPCB. It was under $5 including shipping as I got the cheapest shipping option (which is as cheap or cheaper than shipping for an adapter). The adapter was easy enough to build.

Thanks to the DE15 Male connectors I purchased to make up RGB Monitor cables for the IIGS, I had DE Male Pins. I pulled enough pins from the three DE15s I am using for those cables to have 19 (and a couple extra) pins to make up this adapter. As they are not very tight in the connectors, they were easy to remove without damaging them, I don’t know if the pins are normally that easy to pull as I haven’t tried before (I suspect they are tighter in high quality DE connectors)

I then printed the 3d Model for the shell. I had to get the spacing right on how far to push the pins through the PCB and have the right depth. The instructions/guide shows someone having hacked up a DE25 female connector into a DE19 to hold the Pins in for proper placement for soldering. I didn’t want to ruin a DE25 female connector. So I put the pins into the DE25 and used the printed 3d model to get the spacing close. If I had expected to make more than 1, I probably would have taken the time to hack the DE25 down, it was old and not in very good shape. It would take some effort to do that with the tools I have available to me, more than I would have wanted to invest for making up a single adapter.

I soldered in the end pins on each side. I then checked the alignment of the remaining pins and soldered them all in. This did make the complication that now I had to manage to put the 19 pins into the 3d printed part without bending them. Thankfully that was not hard though.

To make this adapter I did only need to buy the PCBs. I used a piece of dual row pin header for the IDC20 port. This did mean I didn’t have the Shroud that has the alignment notch in it. The 3d model didn’t have that build into it. I found a OpenSCAD model for download, set it to 20 pins and printed it out. Having a 3d printed Shroud probably won’t be as durable as a molded one. I did assemble the adapter and put it in the shell though. It worked.

The wDrive looks like a very small 3.5″ drive from the “top” or “bottom”.

The interesting design to the wDrive case is that when placed with the LCD and buttons downward, it looks just like a 3.5″ disk drive. That does make the LCD not usable, but there is a work around for that by using the IIGS to control it with the menu system, it is also small and easy to flip over to use the screen and buttons if needed.

I looked around for a IDC20 shroud. I found exactly what I needed. Someone had made a OpenSCAD model and posted it for download. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3200902 They didn’t list it as being an OpenSCAD model, but thankfully it was. I was able to set it to a IDC20 size and print it out in the same filament as the case for the adapter.

It didn’t quite fit, it was slightly to large. I wouldn’t have scaled down the thickness though of the shroud as being 3dprinted it already won’t be quite as strong as a factory part (made with PLA at least). I shaved the opening larger on the cover. I got it to be a good snug fit.

After I had it fited, I put the case together to make sure it was aligned well. Then I took it apart and used SuperGlue and Baking Soda all around the inside rim to secure them into one solid piece.

Once it was cured and I had cleaned off any loose Baking Soda, I put the completed adapter together.

The filament I used to print the case is Polymaker PolyTerra Muted White PLA, as recommended by the MacintoshLibrarian on Youtube awhile ago. It was available recently, but I’m not currently seeing it listed. The case of the IIGS is a bit yellowed, and it is a close match to it but still a bit lighter. You can see the wDrive stands out against it, being the wDrive’s case is 3d printed in what appears White filament.

I did work to merge the two parts. Below you can see the merged part as well as the two independent parts which are shown above. It was simple enough to combine the models in Tinkercad. The opening is a little too small as seen above, so once I had them lined up properly they worked very well as a completed part with no gaps. I just had to get the offset correct, as to how much it needed to protrude into where it would come in contact with the PCB inside.

With the individual parts, there is no support required, but it does take more work to make the two into one part as seen above. I think it is worth the 2grams of support material and 10 additional minutes to print them as a single part. The finish of the part isn’t quite as nice as the outer surface is not face down on the print bed, I do have it positioned so that the “support” is on the interior of the case though so that the supported areas defects won’t be visible once assembled. I did print one of these combined parts to see how it went. It was pretty good, and I may use one of the other PCBs and build up a second adapter at some point using this new combined part. It might actually be possible to take that outer 3.25mm protrusion off the outside, making the outer face flush again. That may retain enough shroud for a good positive fit, but then let it be flipped back over and printed with no support (or only a tiny support at that little bit of overhang where the notch is for the alignment on the IDC).

