CFFA 3000 shipping!

[magnusfalkirk]

Rich Dreher's CFFA 3000 is shipping! As of the 31st of Oct he had shipped 142 of the boards. I'm hoping that I'll have mine in the next week or two. Once it gets here I'll pop open my GS and put it and a SoundMeister stereo card into the computer. I got the SounMeister through eBay a couple weeks ago. Since I'll be able to plug a USB flash drive into the USB port on the card I don't think I'll worry about geting a CF card any time soon. One really nice thing about the CFFA 3000 is the ability to run disk images as if the were actual disks. About the only other thing I'll need to add to my GS to make it a really sweet machine will be an accelerator, if and when I can afford one.

 

[Unknown_K]

How much were they?

 

[Gary_W]

About $150 looks like. let us know how it works!

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/FAQ.php

Gary

 

[magnusfalkirk]

Will do.

 

[magnusfalkirk]

Reviving an old topic that I started. I've been using the CFFA 3000 since mid Nov and am very happy with it! My only complaint, and as far as I know Rich is working on this, is that at the moment you can't have more than 256 disk images on either a CF card or a flash drive. He's working on implementing sub-directory support which will allow more images. I still need to get a small CF card so I can update the cards firmware, it would be nice to be able to update it from a flash drive, but other than that the card works really well. Now I can use either the CFFA 3000 or ADTPro to transfer 5.25 and 3.5 disk images back to real disks.

It's nice to be able to mount a 5.25 image directly to the computer and run it that way. I like turning the images back into real disks, that way I can also run them on my //c+, but it's really nice to have the option to just use the disk image also. So for anyone who hasn't ordered a CFFA 3000 yet, and probably can't at the moment since I think run 2 is sold out, jump on it when he gets ready to do run 3. This vard is just about the best investment for you're, Apple ][+, IIe or GS (at least in my opinion).

 

[Cosmo]

Got mine yesterday but haven't had time to test it yet. Anyone else having this card at 68kmla?

 

[insaneboy]

sure wish there was something like that for a IIc+

 

[david__schmidt]

sure wish there was something like that for a IIc+

Here are some options for your IIc+:

http://www.spvhd.org/

http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/vdrive.html

 

[Computist]

>Here are some options for your IIc+:

>http://www.spvhd.org/

Are these actually being sold? I've written several queries to the guy behind the SPVHD and have never received a reply.

 

[david__schmidt]

http://www.spvhd.orgAre these actually being sold? I've written several queries to the guy behind the SPVHD and have never received a reply.

If you read through the blog, you'll see that some items shipped earlier in the year - but some updates were required before another batch was made. Nothing has gone on since then, though. Cederic has posted on c.s.a2 before, so you did good by asking there too.

 

[Cosmo]

Strangely enough, on my Apple //e i can not boot into the card Menu by pressing "M" while powering on. I have the DIP switches all OFF, the CFFA3000 is in Slot 7, the Disk II controller card is in Slot 5. No other cards installed currently. The CFFA3000 have an 1GB USB stick, FAT32 formatted with MBR on it with some .DSK and .DO files on it. While reseting, the blue light lights up as of reading the USB stick.

Hmm..strange.

 

[david__schmidt]

Strangely enough, on my Apple //e i can not boot into the card Menu by pressing "M" while powering on.

That is strange. Can you get into the menu with CALL -14544?

Also, do you see anything different if you hit 'M' soon after powering on? I don't think sitting on the key and then powering up will work in all cases, but then I never tried it either... I always hit the key after the power.

 

[Cosmo]

Strangely enough, on my Apple //e i can not boot into the card Menu by pressing "M" while powering on.

That is strange. Can you get into the menu with CALL -14544?

Also, do you see anything different if you hit 'M' soon after powering on? I don't think sitting on the key and then powering up will work in all cases, but then I never tried it either... I always hit the key after the power.

No, i can not get into the menu even i type CALL -14544 (=CFFA3000 in SLOT 7). I've pressed either way the "M" by keeping it down and turning the power on, and, quickly pressing "M" right after turning the machine on. Either way, nothing happens.

Wonder if there's something different on Swedish/Finnish version of Apple //e. Somehow i don't think so, "M" is where it should be, not the nordic characters added on the keyboard.

Needs more testing but this is strange. I notised somebody else in Finland had bought one, i'll try contacting him/her thru Rick.

Edit:

Got it working. Don't know what it was, but i turned the SWE/FIN keyboard off from a switch under the keyboard (got back the title boot name Apple ][ instead of Apple ÅÄ). The CALL -14544 worked, as well now the "M" during the boot. Great!

Was already playing around with some games, made image of DOS 3.3 System Master disk etc. This card is seriously GREAT!

I know what i'll be doing next few days.. weeks.. months. So great to backup all those old disks when they are still readable!

Indeed: international ASCII switch: http://www.macshock.com/forum/apple-ii/apple-iie-switch-under-case-2531/

 

[magnusfalkirk]

Glad to hear you were able to get the CFFA3K working. It is a great card. Did you also get the external switch for being able to change 5.25 disks after setting them up on the menu. That is a real help for multidisk games.

 

[Cosmo]

Glad to hear you were able to get the CFFA3K working. It is a great card. Did you also get the external switch for being able to change 5.25 disks after setting them up on the menu. That is a real help for multidisk games.

Actually i did not. Should have ordered one at the same time..

 

[Cosmo]

CFFA3000 working on //e

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Can you boot GS/OS off one? I'm always worried that one day the AE HD in my IIgs will let out the magic smoke.

 

[magnusfalkirk]

Can you boot GS/OS off one? I'm always worried that one day the AE HD in my IIgs will let out the magic smoke.

There are two ways that you can boot GS/OS using the CFFA3000. One is to partition the Compact Flash card and use one of the partitions for GS/OS. the other is to simply use either the CF card or a flash drive with a Hard Disk image on it with GS/OS on the hard disk image. The second one is the way I'm doing it. I've got a 2 GB flash drive with several different HD images on it, most of which contain GS/OS and depending on what I want to do determines which image I mount and boot.