Earlier this year I acquired an AP System One from another list member, via the bay of eeee. An opportunity to upgrade from my HP 8903B, although that will stay as it is quicker to use on the bench.
Classic bit of kit, came with the wow-and-flutter board and a couple of filters. I registered with the AP website and downloaded the service manual, and also through AP got hold of the POST and PLOT programs (brilliant customer service!!). I also put together a nice little new "ancient" PC in a small industrial PC case with a 486 card, 14" LCD monitor, compact PS/2 keyboard, and found an HD with Dos5 and Win95 on it. Awesome.
The missing piece is the ISA card to connect the PC to the AP.
Time for an experiment. Result of which is determining that the APIB is categorically *NOT* a ECP/EPP printer port at a funny address. I patched S1.exe to talk to the standard printer port addresses and while it sort of worked enough to detect that something was there, it thought the AP was powered off. Further reading of the service manual shows that while many signals are common there are other signals on the DB25 connector that cannot work with a printer port.
So, what to do? There is the excellent work being done by Udo on a USB interface: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/equi...o-precision-system-sys1-usb-interface-16.html. But I hate USB at the best of times.
There's that LPT adaptor cable and software driver from Sound Logic in the US. It needs Win98. Plus shipping to the UK. And paying import tax.
Another option is to hunt around on ebay, or here, or elsewhere, for one for sale. Seem to be quite rare though. And expensive. Not my style.
And to be honest, what are we really talking about here? Something like a PCI-2 clone without the serial port. A 4"x4" double-sided PCB with some TTL logic, maybe a CPLD, and a DB25 connector on it. Even a one-off prototype shouldn't cost more than about £50 ($75 USD).
Something like this:
cesyg: Stuffing for Christmas
The Verilog for the CPLD is done, I just need to bring the board up checking everything works. Hopefully by January it should all be working in time for the some design characterisation...
Neil
Classic bit of kit, came with the wow-and-flutter board and a couple of filters. I registered with the AP website and downloaded the service manual, and also through AP got hold of the POST and PLOT programs (brilliant customer service!!). I also put together a nice little new "ancient" PC in a small industrial PC case with a 486 card, 14" LCD monitor, compact PS/2 keyboard, and found an HD with Dos5 and Win95 on it. Awesome.
The missing piece is the ISA card to connect the PC to the AP.
Time for an experiment. Result of which is determining that the APIB is categorically *NOT* a ECP/EPP printer port at a funny address. I patched S1.exe to talk to the standard printer port addresses and while it sort of worked enough to detect that something was there, it thought the AP was powered off. Further reading of the service manual shows that while many signals are common there are other signals on the DB25 connector that cannot work with a printer port.
So, what to do? There is the excellent work being done by Udo on a USB interface: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/equi...o-precision-system-sys1-usb-interface-16.html. But I hate USB at the best of times.
There's that LPT adaptor cable and software driver from Sound Logic in the US. It needs Win98. Plus shipping to the UK. And paying import tax.
Another option is to hunt around on ebay, or here, or elsewhere, for one for sale. Seem to be quite rare though. And expensive. Not my style.
And to be honest, what are we really talking about here? Something like a PCI-2 clone without the serial port. A 4"x4" double-sided PCB with some TTL logic, maybe a CPLD, and a DB25 connector on it. Even a one-off prototype shouldn't cost more than about £50 ($75 USD).
Something like this:
cesyg: Stuffing for Christmas
The Verilog for the CPLD is done, I just need to bring the board up checking everything works. Hopefully by January it should all be working in time for the some design characterisation...
Neil
I have an AP System One (SYS-22A). This circuit is based on the PCI-2 schematic, but with inspiration from the ISA-DOS/WIN boards. The CPLD soaks up all the glue logic, with external bus drivers, clock divider, and some tristate buffers to ensure that logic programming can be done while the PC is running.
Oh, and "ACE" stands for "Analyser Control Engine".
Neil
In my opinion the simplest way would be to copy the schematic from the S1 service manual (maybe without the RS232 interface).
It consist of only about a dozend TTL chips which are still available.
I am sure someone here could make a good picture of the card so that the layout could be done semiautomatic 🙂
It consist of only about a dozend TTL chips which are still available.
I am sure someone here could make a good picture of the card so that the layout could be done semiautomatic 🙂
Ah, I think you'll find I've already done that. Let me copy the photo from my blog which I linked to in the first post:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
As I said, the CPLD code is done as well, I just need to finish putting it all together. A nice little project for the festive season
Neil
Thanks.
Well, for starters the CPLD version is smaller and fewer chips. It also makes it much easier to test out the board as I can load up test configurations. It also avoids using some parts which are now unobtanium, or so priced as to make the CPLD cheaper than the "discrete" version.
Well, for starters the CPLD version is smaller and fewer chips. It also makes it much easier to test out the board as I can load up test configurations. It also avoids using some parts which are now unobtanium, or so priced as to make the CPLD cheaper than the "discrete" version.
I have an APIB to PCMCIA interface sitting around if you'd like to interface to a laptop.
PM me if you're interested.
Tom
PM me if you're interested.
Tom
Tom, thanks for your kind offer but unfortunately the PC I intend to use does not have a PCMCIA slot. I'll take a pass on this and let someone else benefit.
Neil
Neil
I see the forum inserts links to images rather than hosting them from the forum server. In this case it is hosted by google. If that doesn't work for you perhaps try from my blog at cesyg
If that doesn't work for you I am happy to email you the picture directly - PM me and we can work something out.
Neil
If that doesn't work for you I am happy to email you the picture directly - PM me and we can work something out.
Neil
John, thanks for the link.
I think so far, for parts and having a prototype PCB made, I have spent somewhere around £50 (most of that was for the PCB). So I think I will continue with my own version.
For anyone else, that is a PCI2 ISA card, not an ISA-WIN card, so I believe it is unlikely to work with ApWin.
Neil
I think so far, for parts and having a prototype PCB made, I have spent somewhere around £50 (most of that was for the PCB). So I think I will continue with my own version.
For anyone else, that is a PCI2 ISA card, not an ISA-WIN card, so I believe it is unlikely to work with ApWin.
Neil
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