I’m really not too sure about the Apple II projects out there. I wasn’t looking to get into the Apple II, I just came across the IIGS and well I wasn’t ready for it. I always liked the IIGS from school, in Jr High I had spent time writing programs in basic on one in my Science class during study hall. They were old at that time, but I didn’t have a computer at home yet and always liked computers. We had used Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, Logo and other programs up from first grade on various models of Apple II computers in school.

The IIGS came with just three 5.25″ floppy disks. Two of them worked, but the other has errors and won’t load the program fully. I looked into the Apple II storage options. Nothing I have for any of the other computers works on the Apple II. There is a paid firmware for the GoTek that can work in combination with special adapter cables, but that looks to be rather limited in what it can do. Doing some looking around, I don’t know what the best option is. There are a number of devices. The Floppy EMU was one I looked at, but shipping and cost are up there. I found the wDrive and that was in stock and cheaper, and seems to be comparable for the Apple IIGS even though the Floppy EMU can work on early Macs (I have no early Macs and I don’t at this time plan to get any). https://ct6502.org/product/wdrive/

Some things I didn’t like about the wDrive are, that while it looks to be one of the go to devices, it does not appear to be in active development any longer. I would also like to see more documentation on it. It took me awhile to figure out why it wasn’t showing me the menus on the IIGS on startup (you need to copy the wdmain.dat in the SD Card from the firmware download). Either device though, or any of the devices I found weren’t exactly in the budget that I wanted to just jump in and purchase on a whim. Many of the other 80s era computers have pretty decent cheap data storage options these days, I was disappointed to not find something similar with the Apple II. I think it may be a bit complex though, and the IIGS is a 16bit computer as well. Update: there seems to be more new projects that started coming out around the time I was looking for solutions. So there are certainly more solutions out there than the two primary ones I had found at the time.

My limited experience and time looking at devices for the Apple II computers means, I may or may not, have made the best choice. I think the FloppyEMU has various settings that are changed per the file type, or usage you want to do, with the wDrive it just takes the files and emulates what it needs if it can use the file type. That may be a plus if I am understanding the usage, in that it is simple. The wDrive won on price being $79 vs $118 for the Floppy Emu + the case. If I had chosen the Floppy Emu I would have went with the Deluxe bundle at $129 which includes the Floppy Emu + the case and a DB19 to IDC20 adapter similar to what I had to build myself that I cover below. It was measurably cheaper, but still not super low budget. I did still need a compatible DB19 to IDC20 adapter, but that wasn’t an additional $40.

Connecting the wDrive to the IIGS:

I mentioned above that the wDrive requires a DE19 to IDC20 adapter when used with the IIGS. It is a bit problematic that the store doesn’t carry them. They do have a link to two compatible adapters, but then you have more shipping yet (the FloppyEmu store is one of the sites.). This lead me to looking for another source, and specifications on these adapters. The information on exactly what is needed is not clear. Sure we see the two connnectors… we can find pinouts of the ports. I was quite concerned I would get the wrong adapter, and it wouldn’t work, or would damage the wDrive or the IIGS (or both).

Looking around I came across one marked with the Fujinet project on it. I found the Github for the project. This is a project I hear about on videos and such, but not one I am following. It they make a version of the Fujinet for the Apple II and the IIGS, and this adapter board must be for connecting up certain models in certain situations. I don’t know much about Fujinet, but this is not the exact use case for the adapter, so I still had some concerns this wasn’t exactly what I needed. They do have all the specifications and schematics, as well as build photos of the adapter on their github post, which is helpful. This adapter uses male pins pulled from a DE/DB Male type connector and a 3D Printed DE19 shell cover to make a DE19 to IDC20 adapter that perfectly fits to the IIGS. The Gerber files and 3d models are all there for download. https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-hardware/tree/master/AppleII/DB-19M-Adapter-Male-Rev1

This adapter is not exactly what I wanted as I wanted to be able to use the 5.25″ drive in combination with the wDrive, but it is what I needed at a minimum to use the wDrive with the IIGS. I downloaded the Gerber files, then ordered 5 boards from JLCPCB. It was under $5 including shipping as I got the cheapest shipping option (which is as cheap or cheaper than shipping for an adapter). The adapter was easy enough to build.

Thanks to the DE15 Male connectors I purchased to make up RGB Monitor cables for the IIGS, I had DE Male Pins. I pulled enough pins from the three DE15s I am using for those cables to have 19 (and a couple extra) pins to make up this adapter. As they are not very tight in the connectors, they were easy to remove without damaging them, I don’t know if the pins are normally that easy to pull as I haven’t tried before (I suspect they are tighter in high quality DE connectors)

I then printed the 3d Model for the shell. I had to get the spacing right on how far to push the pins through the PCB and have the right depth. The instructions/guide shows someone having hacked up a DE25 female connector into a DE19 to hold the Pins in for proper placement for soldering. I didn’t want to ruin a DE25 female connector. So I put the pins into the DE25 and used the printed 3d model to get the spacing close. If I had expected to make more than 1, I probably would have taken the time to hack the DE25 down, it was old and not in very good shape. It would take some effort to do that with the tools I have available to me, more than I would have wanted to invest for making up a single adapter.

