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CFFA3000 For Sale

D

Drken

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
306
Location
Charlotte NC
I purchased two of the CFFA3000 cards with the intention of using one in my IIe (which I am), the other in my IIGS. After I got the cards, I found that the CFFA3K card does not support volumes >32MB under GSOS, which is what I use on my IIGS. After a LOT of consideration, I decided to get a MicroDrive Turbo for my IIGS and sell the CFFA3K card I had slated for my IIGS. I finally pulled the trigger tonight & put the CFFA3K card up on eBay, with a starting auction price of what I paid for the card, optional switch daughterboard & shipping. If you are interested, the auction ad is here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150770625007

If you're reading this, you are most likely familiar with the CFFA3K and all that it can do (and how great it is!). Here's an opportunity to pick up a brand new & unused unit.

And before anyone asks, NO, I will NOT be selling my other CFFA3K card!!! That baby is all mine!

Ken
www.Apple2Online.com
 
Ken,

I sent you a message through eBay too, but I was wondering what kind of limitation you were running into with volumes >32MB? I have not had any issues creating/using volumes larger than 32MB on GS/OS with the CFFA. Another question I had, did you purchase the MicroDrive before Henry and the crew went on hiatus? I'm curious because I would *really* love to try a MicroDrive but haven't bothered contacting them due to the verbiage on the site.

-Jesse
 
I left a voice mail for Henry and he called me back last week. Almost all of their stock is packed up and can't be reached, but he did have a Microdrive/Turbo which I bought for my IIgs ROM 03 project. I don't know if he has any left.

Along with the Zip GSX I bought off of eBay, it'll reach the GS/OS 6.0.1 desktop in less than 15 seconds from power on. Seems to be MUCH faster than a CFFA, 32 meg volume verify is at least 4x faster in Copy II Plus, for example.

I haven't benchmarked the two for comparison, so no hard numbers, just by feel.

Hopefully they'll get DMA working on the CFFA 3000, the hardware is supposed to be capable of it, but the current firmware doesn't support it. I'm surprised at the 32meg limitation, but I don't have any GS volumes larger than 32meg.

The Microdrive is just as easy to use with Ciderpress on a PC as the earlier CFFA is, using CF cards.
 
The only downside to the Microdrive that I'm aware of is that you have to use CiderPress to manipulate the contents of the CF on a PC. Unfortunately CiderPress is a Windows-only application so I'm forced to run a Windows XP virtual machine just to use the software. I also like the flexibility of the CFFA3000 which allows for the selection of which disk images are mounted, and you can change them on the fly. Seems to me like the CFFA3000 cuts down on a lot of back and forth between the Apple II and the PC in terms of getting software copied over. I can yank my USB stick out of the CFFA3000 and copy over new images from my Mac and re-insert all while the Apple II is on and it doesn't require a reboot!

Ken, I replied with more details about using >32MB volumes through eBay. I think your best bet is to not use raw partitions on the CF card and just use disk images. After re-reading the CFFA3000 manual this is the recommended way to go anyways. It definitely gives you more flexibility. Plus I can have my nice big 1GB HFS volume mounted while I mount other 800k disk images to copy over to it.
 
Many thanks for the guidance you provided me in your emails. I also heard from Rich D. this morning, who indicated that the CFFA3K supports up to 4 GB under GSOS and FAT32. As a result, I modified my eBay ad to provide the CORRECT information. I also want to share with folks here what the steps are to get support >32 MB under GSOS.

I work on PCs and used CiderPress. Here's the process:

1. On the PC, format the CompactFlash card for FAT32.
2. Run CiderPress. Select File | New | Disk Image then select HFS, specify New Disk Size to xxx Blocks (this is the most difficult part for me, trying to figure out the number of blocks corresponding to my 2 GB SanDisk CF card), set the HFS name to NEWDISK & clock OK to create theNEWDISK.PO file directly to the CF card.
3. Install the CF card into the CFFA3K on the IIGS. Boot while holding down "M" key to access the CFFA3K menu.
4. In the CFFA3K menu, Select "4 Smartport Assignment" and then assign NEWDISK.PO to the Smartport.
5. Boot the IIGS to System 6.0.1. The NEWDISK volume should appear on your desktop.

