In article , "Bill Garber" wrote: > Another and I have determined that this is some form > of clock card. It has "IDS" formed into the face of the > card using the trace material but that part is not connected > to any of the real and actual traces. I have 2 of these cards > and would like to use one or both. If anyone has one of these > and has software to configure it, or would like to accept one > for study and possibly engineer some software for use with it, > I would be happy to allow them to keep the card as payment > for doing so. A layout of the card is available at the link below. > > http://garberstreet.netfirms.com/MysteryCard.jpg Bill: FWIW, I'd have to agree that it's a clock card - It took some hunting, but google finally turned up some info on a couple of the non-74LSXXX chips, all of which I see on your diagram are very generic chips seen anywhere interface work is being done. First and foremost of the "informative" results is the MSM5832RS chip. The best info I can find on it right now is that it was used as the heart of a critter called "The Timekeeper", which was a RTC card developed for the "ACT Sirius 1" computer (a machine I'd never heard of until now - apparently it ran/runs MS-DOS (Version 2.0, no less!!!!) and/or CP/M on an 8088 chip). The very little information I can find suggests that the 5832 is a microprocessor in and of itelf, with timekeeping as its dedicated function, and gets interfaced to the host system, whatever that might be, through a PIA or PPI chip such as an 8255 (in the case of The Timekeeper) or the MC6821CPDS that happens to be a PIA, and lives on your cards. I suspect the "best target" to shoot at on this thing is going to be trying to dump the EPROM to possibly see what the devil is going on in there. Even before I'd do that, though, I'd try slapping it into Slot 4 (clock cards used to be recommended for slot 4, in the days before mouse cards were preferred there, if I recall rightly) and try firing up the newest version of ProDOS you can come up with. *MANY* of the clock cards sold for the Apple, especially after the introduction of ProDOS, did their best to be "Thunderclock compatible" so that time and money didn't need to be wasted on developing a new driver for them. The Thunderclock driver is built into ProDOS, of course, so if this card, whatever it actually is, is one of the "I'll pretend to be a Thunderclock so you don't need to write a driver" types, it should "just work" once plugged in and powered up. Setting the date/time/etc on it may be a problem without a separate utility, however... I can't recall whether the Thunderclock driver included "set-the-clock" functionality. Also, the part you have labeled "pot" probably isn't... I'm betting that it's actually a trimmer capacitor, which, with a crystal, another (fixed) capacitor, a couple of resistors, and part of the 74LS04, would make up the local oscillator. The trimmer would allow fine-tuning of the frequency in case of any "drift" in the crystal or the other capacitor. It's also possible that this trimmer (and the crystal and other assorted items right near it) feeds directly into the 5832, allowing it to do its own clock-frequency generation. Without seeing actual traces (and support parts) I can't be much more specific than that, though... Also, you might want to take a look here: That seems to be a page devoted to a 5832 & 6821 PIA-based RTC add-on board for the "Acorn A.T.O.M.", a 6502 based machine that *I THINK* was something of an Apple II clone. Mention is made of software being available, but in skimming around, I didn't see the software itself. Maybe I missed it? Maybe it's gone? You tell me! :) Best of luck... -- Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - SpamAssassinated. Hate SPAM? See for some seriously great info. I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart Fly trap info pages: Bill Garber wrote: > Yes, I did. I tried ProDOS users.disk and it claims there is no > time or date. I tried reading the eprom, however I am not sure > if I should read C400 or CC00. They don't display the same > info. It is a 2764 which is I believe 8k so I'm not sure how that > would read since $100 is all that will fit in the slot memory. > How do I find out where the firmware is loading into RAM? > You would think just about any clock software would find it. > ThunderClock software searches the slots, finds none. NSC > looks for it and finds none of course since it isn't looking in a > slot at all. ProDOS seems to find nothing. I don't know what to > try next. The ThunderClock doesn't use a 6821 but the Timemaster II HO does so it's software is a possibility. If you don't have that