Vintage Fairchild logic chips wanted

[deanclaxton]

Bit of a long shot, but you never know what people have tucked away!

Back in 2013 I set about assembling a replica Apple 1. I was determined to use period correct parts, and this is proving tough going!

This is the build log :

https://forums.overclockers.com.au/threads/build-log-apple-1-replica.1080909/

Almost 6 years later and I'm still chasing bits including the following logic devices from Fairchild :

74160
9316 x 5
7404
9N27/7427
74174
7451
7432
7408
74175
74123
74S257 x 4 (ceramic package)

Ideally I'm looking for parts around 1975-1976

There are a number of other parts I'm trying to find also - the large Sprague 2400uF 25V  caps for example, plus regulators and diodes and more!

Let me know if you have any that you'd be willing to sell.

EDIT : One source is old arcade logic boards - I don't mind having to desolder chips as they clean up ok and when socketed it's barely noticeable that they were once soldered in place.

Cheers,
Dean

[toastedcrumpets]

Is looking for old electrolytic caps really a good idea?
I'm currently pulling Sprague caps out of a Fluke 3330B as some of them are dry. I'm going with a full replacement now so I don't have to go hunt the dry cap again anytime soon.
No 2400uF 25V yet, but I do have three 125uF 450V caps in huge cases as well as a load of lower voltage items.
If you want, take a look at the 3330B service manual and if there's any electrolytic you need out of that just pm me and I'll pull them out for you.

[digsys]

Coincidentally, I am in the process of having another huge cleanout, and old semis are part of it.
I've had a quick look, and even though there are several Fairchild parts, all seem to be 1982-1985. TTL, LSTTL, HC, F etc
Way too many to itemize or search through, if they won't suit. I'm in SE melbourne
Not sure about Sprague brand caps, heaps of boxes to check

[deanclaxton]

Coincidentally, I am in the process of having another huge cleanout, and old semis are part of it.
I've had a quick look, and even though there are several Fairchild parts, all seem to be 1982-1985. TTL, LSTTL, HC, F etc
Way too many to itemize or search through, if they won't suit. I'm in SE melbourne
Not sure about Sprague brand caps, heaps of boxes to check

I'm located in Brisbane - are you throwing it all out, or putting up for auction? I'm sure there is a good chance that there is something I could use, even if it was a placeholder for a period correct part.

[digsys]

I'm located in Brisbane - are you throwing it all out, or putting up for auction? I'm sure there is a good chance that there is something I could use, even if it was a placeholder for a period correct part. 

Mostly will be given away, last time a local got a full carload for 10 bucks :-) , expensive stuff ie S/M regulator modules (TI / Power-trends etc) ... a buck ea,
or 10 bucks a tray ... not really fussed. It's going to take a few more days sorting though. Heaps of RFID / DGPS stuff as well .. pulling out one of my last big
projects .. end of an era. Once I have everything where I can go through it, I'll check your wish list first, so no panic. Pix to follow then.

[deanclaxton]

I'm located in Brisbane - are you throwing it all out, or putting up for auction? I'm sure there is a good chance that there is something I could use, even if it was a placeholder for a period correct part. 

Mostly will be given away, last time a local got a full carload for 10 bucks :-) , expensive stuff ie S/M regulator modules (TI / Power-trends etc) ... a buck ea,
or 10 bucks a tray ... not really fussed. It's going to take a few more days sorting though. Heaps of RFID / DGPS stuff as well .. pulling out one of my last big
projects .. end of an era. Once I have everything where I can go through it, I'll check your wish list first, so no panic. Pix to follow then.

Awesome - thanks

[bsudbrink]

I may have a few.  I'll have to check my stock.

As an aside,  I wonder who you have "shared" your project with and whether you have received any negative feedback.  I collect and restore vintage computers and have made a few exact replicas.  I've showed them at vintage computer festivals here in the US.  I've had overwhelmingly positive responses, but I have been "chewed out" by a couple of guys for "making fakes".  Also, what defines "real"?  The item I'm most proud of:

http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/cyclops/index.html

Is almost completely built from period correct parts, including the period printed circuit board.  Is it "real"?

