The Franklin Ace 1200 was a semi-legal Apple II clone
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- #appleIIclone #franklinace
On the bench today we have a Franklin Ace 1200 which is an Apple ][+ clone and it doesn't turn on. Let's see what's wrong with it and get it working again.
Part 1: This part!
Part 2: • Fixing two stubborn 5 ...
Part 3: Coming soon
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Pro-tip for solder wick. Grab the wick and wiggle it to loosen up the braid. Allows the braid to work better, as the braid can be too tight to really absorb the solder. It's counter intuitive, but it works.
Also, while solder wick is usually impregnated with flux, adding some liquid flux after you loosen up the braid can also work wonders.
I've found you can make pretty much ANY wick in to "quality" wick simply by adding flux on it. I'm pretty sure that's the only difference in general.
@@_droid probably the copper oxidisation tolerance is technically different, but yeah in practice not likely hugely-so
@@_droid If you're desperate and you have some flux handy, you can make your own solder wick out of old speaker wire that's been roughly braided. It's a little harder to work with than store-bought wick, but it'll do the job.
@@_droid Based solely on my personal experience, I have to disagree. Some wicks are just horroble.
Solder wick is the low0ball solution - works for small jobs but crude and nearly guaranteed to destroy early thin-trace circuit boards. . A soldaput or desoldering iron is much more usable in the long term.
Hi 🙂 The Pi Pico based card you featured recently could easily be configured to run diagnostic software, and, in fact, diagnose faults on a machine which won't run diagnostic software itself, because the Pico board has its own ram and processor, and direct access to the bus - if necessary it could run on a 'dead' machine, record it's findings to the onboard flash storage on the Pico, and allow you to read them off via USB - as long as the +5v rail is sort-of functioning enough to generate 3v3 for the Pico, everything else is optional. I'd be tempted to fork the design of that card to include an i2c voltage sensor, to monitor the Apple2 power rails, so the card could be used as a data logger on a system under load, to watch for brown outs or instability. Thanks for another great video, I look forward to seeing this machine up and running - I was interested to see a lowercase v on the boot/splash screen, presumably the Franklin isn't a straight copy of a ][+ then!
I'm impressed at your knowledge on what chips are which, what they do. And their benefits or issues. Brings back memories.
In the early 90's I had a ticket to learn circuitry and more but it didn't work out. This is so interesting and intriguing. You have so much knowledge that could actually be lost soon if not documented like this.
😊agreed
Don't worry about preserving the knowledge, all this is actually common practice in workshops all over the world
Well, Apple 2 boards are all labelled in a grid and the diagram is just a double sided page. All switching PSU's are the same internally, I even switched parts between Apple 2 and PC PSU's. This Adrian guy is super motivating to watch for repairing stuff yourself! :)
My brother had an apple ][+ clone, it was made by Panasia or something like that. It was mostly compatible with Apple ][+ software. My computer was a vic20 and I would have to ask my brother to use the apple. Love the videos, very educational and takes me back to when I used these computers as a kid.
Ahoy, thanks for another in-depth video. After my Apple //e was STOLEN my older sister bought me a Franklin Ace 1100. It was like the 1200 with one drive and no Z80 board. I loved the Acr Writer word processor in 80 cols. I used it until I got my Apple /// with an Apple ///+//e card to run my Apple ][ programs then gave the Ace to my younger sister. She ran Loderunner almost exclusively lol. Thanks again, I always learn so much and looking forward to part 2. daveyb
I have been watching your videos for a year now and your videos have introduced me to vintage computing. I currently own a Mac Plus (1987 Variant) I fixed the floppy drive just last week by watching some of your drive repair videos! Keep it up Adrian!
MacPlus was my first a Mac. Excellent machine. Check out some brand new replacement SIMMs from various retro vendors.
@@tenminutetokyo2643 if you are talking about the 4MB ram simm upgrade, it was in the machine when I got it, so no need for a ram simm upgrade.
Also, when using solder wick ... use flux on it! It makes more of a difference than the brand of wick.
And the more expensive wicks have better flux powder in them which is why I think they work so much better.
@@nilz23 yep, i've found the cheapo ones dont have enough flux, or even any at all !
In that case desoldering pump would be better.
