[vcf-midatlantic] Lego Logo 9767 Apple II Interface Build

[Dan Roganti]

On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 8:55 AM, Systems Glitch via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

> Full Writeup: http://www.glitchwrks.com/2016/09/12/lego-logo-interface
>
> Ian was going to build the interface, but since I ended up having to
> troubleshoot the suspected flakey hardware after The Eleventh HOPE, I went
> ahead and built one to have a known-good board to test with. This uses one
> of the new Apple II protoboards I laid out a few months ago. I may either
> reduce the hole size or increase the annular ring on the pads. Right now
> you can stuff two 24 AWG solid wires plus a socket pin in the holes, which
> is great for point-to-point prototyping. It'll also take a through-hole
> switch or 2 Watt resistor without drilling out.
>
> About to run out to the post office and send it on its way to Evan!
>
> Thanks,
> Jonathan
>

​Nice work Jon
One of the things I noticed was how the early Lego revolution never spanned
across the home computer market. So many other computers would take
advantage of this. It appears it was primarily focused on Apple alone at
first. As usual they probably worked out some marketing deal​ to prevent
that. The only other it seems was the IBM PC who was afforded this
interface - mostly likely because that IBM was just as popular and it's
name recognition.
I recently picked up a couple of Lego 9750 interface boxes which attach to
the computer. Mainly because I wanted to use this on the Commodore. Because
I saw that you don't need any additional hardware as on the Apple or IBM.
The User port already contains the PIA hardware which the user can program
for this interface. All that's need is an adapter cable. And the User port
is available on most of the early Commodore computers, from the PET to the
C128, maybe others too. So I was working and adding this to the C64, then
later to a PET8032. Just add software and run.
Dan