CFFA for Apple II

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Project: CFFA for Apple II, II+, IIe, IIe enh, IIgs

CFFA3000 Run #1 is SOLD OUT! Run#2 will be in spring or summer of 2012.
Click here to get on the list for Run#2.

Project Status:

12/14/2011:
I have finally completed shipping all of the packages for Run #1 of the CFFA3000!!. There is a lot of interest in another run and after I take a break for a couple months, I will start looking into building another batch of boards. In the mean time if you are interested please be sure to let me know, if you have not already done so. Also please post to my forums if you have any problems or comments or suggestions related to your CFFA3000 card.
The initial shipping firmware (v3.0) supports disk image files only in the root directory of your media of subdirectories. Currently the firmware can only see 255 disk image files in the root directory of your CF and USB media. I recommend using FAT32 instead of FAT16 if you plan to get anywhere near this limit. Future releases of the CFFA3000 firmware will support subdirectries and will remove the 255 file limit.
Thanks
-Rich

11/28/2011:
I took a break over the Thanksgiving holiday but now I am back at getting packages shipped. I think I should finishing shipping Run #1 by Dec 11, 2011 at the latest. Everyone should have their boards before the end of the year.

11/19/2011:
I just uploaded the first small firmware update v3.0.1 (non beta) release to the "File Downloads" page. This fixes an issue with GS/OS accessing Disk II floppy disk images and corrupting them. This doesn't affect smart port mounted images, just disk II mounted images. BTW, I am working on boards 212 to 231 this weekend. I hope to ship those on Monday.

11/07/2011:
Please note that I have changed the forum address again. I do this from time to time to combat spambots. This unfortunately breaks all the google links and any bookmarks to the forum you might have. Please use the link on my site to get to the forum as it will always be updated when the forum is moved.

Project Introduction: This page describes a project to create a CompactFlash / IDE Interface card for Apple II computers (][+, //e, //e enh or //gs) that started back in 2002. Over the years I have build 1000 CFFA cards in six batches. The card is ProDOS 8 and GS/OS compatible. With an additional driver, GS/OS users get additional partitions and speed. I did the original wire-wrap prototype over the span of several months. This project is very much a case of old technology (the Apple II computer) meets new (CompactFlash cards and Altera CPLDs). My reasoning for this project is described in detail in the Background section, but suffice it to say, I wanted to be able to pull out my old Apple II and use it from time to time to reminisce about the early days of personal computers. I wanted a reliable way to store my Apple II programs and data files for many years to come. Due to the long term reliability prospects of floppy drives, and my general laziness, I decided a mass storage device is what I needed. CFFA3000 project Introduction: At the end of 2008 I sold out of my 6th run of CFFA cards. Instead of making another batch to meet demand, I decided it was time to design something new. The main shortcoming of the CFFA card was its lack of support for operating systems other than ProDOS. It was not possible to store and run DOS 3.3 games from the CFFA. So I decided to try desiging a new CFFA that would have these new features: 1) Floppy disk emulation at the nibble level and 2) USB flash drive support for storage of .dsk image files. The effort to design a new CFFA now called the CFFA3000 took about 2 years. The long development time was mainly because this is a hobby for me and not my normal job, also the CFFA3000 is about twice as complex as the orginal CFFA. Looking for the CFFA1 for Apple1 Project? Click Here! Great tool for CFFA users: All CFFA owners who use Windows... Andy McFadden has come out with an excellent tool called: CiderPress. This tool will allow you to read and write your CFFA formatted CF cards right on your PC. It will make an excellent backup tool. Check it out at Andy's Site Information about the "3 jumper" fix for older CFFA V1.2 cards: (Runs 1, 2, and 3) A problem as been found that explains why many CompactFlash cards have never worked with the older CFFA cards. I was motivated to find this problem when I realized that SanDisk 256MB cards were not working properly. To summarize, the address lines were changing near the end of the ATA bus cycle seen by the CF card. This seemed to be tolerated by the smaller SanDisk cards, but not the 256MB card or many other brands, like Lexar. So after much debugging I found the problem and was able to fix the problem with a new release of the CPLD logic (V1.4), and the addition of 3 "rework" jumper wires to the board. Click here to see the front of the board, and here to the back.