Apple IIe Disk Controllers

[Scott Baret]

In the Compact Mac thread I posted about possibly using my Color Classic as a virtual Apple IIe. In case that doesn't work out, I have a few questions regarding floppy drives on the Apple IIe.

I want to attach a 3.5" drive to my IIe. Somewhere I have an Apple 3.5" disk controller but part of me thinks it's only for UniDisk 3.5" drives. I already have a card in the machine (which I can't seem to find a label on) that is used for my pair of 5.25" drives.

Is it possible to just swap one of the 5.25" drives with a 3.5" on the chain or should I get a dedicated controller for a 3.5" drive? (I'm not sure if the controller card I have works or not as the UniDisk 3.5" I got with it was broken; I do have a good working Apple 3.5" drive I'd like to use instead but again, I'm not sure if it would work on this card or not).

 

[david__schmidt]

It's not the easiest thing getting a 3.5" drive hooked to an IIe. There's a page that lists some of the different compatibility notes for various types of Apple drives here:

http://www.vintagemacworld.com/drives.html

Your controller (Liron or Superdrive) will dictate the kinds of drives you can hook to it. You can't hook a 3.5" drive to a 5.25" (Disk II) controller.

 

[Scott Baret]

I found my Liron card and UniDisk drive (which has a ton of problems with ejecting disks). I'm going to set them aside as a backup since I found my IIe doesn't really sit comfortably in the space I set aside for it (the Color Classic looks much better there).

I didn't think the 5.25" card would work, but I thought I'd run the idea past everyone since the connector on a IIGS accepts both drives.

It's a shame about the Apple 3.5" drive not being able to work with the Liron card. I would have thought Apple engineers could have designed something inside those drives that would have been backwards-compatible, especially since the Liron card wasn't even that old when the 3.5" drive came out. If push comes to shove I could swap the actual 3.5" drive mechanisms (and not the internal controller card inside the UniDisk 3.5" drive) to ensure a working unit.

It's strange you bring that page up...I was looking for the same one after recalling reading it back in July 1999! It's been a long time since I have done any work with Apple II computers (the last significant work on them came in June 2001; I did fire my IIe up two years ago for a bit but I didn't really do much with it) and it's been nice to get a bit of a refresher on the subject.

 

[Charlieman]

UniDisk drive (which has a ton of problems with ejecting disks)

That's fixable, Scott. Strip down the drive, clean it and relubricate it. If that fails (which is possible if the mechanical parts are worn), swap the drive mechanism for the early series 3.5" -- mechanism part number can easily be found on the web. The really important thing in the UniDisk is the drive controller board.

Fix it while you can remember why it is problematic. You don't need it for the IIe workstation card for most software, but it is too useful to lose.

It's strange you bring that page up...I was looking for the same one after recalling reading it back in July 1999!

Is that page really so old? At the time, it would have been hosted on Demon and written on an LCIII with *trumpets blazing* a IIe workstation card.