PCB Solder Bridges

The PCB has several solder bridges. For the first adapter I did not connect them. They are for the 12V and the -12V and Drive 2 Select. Since there is no pass through, and I am not connecting something that uses those voltages, I didn’t connect them up. I am not sure what the Drive 2 Select does, or would do. The wDrive doesn’t use the 12V or -12V, so I don’t have any reason to connect them up at this time. Other adapters that I have come across do tend to have them connected, which is required if using “real” disk drives. It is still unclear to me how the Drv2 jumper should be set, or what scenario requires 12V on it.

There is no Pass Through port, so I expect I would only have “Drive 2″ if it actually does change the selection.. I was thinking maybe I could make one of these up with 90degree angle headers and connectors and that would be able to be plugged into the back of the 5.25” drive letting me use the wDrive as Drive 2. I’ll have to find out how Drv2 works or should be used if I ever do that.

It is nice having the Shroud on the IDC20 port, so I can’t connect the cable backward. That was the other reason to not connect up the 12V and -12V pins incase that ever happened. I only had the red dot to mark where the Red Stripe goes to let help me ensure I didn’t get it backward, also there had been enough room in the IDC20 port opening to plug the cable in off by 1 pin, which tends to go badly as well.

This adapter and the wDrive will let me do a lot more with the IIGS than the two good floppy disks I have. What little I have found on the IIGS so far, shows me there is a lot more to the Apple IIGS than we ever took advantage of in school. I do hope to find the time to get to know the machine better.

I did do a little testing with the wDrive, but not much, I tried out a few other programs and such, I want to try out the GS OS graphical interface. I need a mouse for that, and I have one on order that is supposed to be tested and working.

I have a few more things to do with these machines. I have to finish up the RGB Monitor cable and SCART RGB Cable, which should be next (they are made now, I just have to finish the posts and get a couple of the SCART shots of it in use and a bit more testing). I still have that filthy and messed up keyboard that I don’t want to touch, and then to do an internal clean and maintenance on the other two 5.25″ drives so I know their condition. I need to get a battery as well the next time I place an order at Digikey, or somewhere else that I trust to get quality parts from.

Apple IIGS Additional Cleanup and Testing

Case Cleanup. I removed the RF shield from the inside of both IIGS case top covers. I wiped down the RF shields, and then I washed the case tops with some 409 cleaner and a brush in the tub. The next day once the cases were dry, I reinstalled the RF shields into the case tops with some UV Resin to replace the plastic melted rivets that I had to cut away.

RF Shield Reinstalled with some UV Curing glue where the plastic rivets had been.

The RF shields rust easily and already have some rust on them, so I didn’t want water all over them that I couldn’t readily dry off quickly.

For the working keyboard, I removed all of the keys that don’t have stabilizer bars. I then brushed out all the dirt, hair and dust from the keyboard. I then used the air compressor to blow out what was remaining. It didn’t look like anything had been spilled in it, so it cleaned up well. I don’t know how the stabilizers remove, so I didn’t want to risk removing them. I cleaned the keyboard with Windex and IPA as well as the remaining keys. I took all the loose keys and put them in the tub, spraying them down with 409 and a brush again brushing all 4 sides and the top. Then I rinsed them off well, and laid them out on a towel to finish drying. The next day they were dry so I used the other keyboard as an example to be sure I had all the keys reinstalled properly on the keyboard.

The cords including power cord were wiped down with Windex to get the worst of the dirt off, and a bit of touch up with some 99% IPA.

