Apple2-IO-RPi - expansion card using a RaspberryPI

Name: Apple2-IO-RPi - expansion card using a RaspberryPI
SKU: 33324
Price: 32.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5.00 (1 reviews)

(1 Review)

Apple II expansion card using a Raspberry Pi for I/O

Sold By HAL's friends

Apple2-IO-RPi - expansion card using a RaspberryPI 1

Apple2-IO-RPi - expansion card using a RaspberryPI 2

Buy with confidence.

Our Tindie Guarantee protects your purchase from fraud. Learn More

Apple II expansion card using a Raspberry Pi for I/O

What is it? The purpose of this project is to provide I/O for an Apple II series 8 bit computer via a Raspberry Pi which is powered by the Apple II expansion bus. This includes using the attached RP…

What is it?

The purpose of this project is to provide I/O for an Apple II series 8 bit computer via a Raspberry Pi which is powered by the Apple II expansion bus. This includes using the attached RPi for it's storage, network and processor to provide new functionality for the Apple II.

The card enables the Apple II to boot from and write to virtual hard drive images stored on the RPi in any slot (except slot 3), execute Linux commands from Applesoft BASIC and run a bash shell with VT100 emulation. The code has very few tests and is incomplete. Note that currently the firmware assumes an 80 column card is in slot 3 and than you have lowercase support. Most development has been done with an enhanced Apple //e with the card in slot 7. If you have other drive controllers earlier in the boot cycle, you can still boot from the Apple2-IO-RPi. For example, if the card was in slot 4, you could type PR#4 from the BASIC prompt to boot the card. Note that the Raspberry Pi Zero W (and W 2) consume 170 - 250 mA and there is only 500 mA available to all expansion slots according to Apple.

What makes it special?

A very promising card that is really useful if you you want a virtual storage to work with from an Apple II. To use it you need a Raspberry Pi Zero W (or a 3B, the one i'm using) and a SD card. Both of them are not included.

All the instructions to create the Rpi image and to use it are on the Terence J. Boldt (who designed it!, thanks Terence for this wonderful product) github page: https://github.com/tjboldt/Apple2-IO-RPi

No country selected, please select your country to see shipping options.

Change Destination Country:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (5.00)

Documentation: (5.00)

Shipping: (5.00)

Communication: (5.00)

Seth | Aug. 7, 2024

Works perfectly

I had to upgrade the firmware to get full functionality, but that's as easy as running a BASIC program, so no problem at all.
This is a really cool product, and it works very well. The software is very impressive.
I was expecting to need to buy a Pi Zero 2W for this, but it works perfectly (and surprisingly fast) with an old Pi Zero W.