Oops, my obsession with computers from my childhood strikes again!

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, cable finished and double checked with the multimeter:

PXL_20240123_085003036.jpg

The hot glue is there because about half of the wires are not connected, so I trimmed down the cable to make it a bit easier to solder, and wanted to be sure all the trimmed wires were well insulated.

Cable fitted next to the serial port, blue socket is parallel:

PXL_20240123_092201337.jpg

But I've realised the 'D' of the joystick port is the wrong way round and my OCD compels me to turn it round to match the serial and parallel ports orientation. (EDIT: This is done :) )

Busy inside now with all the cards and cable in place:

PXL_20240123_092220380.jpg

All looking good:

PXL_20240123_095442853.jpg

[PhilC]

@rubber_jonnie that makes mine with me mere 5 cards look positively empty :lol:

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie that makes mine with me mere 5 cards look positively empty :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Clearly you need more cards :)

[HigashiJun]

Looks even better now !

Really great for such an old retro computer.

[rubber_jonnie]

Looks even better now !

Really great for such an old retro computer.

It is indeed an impressive machine. Next I need to hook up my old dot matrix printer and test it out.

I need to try a terminal program too, make sure serial works.

[HigashiJun]

@rubber_jonnie

Of course, the printer port is non bi-directionnal, isn't it ?

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie

Of course, the printer port is non bi-directionnal, isn't it ?

Correct, output to printer only.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so after breakfast, but before work, I managed to drop the Yellowstone card in the Apple IIe.

I can now set the FloppyEMU as a Smartport device:

IMG20240312091539.jpg

In other words a hard drive, and I can boot from it:

IMG20240312091548.jpg

It will also work as a 3 1/2" FDD, from which I booted ADTPro:

IMG20240312092005.jpg

Interestingly my original FDD controller was built by somebody and has been really reliable:

IMG20240312091544.jpg

So I'm keeping that for a potential 2nd IIe build with my spare parts :)

As well as what I've shown above, it'll also emulate Dual 5 1/4" floppy drives and a couple of other things, so it does expand on what you can do quite a lot.

There is one 'Con' to all the 'Pro's' though, in that the Aplle IIe no longer boots direct to floppy, instead requiring a PR#6 command to be issued from the command line.

It's an unfortunate side effect of the way the Yellowstone works, but for me that really isn't an issue and I can certainly live with it.

[rubber_jonnie]

Hmm, I just discovered another con to the Yellowstone.

If I try to boot to CP/M it doesn't play nice, but if I hit the compatibility switch (a dip switch on the Yellowstone that makes it just a Disk ][ controller) it's fine. Perhaps an external switch is required...

[rubber_jonnie]

So my 'not booting to CP/M' problem is solved.

I hooked up a small switch that when closed effectively closes the 4t switch of the dip switch on the Yellowstone so that I can select either compatibility with Disk ][ or full Yellowstone mode:

IMG20240312231553.jpg

Sorry the pic isn't great, but it was late and I was tired...