Thumb Drives

General forum for support issues related to the CFFA3000

Thumb Drives

Postby DrTom » Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:32 pm

I've connected a couple of thumb drives to a couple of different usb cables connected to my CFFA3000 cards, and GSOS does not see the thumb drives.

I also bought a usb cable and thumb drive from apple-2-online and the combination works.

But if I attach another thumb drive to the same usb cable connected to the same CFFA3000, then GSOS cannot see that thumb drive.
So there must be something missing from the other thumb drives.

How to fix them?

DrTom
DrTom
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:32 pm

Re: Thumb Drives

Postby DrTom » Sun Jun 12, 2016 8:29 pm

Hey, I mentioned the same problems, listed above, to DrKen of apple-2-online, and he emailed me some tips and I got it working.

Here is a brief summary. I move my CFFA3000 Card to slot 2, and changed some of the entries in the Apple IIgs' control panel. Namely the entries about the slots. Then I reformatted the the thumb drives in my pc using FAT16 and copied some of his DrKen's 32-meg image files from my pc onto the the thumb drive.

Finally I, went into the CFFA Main Menu in the Apple IIgs Accessories and changed some of the entries as per DrKen's advice given on his CDs about the CFFA Card.

My Thumb Drives are now accessible via the CFFA Card. WooWee!

DrTom
DrTom
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:32 pm

Re: Thumb Drives

Postby DrTom » Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:38 am

Nuts!!

Did as briefly explained above, but now my printer won't work.

Have a Grapple+ Printer Card in slot 1 that connects to an Epson Printer,
and it was working, before I started on this adventure to use a thumb
drive connected to my CFFA3000 card.

Here is a clue. When I catalog my Apple IIgs, using CopyIIPlus 8.4, it
shows one of the usb volumes in Slot 1, Drive 1, where the printer
should be.

I wonder if somehow the CFFA3000 is stealing Slot 1, Drive 1 from the
printer, and that is why it won't work.

Need help.

DrTom
DrTom
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:32 pm

Re: Thumb Drives

Postby DrTom » Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:34 am

Next I went into the CFFA3000 v3.1 Menu and changed option 4
from 10 SmartPort Devices to 4 SmartPort Devices.

Now in Copy II Plus I do not see a usb volume assigned to Slot 1,
Drive 1, and the Printer works again.

But I cannot use the usb thumb drive.

How to use both Printer and usb thumb drive at the same time??

DrTom
DrTom
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:32 pm

Re: Thumb Drives

Postby dlyons » Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:29 am

ProDOS 8 v2.0 and later automatically recognizes when there are extra SmartPort devices available, and it assigns them to otherwise-unused slot/drive combinations -- that is, slots/drives not already in use as disk devices. The Slot 1, Drive 1 assignment sound like exactly that, working as expected.

The puzzle is, why does that interfere with the real, non-disk use of slot 1? It shouldn't. (There is no effect on the Slot ROM at $C1xx.)

I suppose that software could, in an overzealous attempt to be helpful, notice that there is a disk drive available in Slot 1, and decide not to try using it as a printer. So the question is, what software is failing to let you print to slot 1?

If your printer can accept and print plain text, try this (first in the configuration where your printer *is* otherwise working, as a control for the experiment). Launch BASIC.SYSTEM, and at the ']' prompt type PR#1. Then type anything (like "HELLO" Return) -- at this point, you may or may not see any change on the screen, but what you type should go to the printer, as should the "?SYNTAX ERROR" message that Applesoft responds with. PR#0 returns output to the screen.

(It has been a long time since I actually tried, but I believe BASIC.SYSTEM has no trouble letting you print to a slot while there are virtual ProDOS assignments to the same slot.)

--
If you still have doubts about any combinations of thumb drives + USB cables, I'd suggest this: Leave the lid off the IIgs for this experiment, and enter the CFFA menus. There is a USB status line near the top. It should react within a couple of seconds when you attach a thumb drive. Start by plugging each drive directly into the CFFA3000 board, and then via cables.
dlyons
 
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2002 6:00 pm

Re: Thumb Drives

Postby DrTom » Sun Jun 19, 2016 1:21 am

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your reply and your helpful ideas.

I'll try the tests that you suggest.

Thanks again.

Tom
DrTom
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:32 pm

Re: Thumb Drives

Postby DrTom » Mon Jun 20, 2016 2:17 am

I did the test that Dave recommended, above, and it printed
"Hello" on both the monitor and the printer. I said, "That seems
strange.", to myself.

Then I tried printing from within an Applesoft Basic program, and
now it works too. Yikes I said, and quickly checked to see if my IIgs
could see the Volumes in the thumb drive. Yikes again, it works.

As far as know, I didn't change anything in the past few days,
but who cares ... because it works. This is the best Apple IIgs
setup that I've ever had.

Big thanks to Dave Lyons and DrKenB.

DrTom
DrTom
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:32 pm


Return to CFFA3000 Support

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron