Talk:Disk II

Mirror Vax

There isn't any firmware on the Disk II controller card that resides in the Apple's slot. Are you talking about the firmware in the Apple II ROM itself then?

Also, why delete the reference to DOS.MASTER? --PZ 18:37, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

• PZ, I reverted that user's edits - they seemed odd and were not explained. By the way, thanks for your edits to this article. — Wackymacs 19:35, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

You added "...inside the drive" which turned the statement into nonsense. The controller card was not inside the drive, and nothing changed in the drive. The "see also" you added has low relevance to this article. I did vote "keep", incidentally. Mirror Vax 19:47, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

The article states "depending on the firmware revision of the controller card". I know that there is no firmware on the disk II controller. So it either needs to reside on the Apple II motherboard in ROM or on a ROM INSIDE the Disk II. (I have never taken a Disk II apart, so I don't know for sure if there is a ROM on the controller inside the drive) - I assumed that this is what was intended by the statement "firmware revision of the controller card" since there is no ROM on the Disk II controller. I'm just trying to clear things up because its confusing right now as it stands. btw: thanks for the "keep" vote on DOS.MASTER. --PZ 20:10, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

There are actually two ROMs on the controller card, the boot ROM and a state machine ROM. Mirror Vax 20:22, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Dag nabbit - you're absolutly right! There's two 256 byte 6309 PROMs on the Disk II controller card that look like standard TTL ICs. I appologize for the confusion. --PZ 20:57, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Floppies

were these supposed to use SSSD or SSDD floppies? Is it worth mentioning that it was incredibly popular to notch the other side of the disk such that the back side could be used as well? Many commercial applications shipped with software on both sides of the disk like this. TimRiker (talk) 18:03, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Disk II compatible 5.25" floppies were single sided, single density — or of course double sided if you wanted to flip it over and use the other side too. I don't have a reference for this; it's personal knowledge. --Closeapple (talk) 14:28, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Disk II Controller

Steve Wozniak supposedly designed the controller with only 8 chips. According to "Triumph of the Nerds Part 1" documentary, the standard Shugart documentation required 35 chips. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.112.123.27 (talk) 17:03, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Rename article?

This article started out describing just the Apple Disk II, but now describes all the 5.25" drives and some 3.5" drives for the Apple II. How about 'Apple II floppy disk systems'? John a s (talk) 19:41, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Pinout for DR2* (ENABLE*) wrong

Pin 9 is DR2* on Unidisk cards. "Pin 17 for Uni/Duo Disk is chained to first drive (drive 1) and second drive (drive 2) is enabled via other logic in the first drive" should read more like: "Pin 17 for Uni/Duo Disk is chained to first drive (drive 1) which substitutes pin 9 for pin 17 on the daisy chain connector to enable the second drive (drive 2)."

by my testing, this source is correct: http://apple2.org.za/gswv/USA2WUG/TIGER.LEARNING.COMPUTER/Making.Disk.II.adapter.cable.tx

The Apple //c Manual cites would not be correct for the Unidisk because the Apple //c cannot support more than 1 5.25" Unidisk connected externally. 68.105.77.214 (talk) 21:27, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

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Scamming

There's an unscourced paragraph which tells a story from the early days of the drive; "a Shugart engineer admitted that the disk drive manufacturer had been scamming Apple and that the SA-390s were actually reject SA-400s that failed to pass factory inspection. The idea was that Apple couldn't get the drives to work and would be forced to go back and purchase more expensive SA-400s." This is never mentioned again. Did Apple continue to use Shugart equipment? What was Steve Jobs' reaction? I imagine he wasn't very happy. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 21:31, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

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Disk connector misalignment comment

Whomever added this part:

"The connector is very easy to misalign on the controller card, which will short out a certain IC in the drive; if later connected correctly, a drive damaged this way will delete any disk inserted into it as soon as it starts spinning, even write-protected disks such as those used to distribute commercial software. This problem resulted in numerous customer complaints and repairs, which led to Apple printing warning messages in their user's manuals to explain how to properly install the connector. They used different connectors that could not be misaligned in later drives. DB-19 adapters for the original Disk II were eventually available for use with Apple's later connector standard. "

... plagiarized it verbatim from the original source article here:

http://digitalarcane.blogspot.com/2015/03/apple-iie-repairing-disc-ii-drive.html

Please cite a reference instead of just copying from other sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.203.94.22 (talk) 15:07, 5 September 2018 (UTC)