A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

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gsmcten's picture
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A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

After further review I thought that this discussion deserves it's own thread.

I originally placed this link in the "This Is Laughable" thread:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Computer-IIgs-Applied-Engineering-VULCAN-Hard-Drive-Card-Only-/231568725563?ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

This was mainly due to the price for the card alone and part of the item description:

No hard drive is included. Older IDE drives was what was originally in the Vulcan PS. HD Drive, so you could always use it that way, but most people use these to add internal CF cards inside the case the hard drive usually doesn't have much value.

I thought, what is he talking about? Using the Vulcan card for CF?

So I sent him an email:

Dear sold-sold-sold!,

From your description:

"No hard drive is included but since most people use these to add internal CF cards inside the case the hard drive usually doesn't have much value."

I have been in the Apple II community for over 30 years and you are the first person I have ever heard mention anything about using a Vulcan Card as a basis for conversion to CF.
Now if you have pictures of one actually being used for that purpose I would be glad to see it. I know a bunch of other folks up on - applefritter.com - who would also like to see one.

And by the way..."the hard drive usually doesn't have much value" is not true.

Regards,

Steven

His reply was:

Dear me252,

No expert here on Apple Smile
I defer to others for all info.
This is a old article that talks about a 20mbCF card working thru the Vulcan controller.
http://www.programdoc.com/653_2682_1.htm
I had another article on it, but I tossed it when I made the auction. Sad
Like I said I am a collector not a user of old computer gear.
If you find out more info I would like to know what you find out.
Thanks
Matt

- sold-sold-sold!

So I followed the given link and sure enough; a discussion of the use of the Vulcan Control Card being used with a CFFA adapter was there.

Like I said, I've been around the community a long time and this is the first time I have heard of this.

In the other thread I received one response from Georgel.

Does anyone else have any knowledge of this adaptation?

Steven Smile

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

Why is it confusing? It's an IDE drive card. With an IDE-to-CompactFlash adapter, you could plug in a CF card instead of the Vulcan IDE drive. (You may be confused by the CFFA reference. It's got nothing to do with CFFA; just CF (CompactFlash)).

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

David,

I'm not confused. lol

Like I said, I've just never heard of this particular adaptation before
and I'm wondering if anyone else has.

According to the link, it does seem that it might have some limitations.
What is your opinion?

Steven Smile

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

I've done that. At first I looked into it as a possibility for when my drives died. I discussed it here
http://www.applefritter.com/content/cf-vulcan
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.sys.apple2/vulcan/comp.sys.apple2/uyyGYFvJOoE/UQmkFTQkL3IJ
Pics here
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9r6vH-4NK4NRXpSMnlwSWh4SzA

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

Wayne,

Seems you have to have a password to get to your pictures. Smile

Well, this is more information than I thought there would be.
I have a Vulcan Drive with Controller Card sitting here
I think I will give it a try.

Steven Smile

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

Try this
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9r6vH-4NK4NRXpSMnlwSWh4SzA&authuser=0

The CFs are a lot faster than the old WD and Miniscribe though sometimes I miss the sounds.

Be aware though that most CFs won't work. A lot of friends had old cameras that they weren't using anymore so I borrowed their CFs. Did a lot of borrowing. So right now I have 2 16mb, 2 32mb and 2 64mb CFs. The 64mb CFs work in my IIgs but I only have a 40mb Vulcan EPROM in the IIe so I can't use a 64mb CF in it.

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

Try this
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9r6vH-4NK4NRXpSMnlwSWh4SzA&authuser=0

The CFs are a lot faster than the old WD and Miniscribe though sometimes I miss the sounds.

Be aware though that most CFs won't work. A lot of friends had old cameras that they weren't using anymore so I borrowed their CFs. Did a lot of borrowing. So right now I have 2 16mb, 2 32mb and 2 64mb CFs. The 64mb CFs work in my IIgs but I only have a 40mb Vulcan EPROM in the IIe so I can't use a 64mb CF in it.

I'm curious,

Can you plug the CF board directly into the vulcan card; or is there some sort of interference? Or are they both male ports? (I can't tell whether the vulcan is male or female by the pics).

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

It depends to the kind of adapter you are using for the CF card.
Most Adapters have male plug so in general it will request a
female to female cable as used with the real harddrive.
speedyG

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

A CF won't plug strait in. The Vulcan card has a male connector so I used a CF to ide adapter with a female connector.

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

Did you supply power to the CF/IDE adapter or just use bus power through the card?

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

I supplied power to the adapter

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Re: A Vulcan Control Card to CFFA Conversion. Possible?

Did you supply power to the CF/IDE adapter or just use bus power through the card?

There is no power supply on 40-pin IDE bus.

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