Re: AppleWorks 3 + RamFactor + RamWorks 3 = what?

["Hugh Hood" <hugh.hood@a2central.com.remove-ht8-this>]

  To: Hugh Hood
> I should have known this. Many years ago I ran IIe's with 5 Meg Slinky
> Ramfactors/RamKeepers set up as 5 Meg RamDisks. AppleWorks used the AuxSlot
> RamWorks for its desktop and left the RamFactor alone. I seem to remember
> about a 600-700K desktop size with a 1 meg RamWorks, which correlates with
> your results.
> 

Sorry,

It appears this has been my week for inaccurate statements.

Actually, the Battery Backup unit for the RamFactor is the RamCharger, not
the RamKeeper.

I believe the RamKeeper was the battery backup option for AE's GS memory
card.

Anyway, here is something for you educated electronic types to elaborate on.
While the RamFactor is a 5 volt card, the RamCharger battery backup unit
uses an _8 volt_ battery. I remember back in the day having to look through
several electronics catalogs to find one of that voltage. There were plenty
at 6 volts and 12 volts, though.

Finally, here are a few of my observations on the RamFactor/RamCharger
combo:

(i) At its 5 megabyte maximum size, it was great having an instant-on Apple
IIe with immediate access to all my main programs, including AppleWorks with
tons of TimeOuts;

(ii) The RamCharger battery backup was _not_ perfect. On occasion, it would
lose everything, and I'd have to restore the entire 5 megs from floppy
backups. It didn't happen often, but I'll bet it happened at least twice a
year.  And I tried several different card/backup combinations, since we had
multiple IIe's with that setup.

BTW, I thought the suggestion posted about using a wall wart of some type
plugged into a UPS would be a better solution than the RamCharger for the
RamFactor. The UPS's I've used over the years have never let me down.

(iii) Finally, I thought the RamFactor/RamCharger was fast until I saw a
buddy's IIGS with a RamFast SCSI setup. Loading AppleWorks and TimeOuts in
the blink of an eye made my RamFactor/RamCharger on the IIe seem slow. From
that day on, I was sold and went to IIGS's with RamFasts for good. A caching
SCSI hard drive controller with DMA is tough to beat.

It's really a shame that ZipGS's and RamFasts are so difficult/expensive to
obtain these days. They take the IIGS computing experience to a different
level, particularly for an AppleWorks nut like I am.

Hugh...
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