I am seriously thinking about getting their apple one replica. Does anyone know much about it? I have a little knowledge of soldering so I can trying to debate and decide whether I should get the kit or the one that's all together and tested. Trying to see if it is not worth fooling with the kit or not. Is there a good manual or book with instructions. Thanks guys!
- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
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Briel Replica One computer
- Thread starter appleguy
- Start date
Briel's here btw and can comment too although obviously he's at a different soldering experience level ;-) I believe the Replica-1 is rated as the easiest to solder out of all his kits. On the bright side he's made most things very easy and in most cases (I think this one is the same) most of the resistors and leds are bi-directional so unlike traditional electronics where you connect it backwards you blow the part in his kits they're more friendly and still function. The exception are resistor strips and the ICs of course but they'll be laid out in the schematic for ya. I think the fun and experience is good for soldering and depending on your budget it's a pretty friendly price range. He usually can even ship you a replacement part (not sure what cost) if you do happen to mess up. Where are you located? Ironically he'll be at the KansasFest Apple II convention in 2 weeks if you're anywhere close to that and have some money saved up, or he also frequents many of the Vintage Computer Festivals with soldering kit classes. It's mostly just him there to help you if you have trouble but that's where I built the MicroKim. That was certainly my largest soldering project I've done from scratch although I've soldered smaller things before so I wasn't completely new to the concept.
I'm not always on top of all the retro computing events around. Someone else from southeast might know though. VCF East just ended but is annual and north (yeah a stretch I know, the only relation you have is the east part lol). VCFMW is in Illinois. VCF South/Southwest is in Arlington (Dallas), TX but hasn't grown in size enough to get vendors or pros like Vince down there yet.. hopefully something that will change very soon as they've received more computer museums collaborating with the event. Vince may chime in as well or you might search around his site's events page to see what sort of places he's been specifically.
I'd be down for a TX trip! I love Texas (minus the heat!) I can work out going out there if enough people sign up for a workshop 
When I lived in Ohio I was really close to Chicago and could drive out to NJ for the East show too. Now, I live in SoCal and can't drive out. Still, Kansas Fest has recruited me and their workshop support if really large. Last year we had 20 people build my Apple II MP3 player card and every one of them worked!
The VCF shows are amazing. Every time I've been to one, I see some machine I've never seen before. The people are great and the speeches are informative.
This year I went to Maker Faire. It isn't a vintage show, but Erik who runs this site was there and I couldn't get enough. It is geared towards people who build things but it is truly a MUST SEE event. I'll probably go every year from now on!
Vince
When I lived in Ohio I was really close to Chicago and could drive out to NJ for the East show too. Now, I live in SoCal and can't drive out. Still, Kansas Fest has recruited me and their workshop support if really large. Last year we had 20 people build my Apple II MP3 player card and every one of them worked! The VCF shows are amazing. Every time I've been to one, I see some machine I've never seen before. The people are great and the speeches are informative.
This year I went to Maker Faire. It isn't a vintage show, but Erik who runs this site was there and I couldn't get enough. It is geared towards people who build things but it is truly a MUST SEE event. I'll probably go every year from now on!
Vince
This is a pretty late response, but the Replica-1 has a PS/2 port, so I'm assuming a standard PS/2 keyboard will work with it.
http://www.applefritter.com/node/6009
That keyboard looks great. I don't know what it is, but you could always ask.
abritdownunder
Member
I'm very tempted to get one of the Apple 1 kits too. Reading through what's been said on this thread, I think the kit would be great for two reasons:
1. I'd like to play around with an Apple 1 but don't have $160k to spend, and
2. I need the practice at soldering and a project like this (with instructions) would be pretty useful.
I've never used a multimeter before either, so some practice with one of those would be good too, before I need to do something system critical with another system. I just have to explain that to my partner, who has a problem with why all these "old computers" have suddenly taken over the house!
On the Briel website they have a number of kits that go with the Apple 1 kit, expansions kits and IO kits. Does anyone know what is needed to be able to hook up a monitor and keyboard. Will the basic $149 kit be enough or do I need the IO kit too?
1. I'd like to play around with an Apple 1 but don't have $160k to spend, and
2. I need the practice at soldering and a project like this (with instructions) would be pretty useful.
I've never used a multimeter before either, so some practice with one of those would be good too, before I need to do something system critical with another system. I just have to explain that to my partner, who has a problem with why all these "old computers" have suddenly taken over the house!
On the Briel website they have a number of kits that go with the Apple 1 kit, expansions kits and IO kits. Does anyone know what is needed to be able to hook up a monitor and keyboard. Will the basic $149 kit be enough or do I need the IO kit too?
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