On Thu, 15 Nov 2001, Ernest wrote:
> From what I've seen, the cards are not the valuable part of the setup.
> The Drive is. Like most of the old Apple II cards, the Xebec card is
> fairly durable and will continue to work for years. The drive on the
> other hand is not so durable, and of the six that have passed through
> my hands, only two of them still worked.
I have a Sider ][ (20 megger) I bought second-hand in around 1989 that had
been used for about 3 years in a 24/7 BBS. It still works to this day.
It had better...I still have tons of files that I need to get off of it
before its eventual demise :)
I also have I think one other Sider ][ and two Siders (the 10 meg version)
as well as a B-Sider (the tape backup unit). I got one Sider from my old
high school computer science teacher when I bought his Apple //e setup,
which never worked. The other Sider was found at a thrift store and
works great. I've used it at the VCF a couple times for processing
registrations. The Sider ][ was found at a local electronics surplus
store and doesn't work.
All in all, I find them to be fairly durable.
> Plus, it seems that as these old Apple II computers are sold off, the
> Xebec cards get separated from the drives and sold or given away, and
> the drives are thrown out, etc. My experience with these setups is the
> cards are not common but much easier to find than the drive. So if you
> have the drive, you're well on your way.
Yes, many times I've opened an Apple ][ to find the Xebec controller
inside. Nobody thinks to pull the card and keep it with the drive, most
likely because they just don't know.
> I should say that before you spend to much effort looking for the
> card, make sure that your drive works. To do this, plug it in, turn it
> on, and make sure that the power light comes on and the drive spins
> up. If the drive doesn't spin up, you could have a problem. If it
> doesn't spin up, open the case and try switching the power connector
> to the drive (there are two of them.) If it still doesn't work, then
> you likely have a dead drive, which is fairly common.
I don't know what's in the Sider, but the Sider ][ has a standard Seagate
ST-225. If you can find a good ST-225 then all you need are the Sider
utilities to reformat the drive and you're golden.
> The Xebec card is a SASI (not SCSI) controller, and to the best of my
> knowledge will only work with the Sider drive. That also means that if the
> drive is dead, you'll have a difficult if not impossible time finding a
> replacement drive for it. Also, make sure that you're drive has the
The interface is SASI, but see above. The drive is standard MFM (or would
that be RLL?)
> terminator cap on one of the two plugs on the back. I had to have one
> custom made because mine was missing. Obviously, you'll also need the
> connecting cable between the drive and the Xebec card.
The cable and terminator cap usually turn up missing as well.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Thu Nov 15 2001 - 15:45:48 GMT