Re: Need Info About A2 Cards/Board

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.ca>]

Bart wrote:

>
> Wayne in regards a Unidisk:  if the VTech card uses the same controller that
> is in a Laser 128 then I would NOT suggest using it.  I tried one on a 128
> once and ended up totally frying the Laser's motherboard.  I have used a 400k
> and old no button Mac 800k drive on a Laser (also a Laser made 3.5 and a
> couple of no-name clone 3.5s)  with success (different 128, I fortunately had
> a few).  But, I would NOT suggest the use of a Unidisk.
> -Bart

The newer Vtech card does use the same controller chip as the Laser 128 but
the older one doesn't. From his description, he must have the earlier full size
board. I forgot to mention that if he looks at the drive 1 ribbon cable, he
should
find that it's a 20 pin to db19 adapter and there's a 20 pin connector on the
board there too. I guess there option was there because of the Disk IIs. One
of the nice things about the card is it'll try drive one and if there's no
floppy
then it'll try drive 2.
I've tried the 3.5" UniDisk on both the newer and older version of the card
with no ill effects. On the newer card the 3.5" UniDisk simply wouldn't
work. But I wouldn't use that drive if I had another choice. The 3.5" Unidisk
itself is limited by it's use of a 4:1 interleave. The Mac or IIgs drives or
clones
of them can use a 2:1 interleave with the Vtech card. Most IIe programs
will automatically format 4:1 without giving you a choice so I use Prosel 8 or
a IIgs to format the floppies.

    Wayne