Card Pile pickup, what is this card?!

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Verault's picture
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Card Pile pickup, what is this card?!
Picked up a stack of 8 cards recently and in the pile is what looks like a generic floppy controller card. I cant seem to find much info on it, is anyone familiar with it? Its got two variable resistors and a jumperblock with an option to pick "13" or "16" Anyone know where I can find a pdf? Will it work with Disk II floppy drives or does it work only with a 3rd party drive?
Tom Owad's picture
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13 and 16 refers to the

13 and 16 refers to the number of disk sectors. Number of pins is correct for a Disk II, also.

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Micro-SCI and Franklin

It's this one:

http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/Apple%20II%20Documentation%20Project/Interface%20Cards/Disk%20Drive%20Controllers/Micro-SCI%20A2%20Controller/Photos/Micro-SCI%20A2%20Controller%20-%20Front.jpg

 

Or this:

http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/Apple%20II%20Documentation%20Project/Interface%20Cards/Disk%20Drive%20Controllers/Franklin%20Disk%20Drive%20Controller/Photos/Franklin%20Disk%20Drive%20Controller%20rev.%20D%20-%20Front.jpg

 

Probably you will find some manuals for the Franklin controllers. They seem to share the same design.

 

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I have the same card. It

I have the same card. It works fine with Apple disk drives. Handy the very rare time I want to use a 13 sector disk but otherwise I generally don’t use it.

I have no documentation.

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Thanks guys. I guess I get

Thanks guys. I guess I get over some of the fear so I could just try it out I still haven't been able to find any documentation I guess I could look for some of the Franklin controllers although the ones I've seen don't look anything like this card except they're probably about the same length anyway. One thing that still baffles me is what the two variable resistors are for. Drive speed is controlled on the drive itself so what are these variable resistors used for more afraid to touch them.

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Didn't these Micro Sci cards

Didn't these Micro Sci cards have special properties when used in conjuction with Micro Sci drives?

I seem to recall you could format special (Dos 3.3) disks with extra capacity if you stayed in the Micro Sci ecosystem.

Or am I imagining it?

 

Verault's picture
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You could be right. I know

You could be right. I know they sold micro sci drives and they were half height i believe.

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I may have some of those

I may have some of those drives. If you are curious, I will photograph the half height drive model that I own. 

Verault's picture
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Yes please. I am curious. Id

Yes please. I am curious. Id also like to know if the drive unit itself has a potentiometer for speed adjust ment. If not it must be the ones on the card.

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I think I have one of those

I think I have one of those cards in a ][+ in the closet, but no docs.  I have a pair of Micro Psi full height drives which I pulled to look at.  As I recall the Micro Psi half height drives could use 40 tracks with Apple Disk ][ controllers.  I don't recall anything about the full height drives pro or con related to 40 tracks. I think you had to hack a byte in RWTS but that was  long time ago.  I think you could do it with a POKE then INIT a new boot disk which would have 40 track support.  I had a friend who did this quite a bit, but I did not do it much myself. I think there was a patch you rani n ProDOS which directly patched the disk .

The first drive had a Franklin Ace 10 (complete with Franklin serial number sticker) inside what I believed to be a Micro Psi case.  Not sure if there is a connection to Franklin, but the your controller card's is similarity is striking.  Of course, many clone items of the era were straigh up rip offs of something else.  No external labels on the first drive and I was told the drives were not Apple and it could also have always been a Franklin or it could be a FrankenDrive.  Probably nothing there to count on.

The second drive looks like orginal Micro Psi manufacture Analog board and has a Micro Psi label on the front.  Here is a photo of the drive guts. 

https://www.applefritter.com/files/2020/11/29/MicroPsi_0.JPG

 

 

 

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