BlueDisk now available! (was Re: Mystery card!)

[taob@ionews.io.org (Brian Tao)]

In article <14d_9402100838@mdtnbbs.uucp>, Colin Williamson writes...
> 
> If you look on page 36 of the January-Febuary issue of II Alive, you'll
> see a mystery card! What is this? Some people say it's an IBM disk
> connector. I think it would be cool if it was a 486 on a card.

    Nope, it's SHH Systeme's "BlueDisk" floppy controller.  It will
handle 720K, 1.44-meg and 2.88-meg IBM drives as SmartPort devices. 
Quite an ingenious little device.  You can probably pick up a 1.44-meg
drive now for less than $100, a steal compared to Apple's prices.  The
card itself is priced a little too high, IMHO, but still a pretty decent
deal considering the size of the market.  If someone can buy it from a
mail order company for ~$75, it'll be a winner.

    From GEnie:

 ------------
Category 13,  Topic 23
Message 265       Wed Feb 16, 1994
J.LANGE7 [TURBO:IDE]         at 14:06 EST

  Silence is golden,

But we don't want to be too golden (we have been busy behind the
scene). So we think it's time to open sales a bit. You might have
noticed that a lot of beta tests have been done on the BlueDisk card
and the results aren't too bad IMHO. We have discussed features of
BlueDisk, we have fixed some minor bugs, we have changed and optimized
the behavior of BlueDisk to make disk handling as comfortable as
possible.  You have heard that BlueDisk's appearance in the operating
system now comes very close to Apple's original drives (this has been
a rather difficult thing to do). And you have heard that many
different disk formats can be read or written (and of course
formatted). Yes, I dare to say that this is the most versatile floppy
disk controller for the Apple II. Last not least, BlueDisk is the
absolutely cheapest way to use high capacity floppy disks with your
Apple II. If you only read this message, please step back and read all
messages beginning from mid January 1994 (in addition, two BlueDisk
pictures are available in the A2 library).

BlueDisk's firmware and software have reached a state where we can
offer cards to you. Yes, you can get a BlueDisk card _now_. You would
receive a firmware/software that still has "beta version" numbers and
there still _could_ be some minor bugs. But our tests show that no
bugs have been left that could be essential to data security.

So, once again, we can offer BlueDisk cards which are in "final"
hardware condition and have "near final" software versions. If
software upgrades are required, you can get them free via the GEnie A2
library, or our beta testers probably will help. Joachim Lange of SHH
Systeme confirms that all results about beta tests and performance
published here in BB topic 13 are authentic and true.

Here is a short list of things you get if you buy a BlueDisk now:

- A floppy disk controller that supports DD, HD and ED MFM floppy drives
  (5.25" and 3.5", "MS-DOS style") in a variety of formats.

- a utility disk that contains a GS/OS driver and a program that helps you
  checking MFM drive installation. Additional utilities are in work but
  not complete.

- A "draft" manual (preliminary) written in English.

- One year limited warranty on parts and labour.

- support here in the bulletin board and via the A2 library.
  (BlueDisk works with Apple IIe enhanced and Apple IIGS ROM01
  or ROM03)

Some important features not mentioned before:

- Tested with Archiver backup (720K to 2.88meg per disk, uncompressed)
- Tested with HardPressed
- Tested with MTools (MS-DOS  read, write (!) and format (!)  )
- Works in slot 5 if slot is set to your card (new)
- Tested with PC-Transporter (some restrictions apply: you cannot boot
  MS-DOS, drive parameters must be set up correctly and DRIVER.SYS must
  be installed, _same_ problems that occur with a floptical drive
  connected to a SCSI card).

Some important things about what's _not_ working (which, in our opinion,
isn't the fault of BlueDisk):

- ProSel 16 refuses to backup on non-Apple, non-slot 5 floppy drives.
- Salvation Backup doesn't recognize non-Apple floppy drives.
- ProSel 8  Cat Doctor doesn't format correctly.
- MFORMAT (MTools v1.3) won't allow to _change_ the low-level format of
  the current disk. Blank disks aren't formatted as expected. No GS/OS
  formatting dialog is presented before formatting begins.


Pricing:

This is an introductory offer and it will be valid for a limited time
only.

BlueDisk single card package as described before:

 US $109  plus  $16 shipping/handling

two packages:    $109 each plus $21 s/h
three packages:  $109 each plus $24 s/h

Shipping is via standard air mail for overseas orders.
Payment:  All orders must be prepaid. We accept payment by cash, check or
money order (American or German currency) and payment via post office. If
payment is _not_ by cash, an additional fee of US $10 (DM 17) is required
(we have to pay this fee to get the cash for the check). If you feel
unsure when sending cash, please use registered mail.

///SHH SYSTEME
Dipl. Ing. Joachim Lange
Bergstrasse 95
82131 Stockdorf
Germany
GEnie: J.LANGE7


 ------------
Category 13,  Topic 23
Message 266       Wed Feb 16, 1994
H.HISLOP [Harold]            at 21:54 EST

Hmmm...

>>>...our beta testers probably will help.

Both Doug [Pendleton] and I will be here and will try to handle any
problems anyone has with a BlueDisk setup. (We don't expect any
problems beyond those that can be expected to occur as people get used
to using a new piece of hardware :)

BlueDisk Hints & Tips (1,2)

1 - When formatting a disk for use with MS-Dos first format the disk
from the Finder (ProSel, etc) at the desired density, using the ProDos
file system. Next use the MFORMAT command (with the /Q option) from
MTools. (This gets arround what appears to be a bug in MFormat)

2 - Do _NOT_ take DD disks and punch out the HD media ID hole to try
and save money on disks. Disks are cheap compared to data. Using DD
disks in HD drives at HD _WILL_ eventually cause a loss of data, and
it WILL occur when you have no other backups available. (Murphy's Law)

As always BlueDisk questions are welcome in my Wednesday Night
"Hardware Hacking & Repair" RTC, 2300 to 0100 EST every Wednesday
night.

-Harold


-- 
Brian Tao:: taob@io.org (Internex Online, 416-363-4151, 56 lines, v.32bis)
::::::::::: 90taobri@wave.scar.utoronto.ca (University of Toronto, 9T4)