Apple Disk II, was Re: TRS-80 Model I

[Tom Peters]

At 08:27 AM 2/4/2007 -0800, you wrote:
> > From: Liam Busey <buseyl at yahoo.com>
>
> > > But for me the biggest problem was
> > > that the Apple couldn't read/write disks from other
> > > machines, unlike the
> > > TRS-80, which used a WD1771 controller and could
> > > handle any single-desity
> > > 5.25" disk (I spent many late nights getting it to
> > > read the disks from
> > > the school's RML380Z computers, which also used 1771
> > > controllers).
> >
> > To be fair though, the Apple Disk II system was not
> > the only game in town. While they weren't common, you
> > could get a 3rd party 8" MFM floppy system if you
> > wanted to.
>
>Lobo Drives made drives for, among others, the Apple II including a neat box

I used to sell and service Apple ][ computers. For a while there, the 
biggest service issue we had was with people bringing in their floppy 
drives (single 5.25 inch) and saying we'd sold them a bad one, or it died 
under warranty.

Before even letting the customer leave the premises, I'd quickly take out 
the four screws that held on the cover and show them the blackened spot on 
the inside of the cover, then show them the 74LS125 in the middle of the 
board, which invariably had been cracked or cratered.

The documentation clearly said, connect the ribbon cable to the controller 
with the cable exiting AWAY from the board. But there were any number of 
folks that went the long way around, and put a great deal of effort into 
bending the cable sharply where it exited the ID connection, so that they 
could plug it into the controller card backwards.

This usually resulted in a spectacular failure of the '125.

I had to tell them that Apple had designated this a special case: No 
warranty if you let the smoke out.

I saw some with a neat crater in the chip, and a scorch mark inside the 
cover aligned with it.

-T



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