Robfilmmaker
New Member
I saw that picture floating around the web of Aston Kutcher as Steve Jobs from the new movie "jOBS" coming out this year.
There's got to be some Apple 1 computers in the movie as that was the object that started Apple Computer. I think I saw one in that TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley." I've always wanted to have my own Apple 1 computer, but they go for over $200,000 and I'm not crazy rich. So I thought, why not make my own replica? Woz and Jobs made them from off the shelf components back in the 70's.
So I set out to make my own working replica. I figured I'd post my journey as some of you may be interested. The hardest part of making a replica is the pcb circuit board. I found a person on the web who actually traced all the leads from pictures and recreated the pcb board from scratch. His name is Mike Willegal and he sells them every now and then. So I picked one up.
I'm amazed at how accurate this pcb board is. It even has the correct fonts for the Apple Computer text. Amazing work.
Now that I had the board, I needed all the components...and there's the rub. Turns out, most of the components are no longer manufactured. Thanks to Mike, I at least had a list of the components, so I set out to find them. After days of searching the web for electronics suppliers and such, I finally had found all the parts. Some of the parts are modern counterparts, but will work fine for the computer. Now that I had the parts, I got out my soldering gear and got to work.
There must be over a couple thousand leads on this board. I set out to put in all the IC sockets first. After about 4 hours of work, I at least had all the sockets soldered in.
I then added the resistors, diodes, and smalls capacitors over the next few days.
These are the biggest capacitors I have ever seen! I wouldn't touch these when its powered up. That heatsink is awesome too by the way.
I've finally got everything soldered in that needs to be soldiered. I just need to wash off the flux and start putting in the IC chips. Hopefully I should be able to power it on soon. I'm still waiting for the power transformers. I'll post more when I have it. Its cool to have an Apple 1 in your own hands! Even if its a replica. Total cost for this project so far $550.
There's got to be some Apple 1 computers in the movie as that was the object that started Apple Computer. I think I saw one in that TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley." I've always wanted to have my own Apple 1 computer, but they go for over $200,000 and I'm not crazy rich. So I thought, why not make my own replica? Woz and Jobs made them from off the shelf components back in the 70's.
So I set out to make my own working replica. I figured I'd post my journey as some of you may be interested. The hardest part of making a replica is the pcb circuit board. I found a person on the web who actually traced all the leads from pictures and recreated the pcb board from scratch. His name is Mike Willegal and he sells them every now and then. So I picked one up.
I'm amazed at how accurate this pcb board is. It even has the correct fonts for the Apple Computer text. Amazing work.
Now that I had the board, I needed all the components...and there's the rub. Turns out, most of the components are no longer manufactured. Thanks to Mike, I at least had a list of the components, so I set out to find them. After days of searching the web for electronics suppliers and such, I finally had found all the parts. Some of the parts are modern counterparts, but will work fine for the computer. Now that I had the parts, I got out my soldering gear and got to work.
There must be over a couple thousand leads on this board. I set out to put in all the IC sockets first. After about 4 hours of work, I at least had all the sockets soldered in.
I then added the resistors, diodes, and smalls capacitors over the next few days.
These are the biggest capacitors I have ever seen! I wouldn't touch these when its powered up. That heatsink is awesome too by the way.
I've finally got everything soldered in that needs to be soldiered. I just need to wash off the flux and start putting in the IC chips. Hopefully I should be able to power it on soon. I'm still waiting for the power transformers. I'll post more when I have it. Its cool to have an Apple 1 in your own hands! Even if its a replica. Total cost for this project so far $550.