[deanclaxton]

I may have a few.  I'll have to check my stock.

As an aside,  I wonder who you have "shared" your project with and whether you have received any negative feedback.  I collect and restore vintage computers and have made a few exact replicas.  I've showed them at vintage computer festivals here in the US.  I've had overwhelmingly positive responses, but I have been "chewed out" by a couple of guys for "making fakes".  Also, what defines "real"?  The item I'm most proud of:

http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/cyclops/index.html

Is almost completely built from period correct parts, including the period printed circuit board.  Is it "real"?

Very nice! No I haven't had too much negative feedback on the making fakes thing - a few people commented on my re-marking of the prom chips but otherwise all good (they commented that I should put a mark on the back so it is clear it is a fake). The PCB is one that I purchased from Mike Willegal. He recreated the boards from photos of the originals, and has done a very good job but one can still tell the real deal from a copy. Apart from a makers mark he puts on the rear of the PCB, the real ones were manufactured differently. A HASL finish went over the copper BEFORE the soldermask was applied. During wave soldering this resulted in a wrinkle of the soldermask. Also the fonts on the original silkscreen were drawn by hand using a drafting machine whereas the copy uses a font that is as best a match as can be found. Overall its very close but there's no way you could get away with claiming it was original.

For me I want to build it to look as original as possible - not for resale value (as I'd never sell it), but just to look the part

[deanclaxton]

I thought when you wanted vintage Fairchild that my cache of older chips would fit the bill for you. Unfortunately upon looking I found fistfulls of 914’s and 923’s. In case you are not old enough to remember RTL, it predates TTL. So if you want some JK flip flops or dual nor gates, I got ‘em for ya. Come to think of it I did a whole design with those back in the early days when the teletype machine was popular. Okay, now you know how old I am and why my alias starts with GROUCHO. Back in the early 80’s when I did some work for Apple, I garnered a few Apple carcasses and somewhere I have some of that junk that escaped the scrap pile. Perhaps I should excavate that “junk” before I move on

@grouchobyte

Thanks for taking a look - much appreciated. Apple carcasses eh? Any Apple ][ cases by chance? I'm always interested in Apple ][ gear

[TheSteve]

Toured my old 74xx collection, most are TI but I found this one:

[bsudbrink]

I spent a little while last night...  My collection is physically arranged numerically.  I've search through 7432.  I have some Fairchild 7400s and some 7416s, neither of which you need.  I'll keep looking.  I've been meaning to make an electronic inventory of my chips for a long time, so I'm doing it now.

[digsys]

Ideally I'm looking for parts around 1975-1976
There are a number of other parts I'm trying to find also - the large Sprague 2400uF 25V  caps for example, plus regulators and diodes and more! 

The diodes / regulators / caps etc What make / markings etc
Edit: Never mind, checked the link :-)

[deanclaxton]

Toured my old 74xx collection, most are TI but I found this one:

What a beauty! I'd be very keen to purchase that from you. I wonder what postage would cost to Australia?

[deanclaxton]

I spent a little while last night...  My collection is physically arranged numerically.  I've search through 7432.  I have some Fairchild 7400s and some 7416s, neither of which you need.  I'll keep looking.  I've been meaning to make an electronic inventory of my chips for a long time, so I'm doing it now.

Thanks - much appreciated

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have some spares though as I haven't tested the parts that I have atm and if one should fail in the future it would be very hard to replace (9N00/7400 is used on the board in 3 locations - I have some but if you found a 9N00/7400 marked chip I'd be keen on a spare).

[deanclaxton]

I put together this word document based on the finding of another builder in the USA.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y4wgeoojq3x1uw5/Parts.docx?dl=0

There were 2 major batches of Apple 1 builds. The earlier batch used mainly Fairchild logic parts, whereas the later build (PCB's were marked by manufacturer NTI) used mostly Signetics. The earlier build is termed "pre-NTI", and is what I'm going for.

In the word document I've captured images of both - most images were captured from this other builders website.

