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Franklin Ace 2x00: A few questions

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BigPete

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Oct 19, 2020
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Hello!

I recently rescued my childhood computer from the depths of my parents storage: A Franklin ACE 2200.

Unfortunately I do not have any of the Boot disks for BASIC or DOS that came with the machine nor do I have the keyboard. They are likely still at the house somewhere but over the years the boxes they were stored in got separated. Hopefully I'll be able to find them at a later time, but if not does anyone have info on the keyboard? it doesn't use a standard DIN plug but rather a 9-pin serial style port.

There isn't a ton of information on this machine out on the internet that I was able to find.

I am not even sure if it boots at the moment because I don't really want to power it on until I've had a chance to take a look at the power supply and check voltages/caps. It been sitting in a closet for close to 30 years so I want to be careful before jumping into it.
 
Nice save! You just need to dig up the rest of it. I found a few links, the user manual is at archive.org, it might have details on the keyboard or connector pinout. 100megs PDF, I didn't download it to check.
https://archive.org/details/Frankli...Users_Reference_Manual_1985_Franklin_Computer

Some pics and a bit of info at old computer .net and .org:
http://www.oldcomputers.net/ace2100.html
https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=769

Lastly, a long look at Apple II clones here:
https://apple2history.org/history/ah12/

I don't have much Apple II experience, though I have a nice IIc with extras. I worked at a newspaper in the early '90s and we used some sort of II clone to run a program to port our stories and ad compositions with embedded codes to operate a Compugraphic phototypesetting unit. I ran a TI99/4A at home and the office gal used my Osborne Model 1. The TI-produced text files were put on a BBS program I set up. I'd call home from work and have my wife put the TI online to get them. The Osborne using Wordstar brought them in by modem. How we got that hodgepodge of old computers to work together was a bit of luck and magic.

Wish I could remember which Apple clone it was... :)
-Ed
 
Thank you Ed.

This info was quite helpful. I was able to get into the case and while it was pretty dusty everything looks pretty good. Going to start cleaning it up and do a closer inspection on the power supply before testing it out.

Probably will be a month or so before I'm able to get back to look for the keyboard and disks. I'll update this thread from time to time if I get anywhere with it.
 
If you can't find the keyboard I can probably help with a temporary fix. Lots of people make adapters that take a PS/2 keyboard and covert to a parallel interface like Apple and earlier Franklins used, but the 2x00 series used a serial interface. I made a converter that could write the PS/2 keyboard data to the ACE using the serial protocol. It's all Arduino based, so easy to move from my board to a generic Arduino. It's been a while, but should still have the code on one of my development machines.

Bob
Former Franklin software engineer
 
BobApplegate said:
If you can't find the keyboard I can probably help with a temporary fix. Lots of people make adapters that take a PS/2 keyboard and covert to a parallel interface like Apple and earlier Franklins used, but the 2x00 series used a serial interface. I made a converter that could write the PS/2 keyboard data to the ACE using the serial protocol. It's all Arduino based, so easy to move from my board to a generic Arduino. It's been a while, but should still have the code on one of my development machines.

Bob
Former Franklin software engineer
Click to expand...

Hello Bob!

In doing research on this machine I’ve seen your name come up quite a bit. I am very appreciative of the info and context you have provided on the Franklin machines over the years. Absolutely fascinating information. I did stumble upon images of the demo and diag disks you wrote for the 2x00 computers on an archive of the apple2clones.com forum from 2006 or so. I don’t really have any way to write these to disk at the moment but hopefully someday I can do so.

Do you happen to know if this keyboard is the same Keytronic foam and foil style as on the 1000?

As for an update on the 2200:

The Disks and Keyboard have been located! It will probably be Thanksgiving or so before I can get there to pick them up though.

I’ve inspected the board and it looks to be in good shape. No visible corrosion.

I plugged in into a display via the composite output and fired it up. I honestly don’t recall what it used to boot up in to. BASIC or a Prompt I think, but I don’t really remember. I was in Middle School the last time I used it. At any rate, it didn’t get that far. I took a pic of the screen but have to reduce the file size before I can attach it here so I’ll do it in the next post.

I don’t have a Oscilloscope so troubleshooting is probably going to be a lot of trial and error. First I think I’ll check the ICs for oxidation and reseat them in the sockets just to make sure nothing came loose.

Would be nice to have a technical manual with schematics. I don’t know if one was ever made for the 2x00 or if it’s similar enough to the //e to work from that.

I’ll continue to provide updates as things progress.
 
BigPete said:
Hello Bob!