For the Color and Monochrome monitors, I opened both up to check them internally. I was checking for RIFA caps, which neither had. I was also checking if there were any problems that could be seen. There were no obvious broken solder points or evidence of leaking capacitors. Unfortunately the Color Monitor’s flyback case is cracking around the Focus control. I wiped out a bit of dirt and dust. There wasn’t anything else that I saw of any concern in the monitors. I also cleaned the case backs with 409 in the tub, and dried them out. The front of the monitors, I just cleaned with windex and paper towels.

The next day I was able to check the Monochrome display, I was waiting to ensure no water was in the monitor and that it was all closed up. The display worked normally. I don’t know if it is dim or anything. It looks fine to me, but I don’t use CRT displays often and my memory from when I was using Apple IIs in school has been way to long ago to be helpful. Internally the Monochrome monitor looked like it may not have been heavily used.

Testing the Monochrome Monitor with an original disk.

I now have a single IIGS in working condition with a 5.25″ Disk drive and Monochrome monitor.

It looks pretty good, but with the texture of the plastic, it still has dirt in the texture. I think there is a chance that simple dishsoap and a good scrubber would get some more of that out. That is what I usually use, but this had mouse filth all over it. I have seen people use Mr Clean Magic Erasers for such things, but they are actually abrasive, so I want to limit their use, I may give it a try, but they are over 30 years old, so they aren’t expected to look brand new, by me at least. I figured as bad as it was the 409 would do well, but it really was not as effective as I was hoping. There is some yellowing, and the old id number badge left a non yellowed spot above the logo that stands out a bit.

I do have the Color RGB Monitor cleaned up, but I have to make up a cable for it. Making cables takes time, and I’ve been working on some other projects. It is missing the back feet as well, so I will 3d print some new ones in TPU. It is also missing 1 of the “front feet”, which are a bit weird, and because of the front bar that tilts the monitor up it doesn’t rest on the front feet. The Monochrome monitor has what looks to be the same foot setup, so I figure if I can use them to measure up to quickly model replacement feet.

I also have the second keyboard to tear down and clean. That keyboard also has a few keys not moving properly, I don’t know what that might involve to correct. I have the other two 5.25″ disk drives to tear down and clean and service internally. I don’t need those two drives at this time, and I have cleaned the cables and outside of the cases.

The work on these items is mostly cleaning, and testing the items. The Power Supply did need some work, and the second keyboard has issues. The other Power Supply I am not going to be doing anything with at this time as I don’t need both IIGSs.

Apple IIGS Maintenance

I ended up with 2 Apple IIGS computers. They were nearly complete. They were dirty, a lot of evidence of mice or more.

I did a basic wipe down of everything to get some of the nasty stuff of of everything before loading them up to bring them home.

On inspection at home, overall I had 2 Apple IIGS computers, with keyboards and the cables but the one keyboard has keys that are stuck and some damage. I also have 3 5.25″ disk drives, a Color Monitor (minus the cable), and a Monochrome Monitor.

I will be making various posts going over the equipment.

The primary thing was to check out the IIGS computers. I needed to see if either was working or reasonable to repair.

I focused on the first IIGS. First I cleaned it a bit better as it was still not very clean. I had checked both IIGS internally for leaking batteries, and thankfully neither battery had leaked, they were dated 1992. On seeing that they were in battery holders I was able to look up that these are the later ROM3 version boards with ROM3 and the additional ram. I removed both batteries, and gave the boards a visual inspection, they looked fine, a bit of dirt and dust.

From there I went to the power supplies. I opened the first one, it is apparently an ASTEC model. The visual inspection of the top looked pretty good overall, although the RIFA cap has some cracking. Nothing scorched or bulging etc otherwise initially.

On removing the PCB from the case to get to the RIFA cap, I found a surprise on the bottom. Under the Large Filter cap (C4), was a leaky black mess. Over toward the nearby C5 there was a mess and the solder mask and solder points looked bad nearby.

I first cleaned up the muck with some IPA while I was preheating my desoldering gun.