@@detalite it depends, sometimes a sucker is better, sometimes braid, i usually use sucker first, braid to get last bits off or clear holes
@@detalite there's use cases for both actually.
Rule of thumb when you fixing switching PSU: first plugging in with the incandescent lamp in series only.
Glowing filament works as a current limiter.
Those power supplies can hold a charge for quite some time. I got zapped pretty bad from some that were sitting for months until I was given them to test and repair.
I hope you cleaned the dust mat out of the power supply fan. That was pretty thick.
You repair pretty much every PC I begged my dad for back in the day. We ended up getting a C64. My friend across the street had the Atari 400 and my best friend had an Apple IIe. So I still got to test drive some interesting vintage gear.
You went the better route IMO. We went C64 too, and Aunt had Apple II's and Early Mac's.
A very nice example of a Franklin Ace. Yeah, those Rifa caps can really stink up a workbench. It's fascinating that Franklin went to such lengths as to include a filtering board. It seems like that thing brought more problems than it solved, but FCC certification was a very real thing back when computers were first coming to the mass market. As always, you do a polished presentation, and follow a very logical troubleshooting path.
"smells bad and won't turn on" described my entire senior year of high school 🤣
Great video, Adrian. I was really impressed by your description of the circuit logic in the power supply, and especially by your 'digression' into the common fault of the caps on the power filtering board, later borne out on that very unit! I learn something new every time. Thank you.
Our family's first computer was a Franklin Ace 1200! Awesome to see it again! We had a little joystick for it and played video games. Great memories!
Would love to see the continuation of this restoration.. Really enjoy your channel and seeing these computers brought back to life. Good Stuff.
I owned one of these back in the day. REALLY wish I’d realized how rare and special it was. Wish I still had it today.
MG Chemicals is awesome, and PROUDLY CANADIAN! 🇨🇦 Also, even cheap braid will work great if you put some flux on it, either liquid or even paste flux. It can also help good quality wick when working with old, crusty low-quality solder.
The Ace 1200 was my childhood computer, so I'm always happy to see them in your videos! I'm restoring one now and if it hadn't been for your video on the Ace 1000, I'd probably still be sourcing foam-and-foil keyboard contact replacements. I'd probably never figure out how that color board works, either. I'm sure my 1200 has the same capacitor problem, but my (somewhat irresponsible) solution has been not to use a GFCI outlet for now.
The printer card in slot 1 is indeed for both the parallel and serial port. The parallel port number will be the same as the slot number (PR#1). The serial port location is virtual and can be set with the jumpers/switches on the card. Setting it to slot 2 (PR#2) is the most common. Sadly, it seems that Franklin really only had serial printers in mind and it's not fully compatible with the Super Serial Card. So you'll have a hard time creating floppies for it with ADT Pro.
Unless you're really keen on adding a language card and disabling the board memory above 48k, slot 0 is best left empty. Then the standard (lowest drama) layout is putting the 80-column card in slot 3, the Z80 card in slot 4, and the floppy card - with it's life-saving keyed ribbon connectors - in slot 6
Looking forward to part 2!
Hey Adrian. Thank you for all the amazing videos !
Those filter components are there for a reason. Seems like it would be less effort to replace the X2 safety caps than it would be to remove all the components and bodge across. Even leaving the common-mode choke would have been better than just removing the whole board. That old chopper power supply probably makes some nasty noise on your mains...
Yea, I'm surprised he didn't just snip the caps off
There's X2 on the board, he replaced those.
The noise from that is probably a drop in the ocean compared to the 100s of cheap switch modes now in his house.
Hey Adrian, I just wanted to say "thank you" for recommending that solder wick. I was so disappointed by the one I was using, I thought I was doing something wrong to be honest. I got a couple of reels of the one you use and wow, day and night! This actually works! Thank you a lot!
@20:09 Adrian, Love your channel, Keep up the great work. As another tip you can put flux on the wick which will help the solder flow allowing the wick to work much better as well.
I did a stint as a high school student in an Apple computer dealer in Sechelt British Columbia, and there was a diagnostic card that you put into a slot and plugged into the joystick socket
I never owned an Ace 1200 but I worked in a computer store that sold them. Helped people set them up and "fix" them. Thanks for the trip back in time. I owned an apple II+.
