US SELLER: complete, tested IC kit (for Apple-1 clones like Mimeo, Newton, etc.)

Description

Long awaited by many ... here it comes ! - - - another one of my famous IC kits for the Apple-1 builder !
NOW MADE EVEN BETTER ! NOW CONTAINS ALL THE LITTLE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE PARTS, TOO !
WORLDWIDE THE ONLY APPLE-1 KIT WITH PROVEN PARTS AND THE ICs TESTED IN A REAL APPLE-1 !
This is a complete
IC kit
which comprises
all
of the
ICs
needed to build an Apple-1 and an ACI based on any of the currently available PCBs, like Mimeo, Newton, or the "Apple 1 Replica" PCB.
Unlike my previous kits
,
this kit now contains all the small passive and active components
needed to fully populate an Apple-1 motherboard and an ACI card, at a slightly increased starting price to pay for these added components. I do this as a "test ballon" and if buyers like it, all my future kits will have these additional parts.
Note that you still need to buy the following components elsewhere, which are not included in this auction:
the PCBs, the IC sockets, the three "big blue" electrolytic filter capacitors, the heatsink for the LM323K regulator, and the transformers, plus associated wires and cables.This said, it's not yet a full kit with all parts for an Apple-1 build, but it is much, much improved over my previous offerings. (Some buyers reported difficulties with buying certain components in the small quantities needed, so I decided do this for you --- and by adding these extra parts at cost I save you a lot of time, frustration and money, especially if you don't live in the Americas and can't rummage through surplus stores for rare vintage components made in the USA during the 1970s and 1980s).
The PROMs with the original firmware for both the Apple-1 and the ACI are included (with permission from Woz). Many of these ICs have desirable late 1970s or early 1980s date codes. Some may be plug-in compatible substitutions, depending on the individual kit, i.e. Signetics or Rockwell 6520A in lieu of the Motorola 6820 PIA, AMD AM1404 in lieu of Signetics 2504, Synertek 6502B (3 Mhz type) or equivalent Rockwell 6502-34 instead of a standard 1Mhz 6502, but all these substitutions (and a few others) are proven to work and help to reduce your costs while at the same time contributing to improve overall system reliability. The faster CPU will widen your DRAM timing margins so you don't need to fiddle with the notorius 74123 oneshot which with the slower 1MHz 6502 aims to hit a narrow go/nogo window only 70ns wide.To avoid any issues with that, I also provide all the critical timing components in my kits so you don't need an oscilloscope for a successful build. A cheap digital multimeter is good enough ! This improved kit comes with the DS0025 clock drivers (same type as in the originals and very hard to find at a good price) and with an added hidden page in the monitor PROMs which, after activation, runs diagnostics (i.e. as seen in the 10th picture) and a powerful DRAM test. This is the same software  I use in my burn-in rigs to qualify all the ICs. And it's really a great feature to verify your build is healthy !
You will get exactly the IC set shown in the first picture. All ICs are arranged in the same layout they should go into your build for best results (each ESD foam strip corresponds to one row D (top) to A (bottom), some ICs are on the backside of the ESD foam strips. The closeup pictures that follow should allow you to inspect IC types and date codes.
