Re: Need floppy card identified

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Bruce Tomlin <btomlin@NOSPAM.texas.net> wrote:

> While looking for cheap IIgs machines for parts to eventually get one good
> machine working, I found one that had a floppy card (in slot 6, I think).
> 
> The only identifying marks on it are "REV B", "35 306201 00", and "MADE IN
> HONG KONG".  The main chip on this is a "VTCL 27-692-0-0 61H20B56F" on the
> front and "35 3063 01 00", "703010" and "REV B SS" on the back.  The 2764
> EPROM contains only two ASCII strings, "3.5 DISK" and "5.25 DISK".  It has
> two ribbon cables soldered to the board, with 19-pin D connectors on the
> ends.

I recognise that.  It is a Universal Disk Controller card, made by Video
Technology (I see "VTech" on the board for mine), and sold via Lazer
Systems and Central Point Software.

I have two of them: one doesn't work but the other one did some time
before I rescued it from an otherwise dead IIe that was going to the
dump (I haven't tried using it since I got it).

The card supports up to two drives in total, in any combination of the
following:

Apple II 5.25 Drive or UniDisk 5.25 (or Disk ][ with an adaptor cable)
Apple 3.5 Drive
Macintosh 800K external drive
Macintosh 400K external drive (probably)

Some versions of the firmware may also support the UniDisk 3.5, but I
don't know how to identify this.  (The ROM on mine doesn't have a
version number on it.)

You can connect one drive to each connector, or two drives daisy-chained
from the first connector.

It does _not_ support an Apple SuperDrive (FDHD), except that the drive
may work in its fallback Apple 3.5 Drive emulation mode (400K and 800K
disks only).

Some incidental points:

- If you have Copy II+ and a IIe, this card is required to do bit
copying of a 3.5" disk (with an Apple 3.5 Drive, and probably also a Mac
drive, but not a UniDisk 3.5).

- The disk controller hardware on this card is the same as the Lazer
machines (so Copy II+ works directly with them).

> When I tried to use it from GSOS 6.0.1, I got a message that said I had to
> install the UniDisk drivers.  But they were already installed!  FWIW, I
> was trying to see if it could control an FDHD drive that I had swapped
> into an Apple 3.5" drive case.

I've only seen these cards used in a IIe, so I'm not sure whether a
special driver is needed under GS/OS.  In theory, GS/OS should use a
generated driver for the SmartPort firmware on the card, but this might
have only worked under System 5.0.x, since 6.0.x is fussier about
drivers for 3.5" disks.

There might be a problem with the SuperDrive being misidentified.  Have
you tried a normal Apple 3.5 Drive?

> Can anybody tell me about this card, how to USE it under GSOS 6, and what
> good it does that someone would have installed into a IIgs?  (Maybe it was
> to control drives without daisy-chain outputs.)

It isn't particularly useful on the IIgs, as you can connect almost
every drive supported by this card to the built-in disk port.

The only unique feature it has is support for standard Mac external
drives (which have no eject button).  These drives don't work on any
other Apple II built-in disk port or disk controller (except the Lazer).

You could argue that it gives you a second disk controller (e.g. in
another slot), but the only benefit I can see there would be in hooking
up four Apple 3.5 Drives (why bother?).

It might be a slightly better 5.25" drive controller than the standard
Disk ][ or UniDisk card, but I expect it isn't as compatible with older
software (it looks like a SmartPort device, and probably can't boot a
DOS 3.3 disk).

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand