I got this disk interface card together with an apple IIe some years ago.
There was no documentation with it, although I don't think I need one.
The card was not working, but I found that the 74LS373 was faulty, and after replacing it, the card works.
Notice the jumper pins just to the left of the blue connector?
I am guessing this means that the card can handle 13 sector disks and 16 sector disks.
Without a jumper the card displays the screen below when booting (or when using PR#6). See photo 3.
How awesome is that?
With a jumper on the 16 pins it boots fine from a DOS 3.3 disk or ProDos.
I have not tried the jumper on the 13 pins, because I do not have a 13 sector disk.
Now my questions are:
1. Does a 13 sector disk require a different disk drive, or can I use the disk drive which I normally use for 16 sector disks?
2. Is there a way to create a 13 sector boot disk, perhaps by downloading a DSK file and using ADTPro in some way?
Photo 1 - Franklin Computer Disk Interface Card topside
Photo 2 - Franklin Computer Disk Interface Card backside
Photo 3 -Franklin Computer Disk Interface Card bootscreen without jumper
There is a special version of ADTPro that will write 13-sector disks called "ADT13"
...
A normal Disk ][ or compatible drive will handle 13 sector disks just fine. It is the controller, specifically the state machine part of the ROM that is what matters. Well, the boot code does a little too.
Here's a 3.2 disk image of
00AppleInvadersDOS3.2-1979.img.
01.jpg
Looks almost identical. Same components and same placement, but the pcb is different.
That looks like a Taiwan/Hong Kong clone of the Franklin card.
I agree. My Redstone clone has a different disk controller card, similar to but not quite Disk ][ controller , but it has the same interesting, unique font for DRV1 DRV2 designation. My guess is the same cloner mimiced lots of stuff .
I would concur. There were several companies in Tiawan and Hong Kong back in those days that turned out clones of a lot of stuff and it was sold under all kinds of brand names througought the world. Sometimes no name at all, just plain boxes. There were small computer shops and stometimes regional chains that sold this stuff, but a lot of it was sold through ads in magainzes like Computer Shopper and the various Apple orriented mags, etc.
I got one of those cards. I was happy to see jumpers until I looked up a manual. Found out it was for the 13 sect / can't remember 16 sect. ? disks?
TTFN,
Josh
Jumper on the 13 pins is for 13 sector disks. Jumper on the 16 pins is for 16 sector disks.
Do you have a manual for the card?
I have not been able to find a manual, so can you provide a link to a manual?
The Franklin manuals are about as close as I can find...
http://vtda.org/docs/computing/Franklin/
https://osiweb.org/other/franklin-ace1000.pdf
The Ace 1000 manual includes some info on the disk controller, but not a lot.
none of the manuals really apply to my card.
But thanks anyway.
I don't know if they really gave much of a manual with that card. Franklin cards usually came bundled with an Ace 1000, and the clone cards usually came with a single sheet in pidgeon Engrish that at most would probably have explained the 13/16 jumper and how to plug in the floppy drive cables.
What about it are you looking to find out?
probably nothing that I haven't figured out already.
But you never know if there is some gem of information in a manual.