Building my own SD card interface for the Apple II

Ciderpress shows 1 [CFFA] partition, 1  ProDOS partition and 5 Unknown partitions on one card.

i just tried it on another card with 4 partitions by copy loading the profile.2mg image to partitions 3 and 4, same issues.  i notice if i press open-apple key, the IIsd light will go out with the key presses or sometimes break with an onscreen error.  i ran apple //e diags via my SDisk II and diags checks out fine, no errors, shows my IIe is enhanced.  I also ran the apple diags against my 8mb 80 column card, it passed all apple diags, mem test and screen res tests.  i also ran the apple diags disk controller tests with my SDisk II and it passed all tests.

will the profile.2mg boot on a 64k enhanced IIe via the IIsd card?  my IIsd card must be working if it least brings up the copyright screen upon boot up.

thanks for the help!

//kneehighspy

Hi kneehighspy, 

sorry i was a little bit unprecise. It is necessary that the partitions are following to the other.

In simple words in my Apple Sytem I have to fill Partition 1 and 2 to boot from Slot7, 

Fill up Partition 1, 2, 3, 4 to boot From Slot 4 to 7. (in my last message I wrote from every Slot, but i am tested it only from 4-7.

Please change the Prodos Name from Partition1 to PartionX, fx Part1, Part2 ...

Kind Regards Boris

CPU is 65C02? (NOT just 6502)

yeah my cpu is a 65c02.

Then if everything is built correctly and working, your card must not be setup right.

I had to mess around with AppleCider for a while to get mine right  between the SD card reader, Admin privileges, and the correct steps in order to make it work...

well i've tried pretty much everything, even using winimg32 to write an image to the cards, always stuck on the IIsd boot copyright screen with led in, sometimes flickers like trying to load.   built another IIsd, same exact issues.

tried external sd card reader, still same issues.  it has to be an sd card issue or the way ciderpress is doing things.  i've  tried 4 different types of cards, none it seems work.  they work fine with the Sdisk II i built, they fine with the unocart 2600s i've built, the ultimate carts i've built, the c64 sdiec carts i've built, etc.

gonna order a couple different brands and see how that goes :)

//kneehighspy

mikedanick wrote:

well i've tried pretty much everything, even using winimg32 to write an image to the cards, always stuck on the IIsd boot copyright screen with led in, sometimes flickers like trying to load.   built another IIsd, same exact issues.

 

tried external sd card reader, still same issues.  it has to be an sd card issue or the way ciderpress is doing things.  i've &nbs

Please post back how you get on, and especially if you manage to find a solution as I have the same issues with the IIsd that a built a few years ago (mine is the original version from the first run).

Cheers,

Mike

i definitely will :)

//kneehighspy

i finally got my sd cards working with  the IIsd.  here's what worked for me:

diskpart (using windows 7)

list disk

select disk # (# is which disk your sd card is)

clean

exit

using ciderpress

loaded profile.2mg from file

then did the same for the next two unknown partitions

and now the IIsd boots all my sd cards fine.

//kneehighspy

Hi Flo,

Please add me to the list of interested persons for either a kit or assembled version of your card.

Cheers,

mark

would you mind someone modding your design and taking inputs that were previously mentioned in the forum and add them to the card?  of course full credit is still given to you on the card / design.

//kneehighspy

Can Anyone help me. 

I recently got a AppleIISD board only. Its a sligtly different board from Freitz's original board, but basiclly it's the same. The person who made the board changed it so it could use a more readily available SD socket. I have been told the design has been tested and works the same as Freitz's board.

I have finished building everything from parts I've ordered from various places, and have burnt a 2716 eprom with the .bin file found on the github page. Now I need to program the Xlinix chip. I have been told I need to install the AppleIISD card into my IIe so that I can program the Xlinix chip. 

The problem I have is when I plug it into my IIe, the IIe fails to boot...no beep. Dead. Removing the card and the IIe works fine again.

(The IIe motherboard power LED is lit, and the LED on the AppleIISD is also constantly lit)

Is this all normal behaviour untill the Xilinx is programmed? Certainly seems strange.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Philip

m.b. the photo shows the board with a 74HC244 installed...this ha since been replaced with a z4HC245 

AppleIISD.png

To program my xilinx I didn't plug my card (smd version) into my apple IIe, I just connected 5V and ground cable (you can use USB cable) temporary to my voltage regulator to give voltage to my cpld

Thanks alfard, Seems my Xilinx chip was a pull from China, and was already programmed (buss conflict!!!). As soon as I erased it, the IIe booted.

Now I seem to be having a similar issue to many others where the SD card is not booting. Will try some of the fixes mentioned above.

* Update. I was not able to try the DiskPart fix above as the SD card was not recognised as it is attached via a USB to SD adaptor...I wonder if the USB to SD card is part of my issue, and I wonder if other people who have had issues have been using USB to SD adaptors too...anyway, still working on it. Unfortunateley none of my PCs have SD card slots

Philip

Ok, I'm just going to put this here incase it helps others...

After building my AppleIISD from scratch (not a kit). I had a hell of a time getting it to work. 

I would get the dreaded crash to monitor at memory address 0804. I tried so many different SD card (6 in total), tried doing DiskPart & Clean, tried using a dedicated SD formating software, tried doing it on 3 different machines...nothing worked.

But finally what did work for me was...

- DiskPart and Clean the SD card. Don't format it.

- Launch Ciderpress as admin.

- Select "Volume copier" from the icon bar or select "Tools -> Volume copier (open volume)" from the menu.

- Make sure that "Open as read-only" is deselected. Select the SD card's 'physical disk' from the list. 