Apple was able to shut down clones in the USA, but not in all countries. I'm also from Canada and at home from early 1985 we had a Taiwanese-made Apple //e clone (booted with FOX-2001 at the top of the screen). I think the same model was also sold in Australia.
The Laser128 was deemed legal in court. It was the only clone Apple couldn't shut down.
I had a clone that booted up EASY ][. It had a Z80 on the mainboard below the 6502. I used it until the power supply died. Never did figure out what it actually was. Replaced it with a real Apple //e.
Hi! I noticed you changed the title, this one is better. Thanks for the good work and looking forward to more
The power supply being a little high (5.17V instead of 5V) may have been intentional from the factory. TTL logic can typically operate just fine within +/- 10% of its 5V rating (i.e. 4.5V to 5.5V) and the 5V rails on the motherboard will drop a bit toward the extreme ends of the board (depending on trace widths and current draw). By adjusting a little higher than 5V even, it ensures that ICs with a long path back to the power supply will have plenty of voltage at all times.
All that said, 5V is probably fine here too (like I said, 4.5V is usually the minimum for proper function, so if it sags a bit under 5V at the extremes, it should be fine.)
I do love me some old fashioned snakey track PCBs, done old school at 10X size with hand placed red and green tape on a huge clear plastic sheet. I call removing the cap one leg at a time like that "walking it out". BTW, you must be the only tech UA-camr who wasn't sent an LTT screwdriver from Linus! Great video again, keep 'em coming!
I have a selection of junk IDE drives and some low voltage tungsten lamps for power supply testing. They are great for load testing without having anything valuable on the line.
The light bulb thing is a great idea. 12v automotive bulbs? I do use hard drives sometimes but they don't put much load on the 5v rail.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Yeah, I use the lightbulbs for additional load. Car headlights (I upgraded my car's headlights to LED) put a nice heavy load on the 5V rail for testing PC power supplies.
And the nice thing about the lights is they can handle out of spec voltages pretty easily
Yeah, I have homemade bulb testers too.
The average car headlight low beam is about 55w (I think the high is 65).
If you wire up the low and high beam to run at the same time it'll pull over 100w. (But it'll get hot as hell in an instant, so put it in a glass jar).
At 5v a single bulb will probably pull 40w or so with both elements (not doing the math).
The brake and tail light bulbs have a 12w and a 24w filament (1A and 2A @12v)
shame that 6V car bulbs have fallen out of favo(u)r.
@@TheDiveO Thanks for the international option :) , I would think that classic car and motorbike places would still stock 6v bulbs.
I agree. It definitely has a 70s look despite being an 80s computer.
I bet the case was designed back in the 70s. Molds were really expensive back then
LORD RIFA STRIKES AGAIN! --Londo Mollari
Hi Adrian. Look on your favourite action site for "soldering needles". These are hollow steel tubes with a handle that can be used to unclog VIAs and straighten component legs while the solder is liquified.
The shape of this one reminds me of some HP desktop computers of the late 1970s. Instead of floppies there was a small CRT and a tape drive.
The Franklin Ace 1200 was not a legal clone. They lost in court in 1983 and it took until 1988 before they could be forced to stop selling them. It was landmark in the fact it decided software could be protected by copyright.
The Laser128, however, was a legal clone. Apple lost lawsuits against them as it had been proven they didn't violate any copyrights. They licensed Basic from Microsoft directly and clean room engineered machines.
In fact... VTech was the only company making legal A2 clones.
You could always build a load for the power supplies for testing. Just see what the current and voltage rating is and apply the necessary wattage rated resistor value to the output. i.e. 12v at 2 amps would be a 24 Watt resistive load of say 6 ohms for example, to test at maximum rated current. Maybe fit a 12V fan to cool it. 😃😃😃
Regarding desoldering braid: you can make even low quality Chinese brands work well with a simple prep step: take some liquid rosin flux and apply a little to the portion of the desoldering braid that you're going to use with a q-tip; give it a minute or two for the alcohol to evaporate. It works every time.
you should do a montage video of all the RIFA removals/replacements, and call it "RIFA madness"
The Franklin disk controller was licensed from a company that had developed it. The Apple disk controller design was patented, as it uses a ROM and a state machine to operate. The card used in the Franklin is a very different design which required more chips to implement but did not infringe the Apple patent.
