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Re: Additional information wanted on two Apple ][ cards

On 04/18/2012 03:55 AM, brad wrote:

On 4/17/2012 8:26 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:

On 04/15/2012 08:06 PM, Sean Fahey wrote:

On Sunday, April 15, 2012 12


The second card is marked DISC CONTROLLER and underneath that
VISTA. There are two twenty pin headers (10x2) on the card. Anyone
know what drives this card is for?


It may be either the 5.25" or 8" floppy *disk changer* drive controller.


Definitely not the 8" controller. That has a single 50-pin DIP header on
it. The disk-changer controller differs from the conventional 8"
controller only in the firmware AFAIK.

With 20-pin headers it sounds like a Disk II controller variant of some
sort.



might be for the vista 2000 i forget what it is called...it was a multiplater
disk changer with hd disks for an apple ii...i actaully have 2 of the beasts
but can't find the software them nor the manual....i'll keep looking

prob the 1st 'caddy' device for apple

you put i think it was 5 special formated hd 5.25 floppys in a cartridge and
loaded them all in i think you got something outrageous for like 1981 or so
like 1.2gb or some such
And again, no, that's not it. I have one of those Amlyn changers with Vista controller board. The controller is a Vista A800 interface card with special firmware. The connector is a single 50-pin DIP header as you would use for an 8" floppy drive.
The Amlyn changer uses the drive select lines to choose which floppy to load. They are approximately 5.25" form-factor, but pre-formatted in some odd manner such that you had to buy the disk packs from Amlyn. I have never been able to find media nor any information on the format. There's a special place in Hell reserved for companies who deliberately crippled storage systems and tried to make formatted media into a revenue stream (remember the DEC Rainbow?).