Re: 1) CF Focus 2) Ciderpress

[John <zzzjoki@yahoo.com>]

On Apr 30, 11:42 am, "Henry" <apl2research(.a.t.)comcast.net> wrote:
> Hello John.
>
> > Have you ever heard of older Focus cards which are not compatible with
> > CF cards? (I haven't but wondered..)
>
> I personally have not heard of any issues other then with some of the very
> first CF Cards produced, but that had nothing to do with the Focus
> Controller.  I think the CF Cards were specificaly designed for the digital
> cameras they came with rather then to the later evolved CF standards.  Now
> that it's almost 10 years later very few of those cards still remain in use
> today or at least I think as I've only ever seen one in person.
>
> I'm not really a Focus Card 'expert' so maybe someone else would want to
> coment?  Technally speacking though, as long as the CF Card works on your
> PC's USB reader then it should work on any Apple II IDE Controller with a CF
> Adapter.  In fact I've had CF Cards I thought were good and worked on the
> MicroDrive to where I could partiton them, but when it came time to load the
> volume images from Cider Press on my PC they failed.  From what I cermize
> the MicroDrive utility just writes to the boot sector where as CiderPress
> restores each scector from the image to the CF Card.  Hence, a 32 Meg image
> on my PC's Hard Drive from CiderPress.
>
> On a side note, the 'raw' CiderPress images are 32 Megs but a simple ZIP or
> RAR will compress them to only a fraction of that size.  Great tip if you
> want to email images or post them for downloading!
>
> > Have you ever talked to the guys at Sparkfun - they seem pretty
> > helpful on the web site anyway. They describe, for example, how to
> > make your own solder masks for low volume in house surface boards.
> > Pretty cool.
>
> Thanks for that lead.  I'll have to check them out.  The last few proto type
> PCBs I've worked (Yes I'm still working with them Ryan! :-P ) with were all
> surface mount and laying out the solder paste by hand is really starting to
> become a major pain.  Last time I priced masks they were in the order of
> $100+ bucks.  Although they were designed specifically for your PCB and not
> just something generic.
>
> --
> Henry S. Courbiswww.GSE-Reactive.com
> Legacy Hardware and Support - Come take a look at what we have to offer!

Correction: at the time I read their site they sent out to have their
masks made, but they found a place less than $100. Too bad that
Versalaser (?) cost $10k, huh. Anyway, they described how to use those
masks to apply the paste, populate , and solder the boards.

They also mentioned their trials regarding the buying of "commercial"
equipment for certain tasks versus using improvised, cheaper tools.

Reminds me of "Marine" engine parts. $$$.