I used a universal converter on the net to try to find the correct number of blocks to use for my SanDisk 2 GB CF card. It gave me 524288 blocks, which yielded a 260 MB volume under GSOS. I went back, tried multiplying by 8 (4194304 blocks) which CiderPress didn't accept, so I multiplied by 4 (2097152) and that yielded a 1024 MB volume under GSOS. That's were I left off last night, too tired to proceed (I found out years ago, never try to do anything on a computer when fatigue sets in!). So, the magical number for my 2 GB SanDisk CF card is something a bit less than 4194304. I am NOT good at all with block conversions, so if someone has a magical method, please share it with me!

To make it vividly clear, my earlier comments about the CFFA3000 card not supporting volumes >32 MB under GSOS was incorrect. According to Rich D., the CFFA3000 will support up to 4 GB volumes under FAT32 and GSOS.
 
Using the CFFA3000 as a hard drive is only part of its features. Remember, the 3000 part of it is that it does disk drive emulator. You can throw out those external disk drives. I use mine on a IIplus and I no longer need disk drives. Well, ok, I had to create images the other day from one diskette, but that was it. With my pen flash drive, it is easy to transfer disk images to/from my Apple IIplus.

You can't get the CFFA3000 right now as they are out of stock, so this one on ebay should fetch a good price.
 
I own both a Microdrive and a CFFA3000. Although the Microdrive is considerably faster, I almost exclusively use the CFFA3K now since it is way easier to add/remove images (USB stick baby!) and I don't have to use CiderPress except when I assemble new images. The CFFA has firmware updates and is continually being improved as well. To me it's a no brainer which I would keep, but that's just me.
 
I know both Henry and Rich, they are both great guys. Both boards have their advantages. If Rich gets DMA working on the 3000 look out, it will be much faster. Still even without DMA, it is a sweet board. The USB stick is sweet and with a USB extension cable you don't have to keep opening up your case to get to the pen drive. I've found these cables at the Dollar store!
 
I was surprised that only 2 people bid on the card - I thought there would be more interest in the card. (26 people were watching the card, so obviously all but 2 were there just to see how much the card fetched.) The two people who went into a bidding war jacked the final total cost up to $298.85. Total S&H wound up being $51.47, with eBay/PayPal accounting for a whopping $35.87 of that.

I was vascillating right up to the end as to whether or not to abort the auction. I really did have a hard time parting with it. Now I'm down to 1 CFFA3000, 1 MicroDrive and 2 MicroDrive Turbo units. The MicroDrive unit will be up for sale next... plan on keeping the CFFA3000 and at least one of the new MicroDrive Turbos if not both.

Rich D. announced that the 2nd run of the CFFA3000 will take place this year, and I believe he's targeting 400-500 of the units, so hopefully everyone who wants one will be able to get their wish!!!
 
vbriel said:
You can throw out those external disk drives.
Click to expand...

Well, I removed the SCSI hard drives from my IIGS, but I didn't "throw them out"... my wife will attest to the fact that I seldom throw anything out! But they are up for sale in my webstore, along with my Apple SCSI II card.
 
Drken said:
Well, I removed the SCSI hard drives from my IIGS, but I didn't "throw them out"... my wife will attest to the fact that I seldom throw anything out! But they are up for sale in my webstore, along with my Apple SCSI II card.
Click to expand...

Did the SCSI card already sell? I didn't see it in your store.
 
jrehmer said:
Did the SCSI card already sell? I didn't see it in your store.
Click to expand...

I just checked & see that I haven't yet listed the SCSI II card. The three SCSI hard drives are up in the webstore, though. Trying to decide whether or not to put the SCSI II card up or not, and if so, how much to list it for.
 
Drken said:
Rich D. announced that the 2nd run of the CFFA3000 will take place this year, and I believe he's targeting 400-500 of the units, so hopefully everyone who wants one will be able to get their wish!!!
Click to expand...

Ah, that'll be nice. I've got a ][e and a IIGS, so I may save up to buy two. :D

(Probably would wind up being in the 400-600 range, so I'd probably need to sell stuff if this is indeed the case.)
 
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