(Note: this is not the same IC set as the previous auction, and hence, new photos !) The white items are the 4-pin and 6-pin video and power connectors for the Apple-1 motherboard. Unlike my earlier kits, which had the old 1970s vintage connectors, these white ones are new, but they are not milky-translucent anymore. This kit is the third one which also contains all the carbon composition resistors, diodes, ceramic capacitors and also the 44-pin connector seen in the photos. (This kit
does not contain
the big 5300uF/15V and 2400uF/25V electrolytic capacitors, sorry, but in the "Tips & Tricks" pdf you will get from me I will show you many low cost alternatives (i.e. ~ for a set of three substitutes of current manufacture) unless you want to buy the set of three Sprague 39D from Unicorn for about 0 --- this is the reason why I don't put those into my kits. I don't want to force you to waste that kind of money on three capacitors for which there are alternatives, even blue ones from Sprague who look the same as the originals, although with different capacitance / voltage ratings. All alternatives I propose have been tested in my builds. I only recommend things that work and I have myself tried out in my own lab. So don't worry about these three capacitors. You can buy them easily from many other vendors / distributors but you will have to pick a price point you like ;-)
Also
be aware that these resistors and capacitors
are 30-50 years old "new old stock" and have
tarnished leads
due to age, which only a few of the resistors have, most resistors leads are good, but all the brown ceramic disk bypass capacitors I could find are somewhat tarnished (picture #8 - see "OPTION" below). However, all the components I offer in this auction come from the same parts stock I use to build my own Apple-1 clones and all of them are proven to work ! Alas, there is no other way to get authentic looking, 50 years old vintage parts to build Apple-1 clones that look "real". But since I started selling my kits I have learned that most builders want Apple-1 builds which look as close to the originals as possible. So
you need to expend the extra work to clean these tarnished leads
before you can solder them. Here in the USA you would use DeOxit D5 spray or Tarn-X fluid you can find at Home Depot. European builders would use "Kontakt 60" Spray from Kontakt Chemie of Germany.
YOU HAVE AN OPTION: (see parts in photo #8):
If you request so by sending me a message after you won the auction, and before you pay, I can replace these seventeen brown 100nF bypass capacitors with the somewhat tarnished leads against more modern, small, blue, boxy looking bypass capacitors which would fit for an "NTI" style Apple-1 build, but they are not exactly the same as in the 1st Apple-1 seen in their magazine ad or in the second Apple-1 production run that is known as the "NTI" version. The first Apple-1 production run (those for Byte Shop) had brown BEL brand disc shaped bypass capacitors, and the substitutes I offer in this auction come very close in looks, despite they are not the BEL brand, which can be found elsewhere, but expect to pay 0 for a set of seventeen of those BEL ones (and they are salvaged). I don't support such excesses. I want that my parts kits are affordable and as close to the original looks as economically viable. (about the tarnish: it's not bad enough for the camera to reproduce it in a photo. But the brown capacitors definitely need some cleaning of the leads for best soldering results, and the blue ones don't. This is the same parts stock I use for my own builds, so I know. Nasty "activated flux" solder may do the job without such cleaning, but its fumes are a health hazard, so I don't use it myself and I don't recommend it to you.)
I've also added some extra passive components (in the yellow box) which I recommend you to implement the reliability mods I have published on Applefritter. I will give you the links to that information and also my contact for free technical advice for you Apple-1 build. This is an experiment for me to find out if I have succeeded in fixing all the quirks of the Apple-1, so I won't let you down !   I want you to succeed ! This is an important experiment for me to prove that I did a complete job in fixing the Apple-1 (my claim to fame, I don't do this for profit).
The LM323 regulator of this kit is new old stock, and has nice long legs. All ICs (except the TO-220 regulators and the 6 ICs in the ACI) have been burned-in / tested in one of my Apple-1 builds for four weeks, running 24/7. Reason for this exception: the TO220 and the six ICs in the ACI are abundant, and so far all have worked flawlessly. The ACI PROMs are tested by the Data I/O programmer anyways, and the 74LSxx and the LM311 are new enough to have been 100% tested by their manufacturers. I used to test those in the past, too, but never had a problem with them. Other than the 40+ years old ICs that go into the mainboard, which are a nightmare. I have piles and piles of bad ones I weeded out with my burn-in process (you can see these in the "Chamber of Horrors" thread in the Apple-1 forum on Applefritter). A typical builder has no chance to succeed with that, this is why I do it for you !