I pulled C4 and C5. The large C4 had no marks under it, it didn’t appear to have leaked. C5 though showed evidence of leaking. I take it leaked and migrated across the board, possibly through that large hole or somehow it managed to leak through the board some other way. There is a small pin hole under C4, but there was nothing on the top side, though the hole was plugged up with the gunk. The solder was quite contaminated around a good number of those solder points, and was a bit difficult to remove that old solder from those corroded points. I then had to use the fiberglass brush to remove some of the solder mask where it was damaged and the traces were corroding.

I used my MESR-100 ESR Meter to check C4 and C5. I also checked their capacitance. The large C4 330UF 200V capacitor had the proper Capacitance reading and a good ESR Reading as well. I reinstalled it. With C5, I was surprised to find the capacitance on it was still in spec for a 220UF capacitor, but the ESR was way to high. I’m fairly certain it was where the leakage came from as well, unless it was something that somehow ended up falling into the power supply. I replaced 220UF capacitor with a new one I had in stock. The board isn’t beautiful, but it cleaned up fairly well, everything was superficial. I removed the RIFA, and as I don’t have any spares in stock, I am just going to use it without one to do the testing and get one on order. I removed one of the resistors that had corrosion on the legs, and cleaned it up a bit before soldering it back in.

Above, it how the pcb looked after cleaning up the old solder and resoldering everything. The 3 now vacant holes in the upper left are the holes for the RIFA cap.

I tested the power supply output, and the +5V, -5V, +12V, and -12V all looked good. The +5V was right on, the others had a little variation being a bit low.

The other power supply is a Dyna Corp model. It has 4 RIFAs in it. It also has heat discoloration on the PCB.

I decided I wasn’t going to remove the 4 RIFAs, and that with the state of the PCB (and that I don’t “need” 2 working IIGS computers at this time), that I was going to just close this Power Supply up and not use it.

Now that I had one power supply working, I decided to test both mainboards with it. Since I didn’t know the condition of either monitor and I don’t have the RGB Cable, I used my bench LCD monitor with Composite video. Both mainboards powered up and showed the expected display.

I moved on to one of the Disk Drives. I just picked one of the three drives to do a cleanup and service it. I cleaned the case and cable with Windex and paper towels. I then took it apart. It was a bit awkward to get the drive out of the shell with how the front faceplate locks into the top and bottom halves. I then had to remove the top metal plate, and then the PCB and insulator and other plate below it. From there it was dusty inside, but looked fine otherwise.

I cleaned it internally with qtips and IPA. I cleaned as much of the dust from inside, as well as the rails. I also cleaned the print head with a fresh qtip and 99% IPA. I then put in new Silicone Grease on the rails and worked them a bit to make sure it was distributed well.

Just before putting everything back together, I saw something in the bottom of the drive.

Thankfully I found that and removed it before powering it on. Old gum wrappers some fool stuffed into the drive slot. With one of the drives, I wasn’t able to fully insert a disk into it before loading them up to bring them home, by the time I got home with them, I was able to insert the disk fully. I expect that was this drive, and that had moved out of the way.

I was still testing the IIGS, so I decided to test the Disk Drive before putting it back in the case.

The drive worked properly. I wasn’t making any unexpected sounds, and read the first disk just fine. I had 3 disks, and I tried the other two, and one of them worked. The last disk did not work properly, it would partially read but get to a point that it said to insert the proper disk.

That little Eyoyo monitor does a great job with Composite. It is very forgiving, and I expect when using any of my other monitors on Composite video won’t look as good.

Unfortunately Oregon Trail is not one of the disks, so that means I will have to get solution to let me play it on one of these machines. There are some other programs I would like to try out as well. I have more cleanup to do, the IIGS cases are a mess as well as everything else yet. One of the IIGS cases must be brittle, the lower frame as the one catch that holds the top was already broken when I got it, and then the second one broke when I opened it.

I finished cleaning the Disk Drive’s case and reinstalled it. I also cleaned up the intact keyboard just enough to use it, and it seemed to be working fine. I didn’t test all of the keys.

I found out these will not pass their self diagnostic without a good battery. I need a battery, and replacement for the RIFA cap. I also have to properly clean all the other parts including the IIGS cases.