In doing research on this machine I’ve seen your name come up quite a bit. I am very appreciative of the info and context you have provided on the Franklin machines over the years. Absolutely fascinating information. I did stumble upon images of the demo and diag disks you wrote for the 2x00 computers on an archive of the apple2clones.com forum from 2006 or so. I don’t really have any way to write these to disk at the moment but hopefully someday I can do so.

Do you happen to know if this keyboard is the same Keytronic foam and foil style as on the 1000?

As for an update on the 2200:

The Disks and Keyboard have been located! It will probably be Thanksgiving or so before I can get there to pick them up though.

I’ve inspected the board and it looks to be in good shape. No visible corrosion.

I plugged in into a display via the composite output and fired it up. I honestly don’t recall what it used to boot up in to. BASIC or a Prompt I think, but I don’t really remember. I was in Middle School the last time I used it. At any rate, it didn’t get that far. I took a pic of the screen but have to reduce the file size before I can attach it here so I’ll do it in the next post.

I don’t have a Oscilloscope so troubleshooting is probably going to be a lot of trial and error. First I think I’ll check the ICs for oxidation and reseat them in the sockets just to make sure nothing came loose.

Would be nice to have a technical manual with schematics. I don’t know if one was ever made for the 2x00 or if it’s similar enough to the //e to work from that.

I’ll continue to provide updates as things progress.
Click to expand...

Screenshot referenced above:

B9D0A560-991D-4474-BDD1-26E236E7753F.jpeg
 

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I'm sure there are lots of docs floating around the net, but I don't have much. At one point I had the 2x00 tech ref manual which was a preliminary version that they gave me to code up the dealer diagnostics and demo disks, but I haven't seen it in years. It might have been given to a Franklin collector.

Bob
 
I'm about to send the source code and all my development files for the dealer demo to a Franklin collector. If you've got a way to read/write the disks, I could loan them to you to copy but I definitely need them back. It's nothing too fancy, just some code to pull in images from the floppy and display them. It might use the extended RAM to store images once loaded; I kind of forget what all it did. If interested, let me know.

I doubt the keyboard is from Keytronics but don't know that for a fact. Franklin bought those keyboards for the 100/1x00 and did assembly of the machines in our factory in NJ. The 2x00 was bought as a pre-built unit from Foxcon (sp?) so it's probably sourced in China. Same for the 8000 series; bought from overseas and arrived ready to ship to dealers.

The 2x00 is not at all the //e design, so those schematics won't help. Not sure what might be on the web but I suspect someone has schematics out there. During the 2x00 era there wasn't really an Engineering department so I offered technical help to the people in customer support, and never had a schematic of the machine for myself.

Bob
 
A quick update:

Having obtained the Keyboard, a few Disks, and the user manual I was finally able to do some testing.

BASIC is working as expected, and I am able to boot the FDOS disk. For the most part all of the software I had was working, with the exception of a copy of UpTime Magazine Volume 13 No 7.

The only problem I've come across is the 'X' key on the keyboard isn't working. I'll likely try to disassemble it and troubleshoot when I have some additional free time.

Now I just need to obtain a joystick and maybe a floppy Emu since I still don't really have a way to write to 5.25 floppys.

Thanks for everyone's input.
 
BobApplegate said:
If you can't find the keyboard I can probably help with a temporary fix. Lots of people make adapters that take a PS/2 keyboard and covert to a parallel interface like Apple and earlier Franklins used, but the 2x00 series used a serial interface. I made a converter that could write the PS/2 keyboard data to the ACE using the serial protocol. It's all Arduino based, so easy to move from my board to a generic Arduino. It's been a while, but should still have the code on one of my development machines.

Bob
Former Franklin software engineer
Click to expand...

Hiya Bob! If it's still readily accessible, I'd love to take a look at this code, or, failing that, any information you have on the 2x00's keyboard interface. I've recently come across a keyboardless 2200 that I'd like to start playing with. Thanks in advance!

--John Riney
 
Hi John,

I found it. It is not a complete keyboard replacement but it does have code to send keys to the ACE-2xxx machines using an Arduino. You can take my AKE (Ace Keyboard Emulator) code which works with a normal parallel interface, then take two functions out of the 2xxx code and it should form a complete replacement.

Somewhere I was sure I had a complete system running but have not found it so far.

What's the best way to share the code with you?

Bob
 
Have you looked into ADTPro in order to read / write floppies? I use it for Apple II disks, If the 2200 is compatible with the Apple II then ADTPro is what you need.
 
oldpcguy said:
Have you looked into ADTPro in order to read / write floppies? I use it for Apple II disks, If the 2200 is compatible with the Apple II then ADTPro is what you need.
Click to expand...

Oh, this looks like a great solution! I’ll have to give it a try. Thank you!
 
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