IMPORTANT: I put a slip with contact information into each kit, where you can reach me in case of any questions regarding your Apple-1 build. Don't be afraid, I don't bite ;-) and I will not give your data away to anyone. This is a "free" counseling service for Apple-1 builders you already paid for when buying this kit. No extra charges ! Please use this service ! I had some cases of builders never contacting me and then trying to guess which part goes where, or instead of asking me for good parts sources they were ripped off by price gougers. Be smart and use my after sales service you already paid for with the kit ! My free-of-charge "Tips & Tricks" pdf will save you from a lot of expensive pitfalls ! Don't buy any further parts and any PCBs before you have my
"Tips & Tricks" which discusses all the options you have ! (No, I don't sell any of these parts ... but I can point you to the right choices.)
INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS WELCOME: but please be aware that you will have to pay for import duties / customs fees of your country yourself, and no, sorry, I won't declare a lower value for you. Also be aware that a parcel to Europe nowadays can take 8 weeks (!) from shipping date to delivery at your door, which is outrageous, but I can't change that. The USPS told me that even Priority Mail International Parcels, despite having much higher postage, may be that slow, this is why I don't offer them, but if you are willing to pay extra for Priority Mail, feel free to try it.
Disclaimer: I do not make or imply warranties that your Apple-1 build using these parts will work. Apple-1 is quite tricky and building one is not for the faint of heart, or the ill-equipped. You MUST add additional power supply bypass capacitors that are not present in the original design to have any chance that your build will ever work robustly. These can be put on the backside of the PCB or be hidden in the common machined IC sockets available from various vendors, but doing so requires good fine motor skills and good soldering technique. I will give you some hints and guidance for free but I won't do the work for you ;-) All I can guarantee is that this IC set did work perfectly in my own, expertly built Apple-1 clones, for some weeks, enough to weed out infant mortality. And I can also guarantee you that ALL the parts in my kits, tarnished leads or not, come from the same proven parts stock I use in my own Apple-1 builds and they all are proven to work and have no nasty surprises as to their electrical performance in the Apple-1. In the past there was some residual risk because I let the buyers procure their own bypass capacitors and resistors. In some cases they were unlucky and bought bad parts from other vendors that made their Apple-1 build act up. And I had to send them my parts that work ... sigh ! I wanted to avoid this pitfall once and for all and this is my own motivation to now offer ALL these small parts in the auction, too. It's not about the higher starting price. You can't get the added parts anywhere for only . Actually, I still lose some money by selling these kits as I still have more IC fallouts in the burn-in process than planned. So don't complain about my small price increase. You can get all these parts elsewhere. But you will pay much, much more, and you will not get 100% tested and burned-in ICs that are proven to work, neither will these other vendors give you all the coaching and know-how the buyers of my kits  get from me. From 32 kits sold on Ebay so far, 20 builders contacted me, got my "Tips & Tricks" pdf, and all are very happy. None of the completed builds was a failure. Except for the three cases where builders bought their own bypass capacitors and got low performers, all the finished builds based on my kits worked robustly on first power up. This is how it should be ! And I will continue to provide these kits until my parts stock runs out. So get your kit as long as you can !
Update 1/5/2021: Since four weeks, my new 3 x Apple-1 burn-in rig is online, as seen in the last photo. Together with another Apple-1 downstairs, all four running 24/7, now I can produce one IC set per week, without compromising the 4 weeks of burn-in time for all the ICs on the mainboard. Beginning with this IC set, however, I will not burn-in or test the six ICs for the ACI daughter card anymore, as explained above. But I had, and still do have, issues with the 40+ years old ICs that go into the mainboard, and I do my best to weed the bad ones out, so you will always get an IC set for the mainboard you can trust. I could show you little piles of such duds, including the quite expensive MM1404 and 2519 ICs. I'm taking delivery of some  other lots for those soon, so I hope these are better and incur less financial losses for me. As long as you bid my rock bottom starting price up a bit, all is fine ;-) but please stop these bidding wars --- just be patient, there will be one of these IC sets per week for many weeks to come !
You might notice in the last photo that I run three Apple-1 from one nice, strong, 110Vac transformer (red arrow to red circle). I have some of those and if you are interested in getting one, please send me a message and state your target price (sorry, only good for USA and Canada, these are 110Vac only transformers made by Tranex of Colorado Springs in the 1980s).