The Franklin Ace was my first "real" computer. Before that, I had a TI 99-4a. Had to get the Franklin because it was what my parents could afford.
I have a Franklin 1200 and wish i had the color board LUCKY FIND. Also I have the same exact board as well. The newer ones are green. I honestly ascetically like the color.
I bought an Apple II clone a while back. It had absolutely no branding anywhere, and it also had 8 slots and 64K of memory, although the board layout was a bit different to the Franklin. And also unlike the Franklin, it did have the cassette input/output circuitry populated. It was missing the power supply, so I made a bracket to hold a TFX power supply, which fit perfectly, and I sourced the special power connector, although I got stuck with crimping it since none of my crimpers fit the contacts. I suspect the original one suffered a fate similar to yours, Rifa cap burnt out and took the fuse with it, then the owner pulled it with the intention of getting it replaced and never did. Either that or the tossed it because of the smell.
Anyway, I really want a IIe to round out my collection. I've got a IIc that came missing the floppy drive, which I've mentioned in the past. Sadly those old Apple machines are becoming difficult to find for a reasonable price.
I generally feel that old computers are interesting, but old power supplies are a liability. There are so many modern replacements which are both not made out of forty-year-old components, but also typically far more efficient, and less cursed than this one! Plus, stuff like not having mains voltage in the computer makes me much more comfortable. Interesting to see one repaired, though.
A good tip with solder wick is to apply a little flux to it, it literally super-charges the stuff.
Franklin always makes me think of the turtle. :p
Oh! And see you at VCF East - I should be able to go this year.
I'm foaming at the mouth waiting for pt 2 "refoam and foil! LOL
Loving to see hands on repair work!!!
Great work Adrian I like to see vintage computer's working.
Reminds me of fixing up a 386 board semi-recently, had mild damage from a varta, just had to replace a socket.
Nice hefty little unit!
My first computer was a Franklin ACE 1000. Loved it! ❤
Excuse me asking this, but do you speed up your main channel videos or do you script them somewhat before filming them (because it's surely not just the editing)? Your presentation has got super-tight. :)
He does have an ease on camera
I've seen some strange stuff inside a computer. Before you explained what it was @9:59, I thought it was a couple of Doritos!
A good trick for making cheaper solder wick work better is to add flux before you try to clean up the solder with it. The problem with the cheaper wicks is simple. They aren't made from high grade copper so they don't wet as easily thus solder won't stick to them as well. If you add some flux it etches away some of the impurities allowing for much more liberal wetting.
Ohh, I love that 70s style design! So cool.
Have you considered making a dummy load for testing PSUs that need a load? You could use super high wattage resistors with values that give about the same load as the running machine. Worst case you blow up some resistors. You could actually even use a microcontroller to have it display all your rail voltages at once, too
I've smelled the RIFA capacitor also. Have you ever smelled reefer coming from a computer? Keep up the good work and excellent content Adrian.
Excellent video and work! I know there is a diagnostic card for the IIe but not heard of one for the II+. If you find one, please use it in a video as it would be great to add to a collection. Thanks for sharing
you sir, are truly a genius in my eyes. Respect
I had one of these. I loved it.
Ty for the video greetings from the Netherlands
For solving your cheap wick problems, just soak it in some new flux. I have some chinese wicks which don't work very well and new flux improves them a lot
I always wonder why people don't first visually check the inside covers of any system or module for the magic smoke traces that often point directly to where the faults are. Maybe Adrian is briefly looking as he disassembles anything, but off camera or edited out. It's often saved me a lot of time to do so.
From what I've seen, it is something he keeps an eye out for, and will point out what he notices during teardown.
15:07 You are making a dangerous assumption here, the one that the fuse blown before you got the computer in your hands. If the fuse blew at the short moment you plugged it in, power could have made it to the caps
Wish my life was full of things that fixed themselves.
Regarding the cheap/crap solder braid, if you add a bit of flux, it transforms it!
Either a flux pen or syringe squirt.
Adrian is gonna fix something again? Fellas, get your Deoxid cans out to show your appreciation! 😉
Connector looks like a Molex Mini-Fit connector (or maybe a Mini-Fit Jr.). Common in power supply applications.
