Re: CFFA3000 Video Posted

[schmidtd <schmidtd@my-deja.com>]

On Jul 20, 3:19 pm, dog_...@macgui.com (D Finnigan) wrote:
> Jayson Smith wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > Thanks for this. Being blind, there are a few things I'd need to know
> > before
> > I buy one. In particular, how do you manage virtual disk drives and change
> > disk images? Is it a desk accessory or what? Are the menus/commands
> > predictable, or does it remember where you were last time, etc?
>
> When you boot the Apple with the CFFA3000, it shows a menu on the screen. It
> looks like when you use a USB stick, there is a bit of a wait. About 2
> seconds on the video for the USB device to be ready.

There are also beeps when devices (CF, USB) become ready.  And a buzz
when something is unsuccessful.  If you listen carefully, you will
observe a bug in the then-current firmware... it was buzzing at my USB
stick, which works perfectly well.

> The menu has 8 options.
> They are:
>
> 1.) Disk II Slot: 6 (Will reboot)
> 2.) Disk II Assignments
> 3.) SmartPort Devices: 6
> 4.) SmartPort Assignments
> 5.) Assign First From: CF
> 6.) Other Settings
> 7.) About
> 8.) Boot

Note that each menu item can be accessed by number, or by the first
letter in the name.

> Option 1 is used to toggle a slot for the virtual Disk II, presumably by
> using the left and right arrow keys.

That's correct; and you only have to reboot when changing the slot
number.  Normally, it doesn't say (Will reboot).

> Option 5 is for choosing which to boot from when USB and CompactFlash are
> both inserted to the CFFA,.

Actually, option 5 really means which memory device will fill in all
of its images into the available volumes first.  So, if you have 2
images identified from CF, and 3 from USB, and you set "Assign first
from:" to be CF, then CF images 1 and 2 get assigned to the first
available volumes; then USB gets its 3 images assigned to the next
ones, all according to the ProDOS assignment rules (Antoine posted a
link to the relevant algorithm recently...)

> When you choose the second option, Disk II assignments, you get taken to a
> two-column screen that shows the .dsk images on your USB drive in a list on
> the left, and then which of these images are selected for Disk II emulation,
> shown on the right.

When you select an image from the left, you get a "gleep" sound as it
successfully mounts and shows up on the right.