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Help w. identifying Apple IIe modifications

CedsRepairs

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2020
Messages
175
Location
Belgium
Hello everyone!

I have some experience in repairing PCs, but recently got my hands on an Apple IIe, with heavy modifications, and I would appreciate some help to identify what has been done to this Apple II.

Here's an overview



First of, what is this modification (obviously some kind of tv output) and is it safe to remove ?



What are those 3 expansion cards ?



The second one seem to be yet another "video related" card ? what gives ??

What worries me the most is that 3rd card, and that strange connector that seems to plug as a replacement for some IC (is it missing now ?)



I have no idea where to start with, i'd like to go back to a raw Apple IIe with composite output, and to know more about these mods, the cards, the strange IC to DIN connector, is a chip missing there for that, etc


Any insight you'd like to share would be very welcome

thanks all
 
The board layout doesn't match that of a IIe. It looks more likely to be a II+
That in mind, the 16K ram board does exactly as it says and depending on how much ram you have onboard is adding another 16k. I also see a Videx or a clone of a Videx 80 column card. The Sup R Mod is an RF modulator that taps into the composite via a header and gave you RF out that (in your case) you could plug into a tv with a UHF tuner. Hard to tell from the photo but you should still be able to get composite from the RCA jack on the rear of the machine next to the cassette ports. You should be okay to remove that all.

Hard to really say what that last board does that has a DIN plug glued to the back.

Edited: oh I see. the DIN plug is unrelated to that last card.
The Apple II in that era had a DIP socket for stuff like joysticks. The DIN plug glued to the back and terminating at that DIP socket plug just connects into the joystick port and gives you some other joystick connector.
 
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NeXT Thanks this is much appreciated,

The box is the one of an apple II "Europlus" indeed.

As you can see from my older posts i'm mostly a Pc person, so I really don't know where to start.
The 16K RAM, OK, let's keep it aside, I guess it should just do what it says

The second card (middle one) is that you identify as a Videx (i'll google that)

This leaves us with the 3rd card, which has a 4 pin output, i'll try to make better pictures of both cards.

I must say I would have preferred a simpler start in the Apple II world, but I like a challenge;

The power supply was missing and I bought a new one.
 
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Here are much better pictures of "card 2"



As I can figure out,
Some wires come out of the RCA, and have been wired to a switch, that seems to bypass the composite signal.

Also a much stranger set of 4 wires go dirctly on some strange little PCB that bridges on top of a chip.

Any info about the difference between the 4 pins things, and the RCA thing ? I suppose the rca is the output, in composite, of what you identify as a 80 column card ?
 
Then we've got card 3 that makes no sense to me



"Pal encoder" ?
And this card is the one that is connected in many different ways to the RF modulator



I don't know where to start really :)

My best guess at this stage is
- this is an apple IIeuroplus with 16K extension RAM
- we have a 80 column card (#2), plugged on top of the regular composite output, thru an horrible "switch" allow to switch back between 40 and 80, both composite.
- we have a "pal encoder" which I suppose is there because the composite is actually NTSC (where they shipped like this ? is it an addon ?), but then the question is, is it fed the output on the 80 columns card ? The onboard one ? Or maybe both after the switch ? Or maybe it has it's own "video card" in it ?
- the output of that pal encoder is directly fed into the RF modulator, so I have a PAL output on channel 33 (like for a VCR , or RF TV)

That's not an easy II+ project to start with.

Mysteries remains
- what is the little PCB connected on the 4 wires of the 80 columns card.
- does the pal encoder take the video output from the motherboard ( black wire ) or from the switch ?
- what on earth is the horrible black connector that has on one end a DIN and on the other end a black DIP IC bridge ? Is it related to anything above ?
 
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Okay, so card #2 is without a doubt a Sup "R" Terminal 80 column card. It just adds an 80 column video mode to the Apple II.
The 16K ram addon was a common upgrade for the II+ btw. IF you had 32K already on the logic board it would max you out at 48K. You could go higher supposedly with other memory upgrades but honestly if you need 64K or more you would of gotten a IIe which started at 64K and you could add megabytes of more ram.

The third card is indeed a PAL converter Apple sold for Apple II's sold in PAL regions. I have a few ideas how that wires up but since you have both an 80 column card with an RCA jack on it (the "cheap" way some of the low cost cards worked was by injecting the video inline with the composite out) and the kludge board (the "premium" boards injected the video signal between an IC on the logic board with a little board on a pigtail) and you have the RF modulator which I believe uses the video out header on the II....but the PAL encoder I believe used the same connector....I'm not sure how everything's wired together.
 
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