software handy, you can find it at http://www3.telus.net/waynes/time2_h.o. As for ProDOS reading the time on it, I can think of several reasons it might not. It could have been made before ProDOS. Some cards required a patch to ProDOS before it could read them. Did you have a battery in the card when you tried checking the time? A 2764 is a really large EPROM for a clock card. Even my Corvus Systems clock card which has the time setting utility on the EPROM only uses a 2732. Wayne Bill Garber wrote: >I tried ProDOS users.disk and it claims there is no >time or date. I tried reading the eprom, however I am not sure >if I should read C400 or CC00. They don't display the same >info. It is a 2764 which is I believe 8k so I'm not sure how that >would read since $100 is all that will fit in the slot memory. >How do I find out where the firmware is loading into RAM? >You would think just about any clock software would find it. >ThunderClock software searches the slots, finds none. NSC >looks for it and finds none of course since it isn't looking in a >slot at all. ProDOS seems to find nothing. I don't know what to >try next. This clock card (the battery is a dead giveaway) was probably produced before the Thunderclock and ProDOS. (Checking chip date codes and/or card copyright date might verify this.) It has an unusual amount of firmware for a clock card. Odds are, none of the firmware is loaded into RAM, but the ROM is bank-switched into the $C800 space, probably by using some of the extra port bits on the 6821. In its "default" state, there is almost certainly slot ROM code in the $Csxx space, and a perusal of this code would reveal how the 6821 is manipulated. It probably also uses $C800.CFFx space, with the 2KB chunk of ROM mapped in depending on the 6821 port settings. Try disassembling the $Csxx space and see where it leads you. (BTW, the 5832 requires at least 2.2 volts to keep time, so there should be two cells on the card...) -michael Check out amazing quality sound for 8-bit Apples on my Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "Michael J. Mahon" wrote in message news:20030917230428.19477.00001294@mb-m20.aol.com... > Bill Garber wrote: > > >I tried ProDOS users.disk and it claims there is no > >time or date. I tried reading the eprom, however I am not sure > >if I should read C400 or CC00. They don't display the same > >info. It is a 2764 which is I believe 8k so I'm not sure how that > >would read since $100 is all that will fit in the slot memory. > >How do I find out where the firmware is loading into RAM? > >You would think just about any clock software would find it. > >ThunderClock software searches the slots, finds none. NSC > >looks for it and finds none of course since it isn't looking in a > >slot at all. ProDOS seems to find nothing. I don't know what to > >try next. > > This clock card (the battery is a dead giveaway) was probably > produced before the Thunderclock and ProDOS. (Checking > chip date codes and/or card copyright date might verify this.) I'm pretty sure you are right now that I have tried almost every piece of software for clock cards that I could find. Where would these date codes be located? > It has an unusual amount of firmware for a clock card. One of the cards has a 2764, the other a 2708. The eproms have the same firmware on them AFAICT without popping them out and reading with a eprom programmer which I have coming in a few days. I will investigate further and attempt to disassemble then. > Odds are, none of the firmware is loaded into RAM, but > the ROM is bank-switched into the $C800 space, probably > by using some of the extra port bits on the 6821. I'll read from C800 on both cards and see what is there. > In its "default" state, there is almost certainly slot ROM > code in the $Csxx space, and a perusal of this code would > reveal how the 6821 is manipulated. It probably also uses > $C800.CFFx space, with the 2KB chunk of ROM mapped > in depending on the 6821 port settings. Can you give me exact location codes for say slot 4? > Try disassembling the $Csxx space and see where it > leads you. I will as soon as you verify what location I need to read. > (BTW, the 5832 requires at least 2.2 volts to keep time, so > there should be two cells on the card...) There is only a AA holder on the card, but there is a voltage boost circuit in place so that is probably correct. Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprizez };-) Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com Email - willy46pa@comcast.net --- This email ain't infected, dude! Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.515 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 9/1/03