Strange APPLE II Card !?

[p_lore90]

Hello everyone,
today I finally got the APPLE IIe I had bought. Inside among the other cards (Super serial card, 80 columns, etc.) there was this card that I could not understand what type of card it is. On the pcb there is written A CONTROLLER ADAPTER and the connector is a 20 pins. Anyone know what kind of card it is and what it can do? Documentation?. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[SomeGuy]

Brilliant labeling.

It could just be a parallel printer interface card, there were a bazillion variations. Was there a cable that matched it?

Then again, it could be an interface specifically for any number of devices. The card itself seems fairly simplistic.

 

[whartung]

Id argue against a parallel interface card, simply because the cable connector is so exotic. And that's a pretty hefty ground connector they have on there as well, something a parallel port wouldn't need. A parallel port wouldn't need a custom EPROM either.

 

[Wayne Stewart]

Lots of parallel printer card had EPROMs and I have some with that same connector. The ground connector was added after.
I'd vote for some type of device controller. Printer cards don't need that ground connector

 

[Wayne Stewart]

Forgot to add that reading the EPROM might answer the question

 

[p_lore90]

Thanks for the answers, it arrived without cable, I have doubts that it is a printer controller because there is already a parallel Grappler + printer card with cable. There is also a super serial card and a floppy disk interface 1 and 2 with two floppy disk drives. I will try to read the eprom to understand which device was originally connected. On the eprom, "Cgate 4-16-82" is handwritten on the label.

 

[VERAULT]

There is nothing exotic about that connector. Its a parallel card, just as SomeGuy pointed out. Lots of Parallel cards including a bunch I own have that connector. here is a photo of two from my pile of cards:

And the ground connector doesnt mean a thing. Everything had grounding tabs and straps in the 80's... Everything!

 

[SomeGuy]

The ground connector was added after.

I didn't quite notice that detail. Looking closer at the back of the card, it is fairly clear this was something someone hacked on themselves. A reasonable thing to modify if you needed a grounded shielded cable.

 

[VERAULT]

yep hacked together, i didnt notice that either.

Hell my first printer was the IBM 5152 graphics printer. I remember it has a stupid dangling ground connector on the printer and the cable. Look at every commodore datasette.. a dangling ground strap.

 

[p_lore90]

This is the content of eprom D2716 wich i'have read with minipro programmer. Pls rename CARD.TXT with CARD.BIN