There are quite a number of other parts there I'd love to find other than the logic chips :

• the black or very dark blue 1N4001 diodes with the blue stripe
• the 47pF CDE mica cap
• the National Semi  TO220 style voltage regulators with the tall tabs (i have a LM320 MP-5 that is close - 1981 I think)
• 0.01uF Dielectron 25V ceramic
• the large Sprague 2400uF 25V caps from the 70's (you can actually buy these new today, however the markings are a little different)
• a Fairchild NE555 timer
• a Fairchild 74154
• an MPS3704 transistor with gold legs
• Mostek MK4096P-11 ram (I have MK4096P-19 parts but cant find any info on them - these were desoldered from an old ram board)
• an early Cinch 50-44S-30-1  44 pin connector (no "ears")

Also would love to find an AMI PIA of the era with the L shaped AMI logo, and a suitable keyboard (I'm trying to hunt down an early Apple ][ keyboard).

[vk6zgo]

Fairchild used to make semiconductors in Oz.
It appears that one or more Engineers at the (then) Telecom Australia lab were alumni of that company.
At least, they seemed to delight in using devices with obscure Fairchild part numbers.

One of the Tech Officers at the TV site I was at, made up a "magic buggery box" to lock the sound & vision carriers of the old Marconi transmitters accurately--- a requirement when we were converting to PAL colour from BW.

We sent all the details away to the "gurus", who made a nice upgraded version.
Trouble was, it didn't work, & their documentation was a bit lacking.
Poking around, I found a BJT which was definitely faulty.

Unfortunately it was a weird Fairchild number, & no equivalent appeared on the lists we had.
I told the Boss, who grumbled that we "would just have to order it specially".

I was a bit put out by this, & did a bit more circuit tracing.
After finding my way through some convoluted cabling, it became apparent that all the exotic device did was to turn on a LED.
Replacing it with a BC108 or 2N2222 (can't remember which) fixed that, & we found the real fault elsewhere.

Back more on topic, at one time I was continually coming across old Fairchild logic ICs of the 9000 series in various work junk boxes, but never bothered to purloin them, because there seemed to be no use for them.

[digsys]

So, had a look at "easy to get at drawers", and found the following. Not the dates you need, or some "types", but may be of help. FOC
74154    8539   x3+
7402      8428   x5   74LS02  8401  x4
74S175  8216   x6
74S10    7844   x1
74LS32   8427  x4
Still many boxes to sort, I'll keep a lookout. Let me know if they are of use to you. Also have 100s of other "more popular" part #s, but I assume of no use.

[station240]

Had a look at the same stash of 7400 chips pulled from '79 era socketed boards, none of the chips you are after though.

[beanflying]

Trawled through my stash as I am having a cleanup. No IC's old enough but if either of these will help get you closer drop me a message.You didn't mention the 1n914 but I saw them on the link and I knew I had some with gold leads. The LM323K was socketed so still full length legs.

[cowasaki]

I once bought a shoe box full of, mainly pulled, 74 series chips probably in the late 80s and mostly from the 70s and early 80s.  I have lots of 74 series chips of the right vintage but unfortunately no 74154s.  If you need anything else I'll have another look but not many specifically Fairchild.

[pbarton]

1 x 7400
4 x 7402
4 x 7403
1 x 7404
3 x 7410
3 x 74121
You can have all/any of these, for the cost of postage.
PM sent.

[deanclaxton]

Thanks everyone, for taking a look. The ceramic 74s257 will be particularly tricky to find, as well Fairchild 74154 and ne555.

I'm searching eBay listings for old arcade boards.

[cowasaki]

Were they all built solely with Fairchild ICs? My 74 series box contains a lot of ICs from 73-75 but other brands.

[deanclaxton]

The early version (pre NTI) used mostly Fairchild logic chips with the odd Signetics. The slightly later batch of boards used mostly Signetics.

Cheers,
Dean

[cowasaki]

The early version (pre NTI) used mostly Fairchild logic chips with the odd Signetics. The slightly later batch of boards used mostly Signetics.

Cheers,
Dean

I have most of the 74 series that you want, and the right vintage, but by Signetics.