Great sampling opportunities at 14:00 and 17:35 for anybody doing dub techno or whatever
I grew up as (and still am) an Atari 8-bit guy, but always thought the Franklins were pretty cool, especially the 2000 with two disk drives and a detachable keyboard.
Kewlest box design
The Scent is strong with this one!
this channel is f'in great...so is "two".
This just made me wonder: why did printers use the parallel interface, while computer-to-computer comms used serial? Printers of this era were dot matrix, text only - so the bandwidth needs are dictated by the (very slow) movement of the print head. Yet computer communications could've easily used the extra bandwidth of a parallel interface. Hysterical raisins give me a headache. Great video as always!
Parallel interfaces have an inverse relationship between speed and distance. The old Centronics printer port was reliable up to about 10 feet from the computer. Some computer-printer combos could go a bit farther. The main issue is that all the signals have to arrive within a certain time window, and there are a lot of factors that can influence the propagation of a signal down a wire. Plus, the longer two signal wires ran parallel to each other, the more likely that some of one signal will transfer to the other (crosstalk).
Serial, specifically RS-232-C, could go hundreds of feet with no issues.
There were peripherals that used the serial port. There were some external storage systems that used the parallel port; I believe the Zip drive was one of them. And EPROM burners definitely used them.
Internally, everything is parallel. To add a serial port means you have to add the UART chips at both ends to convert. Parallel takes more wires and gets expensive when you have to run for a long ways. Bottom line, more wire is cheaper when you're talking 10 feet. But more electronics is cheaper when you're talking about wiring an office building.
@@JamieStuff Good points. I remember scanners and ZIP disks being on the parallel port, but that was much later (1990s). I guess I hadn't realized that people would actually want to run such long cables, but that makes sense when you had a minicomputer and several RS232 terminals in different offices.
@@markmuir7338Scanners and Zip drives would have needed the bandwidth of the parallel port, too. Or, better yet, SCSI, which was also parallel but much faster.
I once had a SyQuest EZ-Drive (HDD with 135MB removable platters) that connected to the parallel port, and when I took it apart, it turned out to simply be an enclosure around a SCSI drive, which could be straightforwardly mounted inside a computer instead. I didn't think to test if it was any faster that way, but I imagine it probably was.
Bad assumption on those caps. Ive seen a hole burned in an antistatic mat by a "dead" psu with open primary fuse. Always check.
Awesome looking machine. Enjoy VCF :)
Always with the RIFA Madness! XD
I took a shot every time you said RIFA and now I can't find the chair I'm sitting in. Just kidding! A very awesome video, can't wait to watch the keyboard repair!
Don't fear the Rifa!
that looks like what if Lear/Siegler designed a whole computer and not just a terminal!
Looking at the traces, was the PSU board drawn free hand? This is not a criticism. I know that a lot of designs were done by hand. I am imagining a pattern drawn by hand which was then printed onto production boards prior to etching.
You might consider getting some load resistors for testing before plugging into the actual PC
Someone suggested some 12v light bulbs as a cheap and easy way to apply load
You should get some 12v incandescent bulbs while you still can find them easily.
The 'paint' on that pot is likely Glyptal, a high-voltage varnish that often does double duty in 'locking' important adjustments in place.
If that keyboard uses the same switches as the Keytronic KB-101, foam and foil is not my favorite name for it. The shiny "foil" is not conductive, as they are capacitance switches. This is pretty nice, as they are essentially immune to dust and dirt since a keystroke would still be registered no matter if they're new or dirty. They had individual rubber domes for the restore force that came in different strengths so customization was possible. I have a number of these keyboards and the subjective key feel ranges from wonderful to not wonderful at all, depending I guess on which domes they were ordered with. Or maybe sunspots? In any case, I think the tech deserves more respect than it gets. 🙂
My first experience with an Apple ][ was on a _Redstone_ apple clone. In my country they were called "Tapples", short for Taiwanese Apples. These were often direct copies without any regard for infringement.
My first PC was the Franklin PC 8000
Add some Amtech 559 flux when soldering / using the wick and it will help even the most mediocre wick absorb the solder faster and better.
