Replying to Julian
It’s a NEC CDROM. It’s connected to the SCSI card and will read CDs. I don’t know if there’s software to read other formats but it works with ProDOS CD. I chose it because I can also use the front controls to play music.
I used a standard Apple 1.4mb drive with daisy-chain board connected to a superdrive card. I’ve considered adding a second drive but have never gotten around to it.
The 3 extra slots aren’t connected to a card, they’re wired directly to the motherboard.
I’m using the PCs power supply which has a higher output than the IIe power supply.
I’ll take some more pics on the weekend
And do a better description
I have a //e motherboard, power supply and keyboard sitting on my desk that I am not sure I have a case for. I think the only extra case I have is fairly broken. I don't want to shell out the $$$ for a MacEffects case. I will probably end up making something instead of just using a PC case though, because I have a //e power supply that probably won't fit into a PC case and the motherboard stand offs would have to be fabricated anyway.
Hi Wayne! Here you are !
Thank you for this dedicated thread :-)
For sure, some photos will help: I don't understand so much how the 3 extra slots can be directly attached to the board...maybe you removed a regular slot to solder this triple one...I can't imagine, truly...
Sorry for maybe dummy questions, but I am trying to revive my old apple ii hardware I have not been using for about 40 years....I stopped my apple adventure at DOS 3.3 with classical common cards, so....is "prodos cd" an extension for prodos ?
And any detail also for the cards (and sw) you used to run floppies and CD would also be welcome.
I agree NEC cd is very useful one, beacause of its front panel commands :-)
BTW: is there any apple ii family SW on CD ???
Thanks,
Julian
Wayne wrote: standard Apple 1.4 drive
Question:
Does this mean there is no way to use a standard PC 1,4 floppy drive ?
I connected the other sots by soldered a 50 pin connecting cable to the bottom of the IIe motherboard
The apple 1.4mb drive works better because it also reads 800k disks.
There are cards that let you use a PC 1.4mb drive but those cards are rare. They also format DD disks as 720k and won’t read Apple II 800k disks. Makes for a compatibility issue with the IIgs and IIc+ card amongst others
Now it is clear how you did it!
It looks like your "hardwaristic" life is somewhat risky :-)
Ok, tihis looks like an hard path to follow :-(
In the meantime, other photos of your PC IIe would be welcome :-)
Thanks!
Julian
As has been mentioned, there were cards that would let you use a 720k or 1.4M PC type floppy drive on an Apple II, however they are rare and support for them is limited. Even support for the Apple card to use Mac sttyle 1.44MB floppy drives on an Apple II is limited pretty much to ProDOS, and the card to control them (required even for a IIgs) is rare as well. Some cards which were designed to control PC type 360k floppy drives can be made to work with a 720k 3.25" drive since the electrical interfaces are more or less the same, however you would probably be on your own to write drivers to support it because most of those cards pre-dated 3.5" floppy drives being popular on PCs.
Keep in mind that with double the data rate, there may not be enough time to move the bytes from the I/O card to RAM.
It could certainly be an issue, depending on how the card is designed. If I was designing a card to do this these days I'd be tempted to use a modern microcontroller to control the drive and then it could buffer and spoon feed the data to the Apple II. Back in the day some cards did this through dedicated hardware or a few even used their own CPU. The Unidisk 3.5 for example had it's own CPU and communcated through an IWM (//c or LiRON). I don't know of any 3.5" drives that worked with a PC style interface for the Apple II that worked like that, but it would have been possible.
There might be a more readily available way to do 1.4 and 720k floppies.
A while back I cracked open a USB Superdisk drive and found that the drive inside was ide. I connected it via an acard SCSI adapter to a Ramfast SCSI card and was able to read 120mb superdisks and 1.4mb floppies. I never tried DD disks but those drives are supposed to be able to read them.
I’m wondering if the superdisk drive will work with a MicroDrive Turbo or other ide controller.
At the time I had a IIgs and II+ permanently set up but not the IIe. When I wanted to use the IIe it was a pain to get all the pieces set up so I hit on the idea of putting a IIe in a tower.
By luck the tower case I owned had a power supply that put out all 4 voltages.
The LED display on front was controlled by jumpers and after some trial and error I was able to get it to display IIE.
I installed 2 5.25” drives with a Disk II card. Originally the drives didn’t match but I later fixed that.
I’m using a single 1.4mb drive with a SuperDrive card. I’ve thought about adding a second 3.5” drive but have never gotten around to it.
I fitted a SCSI hard drive and a NEC CDROM connected to a Ramfast SCSI card. The cable has a female 25 pin connector at the back of the case for a 25 pin terminator or other SCSI device.
I have a mouse card in slot 4 and recently added a USB adapter.
I used an Echo II card and fitted the volume control to the front case.
Originally I used a 1mb RamWorks with a RGB daughter card connected to a IIgs monitor. I later changed that to a RamWorks with a 8mb daughtercard and a VGA daughter card.
I wired extra 3 slots in parallel with slot 2. I thought that I’d likely be able to use more than 1 card in a slot if only 1 has a ROM.
Front.jpg
Back.jpg
inside1.jpg
Inside.jpg
Keyboard.jpg
Keyboard inside.jpg
Originally I used a 1mb RamWorks with a RGB daughter card connected to a IIgs monitor. I later changed that to a RamWorks with a 8mb daughtercard and a VGA daughter card.
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You did a lot of work indeed!
The one for the keyboard is mind blowing !!!!!!
Now I am curious to find and learn about a lot of cards you mentioned. I will look for them.
But I will ask some questions right now: I have a ramworks, but I didn't know about VGA daughter card (new or used).
I was only aware of RGB daughters, and never found one to buy :-(
Is it a new custom add-on card??
How is it possible to plug 2 daughter cards in the same ramworks ???
About your photos: it looks like you are using a lot of RAM cards, and you removed one of them to better show the inside area in the second photo: do all of them coexist without overlapping? Or had you manually configured drivers or similar ?
Your assembly is really inspirig !!!
I am more and more convinced to build an Apple //f of mine !!!
F = Frankenstein edition
:-D
There’s connections on both sides of the RamWorks card. One side is for a video daughter card and the other is for a RAM daughter card. A few years ago a2heaven made a VGA and an 8mb daughter cards. The 8mb card is way overkill for almost everyone but the VGA daughter card is great.
Hello,
Here is another example of a solution called the RamWorks Piggyback on Tindie.
The case looks like it's been through the wringer... lol