Re: 5.25" UniDisk/DuoDisk Drives

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.bc.ca>]

John wrote:

> A thought has come to mind recently about possibly making a switchbox to go
> between two different configurations of drives connection to the //gs floppy
> port.  Basically I am curious as to what configurations I could actually
> use...
>
> I have four 5.25" UniDisk Drives, one 5.25" DuoDisk Drive, an Apple 3.5 Drive
> and an AE 3.5 Disk Drive (all of these descriptions are what the drive
> actually has on it's tag)...  I have actually ordered an Apple Superdrive from
> AllTech though it has not arrived yet, though when it does, will probably
> replace the AE 3.5 with the Superdrive...
>
> The basic question is this.  Will a //gs handle the following
> configurations...
>
> Configuration one:
> One Apple Superdisk
> One Apple 3.5 Drive
> Two 5.25 Apple Unidisk Drives

Since the Smart port will see the SuperDrive as just another Apple 800k drive
this is basically a standard configuration. In case you were't aware you need a
SuperDrive controller card to use the Superdrive as more than an 800k drive.


> Configuration two:
> Two 5.25 Apple UniDisk Drives
>  One 5.25 Apple DuoDisk Drive

The smartport will only see two 5.25  flppy drives. The only way to get more
than 2 is to put a 5.25 disk drive controller card in a slot.


> This could be somewhat flexible as one could swap the One 5.25 Apple DuoDisk
> Drive in configuration two with the Two 5.25 Apple UniDisk Drives in
> configuration one.
>
> If these configurations are possible, I am curious if the order that the
> drives are plugged in would be appropriate.  Right now I have the drives
> plugged in (still using the AE drive) as:
>
> Apple 3.5 Drive
> AE 3.5 Disk Drive
> Apple 5.25 UniDisk Drive
> Apple 5.25 UniDisk Drive

The only devices you can add would be 3.5 UniDisk drives between the Apple  3.5
drives and your 5.25" drives.


> Through trial and error I discovered that the Apple drive had to be first in
> line and not the AE drive, otherwise it would not work at all.

My AE drive will work in first place however this is probably one of those areas
where milage may vary.

> When I used to run a GBBS BBS about 13-14 years ago I had, before I bought
> that HUGE (at the time) Apple Profile 5 Meg Drive, discovered a way (though I
> have completely forgotten how I did it) to connect eight 5.25" UniDisk Drives
> to the Apple //e that ran the BBS.

Lots of floppy drive controller cards.  In theory you could have 12 drive and a
modem if you didn't need an 80 column card.  Maybe more if you were using the
Rana 4 drive cards and a modified DOS.