I bet Flux is what has a lot to do with the quality
@@danman32 I wouldn't doubt it. It certainly helps the solder flow and improves the transfer both in terms of the finish and adhesion to the solder joints, and in removal with wick. I recommend Amtech 559 as it's what I use myself, generally from Rossmann Repair or Northridgefix as it's a no clean non-corrosive that really does work well.
I don't use the desoldering braid very much. Still have a little left in the 5' spool from Radio Shack that I purchased 15 years ago. 🙂
Ha! This 1200 is like the Portrait of Dorian Gray companion to the 1200 I recently sold on eBay. On mine, the RIFAs were fine and all of the keyboard keys worked. Only issues were the on-board WOZ machine PAL died (my fault) and one of the floppies needed alignment.
Adrian Black stars in "Rifa Madness"
5.1v should be fine as that's only 2% high.
It might even compensate for additional load.
TTL requires 5V +/- 0.25V. So 5.1 is perfectly fine. It's better to be a bit high at the power supply to guarantee the voltage will be at least 4.75 by the time it reaches the chips. You're never going to overvoltage a chip at 5.1v.
very exciting ! really enjoyed this video - re the test cart, your smart, why not make your own :)
It is interesting how line noise suppression techniques have evolved over time. LOL that they just put regular caps across the line back then and expected that it would be OK. OK for a while I guess but not good long term.
it IS ok, problem is the caps, some do have issues long term, eg. paper dielectric based RIFAs, notorious for trouble, never..yet..had a poly mains cap fail...
You think that's bad, look at guitar amp repair. The call them "death caps" for a reason. When they short, they can connect the chassis to mains. (Only two prong power plugs). Then when the guitarist touches the grounded mics ... some have actually died from that.
@@russellhltn1396 those RIFAs, or any similar paper based caps across mains or from mains to ungrounded casing/common need replacing on sight! their Y2 types , like any other Y2 are 'supposed' to 'fail safe' ... those ones on that little board 'could' be 'proper' Y or Y2 types(large one should be an X or X2) as i have seen ones like that, not yet had a bad one .... but if the epoxy coating has cracked like with RIFAs, could very well also go resistive..
@@andygozzo72 That's what I see in all the guitar amp repairs - remove death caps and replace with 3 prong plugs - even amps they're trying to preserve for historical value.
Foam and foiled... ugh! Nice repair of an Ace 1200!
BTW, the Ace 1200 did have infringing ROMs. I believe they are copies of the Apple II+ ROMs with the banner text replaced.
I have an Ace 1000 Plus, which differs from yours by having the color burst and floppy controller circuitry integrated onto the motherboard. But it also has infringing ROMs (Apple v. Franklin was still winding its way through the court system on appeals).
The reason why Franklin stayed on the market so long is because the courts initially ruled that compiled binaries could not be copyrighted. They eventually, when the Franklin Ace 500 and Franklin Ace 2000, were forced to come up with non-infringing ROMs before they were ultimately barred from ever selling computers of any type as conditions of the settlement of Apple v. Franklin.
As an interim solution until the final rulings, Franklin introduced WOMBAT. Write Once Memory Boot At Turnon. This loaded ROMs from floppy at boot. Where you got the ROM images was up to you.
We used to restore the color on Franklin ACE computers. Prior to the add-on color board, Franklin would leave out a few components and ground the chroma summing network to prevent color from working. Franklin also removed the cassette routines from their ROMs.
I have an Ace 1200 with a higher serial number than Adrian's (#50,000-ish). There is a sticker added to the motherboard giving credit to Apple "Apple Start ROM (c) 1976, 1978, Apple Soft ROM (c) 1978." It was my understanding that the only difference was replacing the cassette routines with support for lower-case letters.
Nice can’t wait for part two!
I know you're not much for RF shielding but I'd love to see you find and fix the fault/short in the filtering board as well.
He said you'd just need to replace the capacitors with the right type.
Reefa MADNESS!
Fusing neutral is dangerous. Because neutral = ground in your service panel. In this design you, the computer case, etc are now the neutral line. You should always cut hot/line.
70's/80's tech and how far things have improved.
If you don't make at least $150,000 a year at your occupation then they are ripping you off. You're awesome!!!!
more Rifa Madness 😊