Re: SuperDrive Card (Apple II 3.5" Disk Controller Card) and FDHD Questions...

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Warren Ernst wrote:
> All,
>
> Over the past month I've managed to buy:
>
> 1. One Apple II 3.5" Disk Controller Card (aka the SuperDrive card),
> untested, but looks good.
>
> 2. Two "FDHD drive mechanisms," but the seller doesn't know anything
> about them. I have my doubts that these are really FDHD mechanisms (see
> below).
>
> 3. Three Apple 3.5" drives.
>
> Let's see if I can keep this all straight.
>
> All three Apple 3.5" drives work just fine when hooked up to the drive
> port of a GS (this is a Rom03 model). So far, so good.
>
> All three drives ALSO work fine, as 800k drives, when plugged into the
> Apple II 3.5" Disk Controller Card installed into slot 5, and the GS
> Slots control panel is set to "Your Card." Also good. BUT, the LED on
> the top of the card doesn't turn on. I don't know under what conditions
> it is supposed to light up.
>
> I've taken apart one of the Apple 3.5" drives to install one of the
> FDHD mechanisms, but the new "FDHD" mechanism looks just like the
> normal 800k mechanism. I mean, all the circuit boards and part numbers
> are the same, all the numbers on the chips are the same, and the part
> number "MFD-51W-03" (a lablel on the side of the drive mechanism)  on
> my "FDHD" drive AND what was in my Apple 3.5" drive is listed at
> http://www.mandrake.demon.co.uk/Apple/part_nos.txt as "661-0345	Disk
> Drive 800K -Red Serial # (MFD-51W-03)" In other words, it looks like
> the High Density drives I bought are actually 800k drives.
>
> And as you might expect, the drive with the new "FDHD" mechanism,
> either when hooked up to the card or the built-in port, only reads and
> writes 800k disks.
>
> OK, so it looks like I have some spare 800k drive mechanisms. OK. Fine.
>
> However, after going through all this, it occurs to me that I don't
> know what the LED on the card is supposed to indicate. I don't know how
> to format a High Density disk under ProDOS. I don't know if I need
> extra software to read from or write to a HD disk formatted in a PC.
>
> Can anyone answer any of these last questions for me?

The LED is apparently a diagnostic LED controlled by the card's
on-board processor.  If it flashes or lights continuously, the
users' manual suggests turning off the machine and re-seating
the card and trying again.  So LED off is normal.

The card knows what kind of diskette is in the drive, and will
format it accordingly.  So if you put a 1.44MB disk into a FDHD
drive, then format the disk, the controller will format it as
a 1.44MB disk.

You can run a diagnostic on the card, which will also report the
type of drives attached, by getting into the Monitor and typing
Cx0Ag  (where x is the slot the card is in).

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

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