Re: 3.5 and 5.25" drives on //e

["Mark Cummings" <NOTfigjams@primus.com.au>]

Err... not quite correct... the LASER UDC card I have can support up to 4
drives. This is the late model with VLSI surface mount technology and two
DB19 connectors.

It will support up to 2x Apple 3.5 drives AND 2x Apple 5.25 drives for a
total of 4 drives. I am not sure about 3.5 Unidisk drives as they are not
mentioned in the instructions, but I have read from many posts that they are
not supported, and I am not about to blow mine up to try. (already did that
with the Apple 3.5 drives on a regular 5.25 controller many years ago).

there are many options for connecting drives with one option having all four
drives on the J1 connector and none on the J2 connector. In all cases the
3.5 drive is before any 5.25's in the chain. depending on where the card and
drives are plugged in determines what slot and drive configuration you end
up with. it varies from slot n drive 1 & 2, slot 5 drive 1 & 2 with the
other drives being assigned to slot 2 drive 1 & 2. the UDC card must be in
slot 5 to support 4 drives otherwise it can only support 2.

I have Prodos, DOS 3.3 (UniDOS), Pascal and CPM in 3.5" bootable disks that
run on there fine. In the case of the CPM disk it is only for the PCPI Appli
Card, not the M$ card.

Mark


"Joel" <joelbuckley54.nospam.@hotmail.com> wrote in message
hRidnTCnD9bLKxWjXTWcpA@comcast.com">news:hRidnTCnD9bLKxWjXTWcpA@comcast.com...
> There are several different interface cards for the //e that support the
> db-19 daisy chain connector.
>
> The most common one works only with the duodisk (5.25) or 2 unidisk (5.25)
> or Apple 5.25 drives.
>
> Then there is the Liron 3.5 interface, which I believe works only with 1
or
> 2 Unidisk 3.5 drives.
> It diesn't work with 5.25 or Apple 3.5 drives.
>
> The superdrive 3.5 interface works with 1 or 2 Unidisk 3.5, Apple 3.5,
Apple
> Superdrive or FDHD 1.44 M drives.
>
> I don't believe the 3.5 interface cards support 5.25 drives. Later model
> Apple //c's support 2 5.25 drives and 2 Unidisk 3.5's. The IIgs and and
//c+
> smartports will support 2 5.25 drives and 2 Apple 3.5 drives and 2 Unidisk
> 3.5 drives (6 total).
>
> Then there are third party 3.5 interface cards. The Laser Universal disk
> controller would work with both 5.25 and 3.5 drives (not Unidisk), but
only
> 2 drives total. I'm not familiar with AE's interface.
>
> ProDOS supports 3.5 and 5.25 drives on a //e. Special versions of DOS 3.3
> (UniDOS, AMDOS) do, too, though they usually remap the 3.5 drive as
multiple
> DOS 3.3 volumes.
>
> Joel
>
> "John" <twohandsfree@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> e639cb5b.0303311236.366701a3@posting.google.com">news:e639cb5b.0303311236.366701a3@posting.google.com...
> > Do those drive interface cards which accept the daisy chain newer
> > (light grey plasic casing) drives allow a //e to use both 5_1/4 *and*
> > 3_1/2 drives ?
> >
> > If so would ProDos support 3 1/2 floppy drives on a //e? (But not Dos
> > 3.3, right)
> >
> > If a 5.25 were the first drive, and a 3.5 the second, would they be
> > addressed (?) as 6,1 and 6,2 ?
>
>