- Choose "Load from file" and load in a 32mb Prodos image. Ciderpress will create four 32mb partitions. (The first partition will be loaded with the image you just selected).

- Now the most important part...load a 32mb Prodos image into all of the other 3 partitions. I could not boot unless all partitions had some image loaded into them...so strange.

Anyway, I don't know if you need all of these steps, but certianly the last one was the trick form me...nearly 3 days wasted chasing the ghost in the machine...happy it works now.

Phil

This is my first post here, because I just got my first Apple II, a IIgs to be exact...

I spent some time online to get neccessary add-on to get started. Got 8MB RAM from Garretts Workshop and now your Apple II SD.

I followed all the instructions, even installed Windows on my Mac in a Boot Camp partition, just to use Ciderpress ;)

Now I created some partitions and put the ProFile image in the first one, but it does not want to start. Always prompts into the monitor, just showing the copyright notice, so I can at least see that the device is present.

I have a disk to boot from, with ProDOS 16 v1.3 and IIgs Finder 1.1.

Shouldn't I see at least the SD drive somewhere on the desktop?

Can you guys tell me what I'm missing here? Please see my screenshots.

I always wanted a IIgs in my collection, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult to get it work...

Thank you so much in advance!

200809396_5931460650212307_6989624932758368992_n.jpg

200855247_5931460596878979_3268076060371817426_n.jpg

So here's my update on this! :)

After messing around with my card for a long time and trying various options (Formatting it in the Mac, formatting it in Windows), trying to write four identical Partitions to see if one worked... I gave up. Now today I purchased a new card. The smallest I could get, 4GB... not even SD, it's MicroSD with an Adapter, but I made good experiences with them in my Everdrives, so I gave it a try.

At the first try: nothing new. I could not create a Partition 1 that boots in any way. So I tried to format it with another tool. At first, nothing changed, but I put the ProFile Image in the first one and in the three others i put the Total Replay Archive and now, after some more tries, I got a ProDOS prompt at last.

Not familiar with commands and the programs, it took me a while to get used to it, but with the "Selector" I found that all my four partitions are present, and I could select my disk drive there, so I booted from disk to see if the desktop changed. Yes, it did - but only the first two partitions showed up. I assumed it's because the system on the disk was too old - and it showed that I was right.

The 6.0.4 image from whatistheapple2gs was a pain. I could not write it into the first partition. In all the others it was possible... so I figured out how to create a new image file in Ciderpress and copied the contents of the other file in there - and tadaaa: I could copy it into the first partition and everything is fine - system 6.0.4 now boots from SD and all four partitions are present. Me happy. :)

Now there's some more for me to ask... first: is there a german version of 6.0.4 somewhere available as a live install like the 6.0.4 I found on the website?

And how do I get all these games to work from hard drive? When I put them into a partition some worked, but that's surely not the way to got, isn't it?

Thank you for listening :)

Alex

To be honest... there isn't any German (or localized) ProDOS version available. 

And yes... all programs needs to be added to a partition. Using Ciderpress, you can add programs and/or games easily to a for example games partition. Other programs to a programs partition or what ever.

I wasn't talking about ProDOS, I was talking about the GUI. I found a german 6.0.1, so I thought maybe there is a 6.0.4 as well. But as it was not officially developed, I found in the meantime that there is only the english version. But to be honest, that's ok for me. It's an american computer with (mostly) american software.

I found out how to add content to the image files via Ciderpress, but it's a pain. But I found nice collection images on the home page of the whatistheapple2gs website, and it's easier to take them and to remove what I don't need ;)

I made a lot of progress today, putting a lot of stuff on the card that I want to check out. But I made a stupid noob mistake: I deleted the "Icons" folder, and now the icons are all gone... so I think I have to copy it all over again.

There's a lot to learn for me. Coming from the C64, a lot is very different and new. But it's exciting. It's long ago that I took the time to learn a new machine and install everything the way I want to.

Hello guys,

Just say that I have done the formatting process with a 1GB card and it has not worked, then I have done it with another that I have around 2GB and YES!

@mikedanick: I have used your method.

Then I  used the "profile.2mg" and at least it started ProDOS BASIC.

Finally I have tried to fill the first partition with these compilations (2mg too) located in http://www.apple-2.com/ and it works for me 70-80% of the games / utils.

My question: Does anyone know why the rest of the applications do not work?

Do you have any compilation prepared where 100% of the games and applications work?

Do you know how to locate a place with more?

Thanks for all beforehand!

Just curious if anyone else has a GSOS boot stability problem with the IIgs.

I have a ROM1 GS with a 4M RAM card (although that part I don't believe matters- I've tried the Apple 1.5M card als0) and the card is in Slot 7. When I boot GSOS from the SD card, usually some time late in the load process (not usually always the same place) I will hear a "bonk" (IIgs beep) and it will hang. I can reboot with the keyboard reset, and eventually it will boot fine and run stable, sometimes after a couple of tries. I've replace the SD card and this doesn't seem to matter. 

This doesn't happen with another similar setup (like the Dan ][) card. 

Is there a small issue with the driver, or is it my IIgs?

I can confirm this. I have these issues from time to time, I have 6.0.4 installed. Sometimes I boot GS/OS without extensions to play some games that don't work. When I reset the machine after playing e.g. Arkanoid Revenge Of DoH and want to boot into the full 6.0.4 with extensions, it stops booting the same way that you described it - everytime. When I reboot the machine a second or third time, it works fine again - or if I switch it off for some seconds.

I have a different issue: sometimes the keyboard stops working and I can't even reset the machine via the keystrokes, have to turn it off and on again.