Re: Apple ][ using PC floppy

[vladitx <vladitx@nucleusys.com>]

On Dec 31, 1:22 am, nyder <nyder...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm a little lost as the useful purpose of this.

Just the next Apple ][ toy. You don't expect "usefulness" in this
realm, do you?

>  while i understand
> 5.25 dd floppies are hard to get, soon the 3.5 floppies are going to
> be hard to get.   Computers don't come with floppy drives anymore.

DD drives and diskettes are obsolete (== ebay target). HD are still
being manufactured and available at every corner for pocket money.

> wouldn't it be more practical to make a board that converts possible
> disk images to "virtual floppies" that the computer will just see as a
> floppy?

Shh, this is another project I'm working on, but it's complexity is
much bigger. Stay tuned.

On the other hand some people like to have real floppies grinding.
This should be the "retro" feeling.

> And the the wierd thing is, you look very familiar in the vids, though
> i'm sure i've never seen you before.  lol

Hah. :) I am the one filming, the happy guy is the one who convinced
me to do this (in case you want to contact him).

> hmm, just got an idea, since you can easily fit 3 400k images, or 2
> 800k images on a HD floppy, why not make it so the computer see it's a
> triple or dual drive, and that way you don't have to hack the dos for
> track size?  You can leave it as a, well, guess not dos floppy because
> of the lame 1.4mb crap, but maybe as a some sort of format so you can
> squeeze 1.6m out of it (since the 3.5 are actually 2m disks)
>
> just a thought

This project doesn't write MFM data or any other sort of intelligent
handling. It just stuffs 250kbit/s DD stream to 500kbit/s HD with
proper timing.
The capacity is still Apple ]['s ~51kbits per track, but you have
added bonus of 45 more tracks beyond the standard 35.