I soldered in the end pins on each side. I then checked the alignment of the remaining pins and soldered them all in. This did make the complication that now I had to manage to put the 19 pins into the 3d printed part without bending them. Thankfully that was not hard though.

To make this adapter I did only need to buy the PCBs. I used a piece of dual row pin header for the IDC20 port. This did mean I didn’t have the Shroud that has the alignment notch in it. The 3d model didn’t have that build into it. I found a OpenSCAD model for download, set it to 20 pins and printed it out. Having a 3d printed Shroud probably won’t be as durable as a molded one. I did assemble the adapter and put it in the shell though. It worked.

The interesting design to the wDrive case is that when placed with the LCD and buttons downward, it looks just like a 3.5″ disk drive. That does make the LCD not usable, but there is a work around for that by using the IIGS to control it with the menu system, it is also small and easy to flip over to use the screen and buttons if needed.

I looked around for a IDC20 shroud. I found exactly what I needed. Someone had made a OpenSCAD model and posted it for download. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3200902 They didn’t list it as being an OpenSCAD model, but thankfully it was. I was able to set it to a IDC20 size and print it out in the same filament as the case for the adapter.

It didn’t quite fit, it was slightly to large. I wouldn’t have scaled down the thickness though of the shroud as being 3dprinted it already won’t be quite as strong as a factory part (made with PLA at least). I shaved the opening larger on the cover. I got it to be a good snug fit.

After I had it fited, I put the case together to make sure it was aligned well. Then I took it apart and used SuperGlue and Baking Soda all around the inside rim to secure them into one solid piece.

Once it was cured and I had cleaned off any loose Baking Soda, I put the completed adapter together.

The filament I used to print the case is Polymaker PolyTerra Muted White PLA, as recommended by the MacintoshLibrarian on Youtube awhile ago. It was available recently, but I’m not currently seeing it listed. The case of the IIGS is a bit yellowed, and it is a close match to it but still a bit lighter. You can see the wDrive stands out against it, being the wDrive’s case is 3d printed in what appears White filament.

I did work to merge the two parts. Below you can see the merged part as well as the two independent parts which are shown above. It was simple enough to combine the models in Tinkercad. The opening is a little too small as seen above, so once I had them lined up properly they worked very well as a completed part with no gaps. I just had to get the offset correct, as to how much it needed to protrude into where it would come in contact with the PCB inside.

With the individual parts, there is no support required, but it does take more work to make the two into one part as seen above. I think it is worth the 2grams of support material and 10 additional minutes to print them as a single part. The finish of the part isn’t quite as nice as the outer surface is not face down on the print bed, I do have it positioned so that the “support” is on the interior of the case though so that the supported areas defects won’t be visible once assembled. I did print one of these combined parts to see how it went. It was pretty good, and I may use one of the other PCBs and build up a second adapter at some point using this new combined part. It might actually be possible to take that outer 3.25mm protrusion off the outside, making the outer face flush again. That may retain enough shroud for a good positive fit, but then let it be flipped back over and printed with no support (or only a tiny support at that little bit of overhang where the notch is for the alignment on the IDC).

PCB Solder Bridges

The PCB has several solder bridges. For the first adapter I did not connect them. They are for the 12V and the -12V and Drive 2 Select. Since there is no pass through, and I am not connecting something that uses those voltages, I didn’t connect them up. I am not sure what the Drive 2 Select does, or would do. The wDrive doesn’t use the 12V or -12V, so I don’t have any reason to connect them up at this time. Other adapters that I have come across do tend to have them connected, which is required if using “real” disk drives. It is still unclear to me how the Drv2 jumper should be set, or what scenario requires 12V on it.

There is no Pass Through port, so I expect I would only have “Drive 2″ if it actually does change the selection.. I was thinking maybe I could make one of these up with 90degree angle headers and connectors and that would be able to be plugged into the back of the 5.25” drive letting me use the wDrive as Drive 2. I’ll have to find out how Drv2 works or should be used if I ever do that.

It is nice having the Shroud on the IDC20 port, so I can’t connect the cable backward. That was the other reason to not connect up the 12V and -12V pins incase that ever happened. I only had the red dot to mark where the Red Stripe goes to let help me ensure I didn’t get it backward, also there had been enough room in the IDC20 port opening to plug the cable in off by 1 pin, which tends to go badly as well.

This adapter and the wDrive will let me do a lot more with the IIGS than the two good floppy disks I have. What little I have found on the IIGS so far, shows me there is a lot more to the Apple IIGS than we ever took advantage of in school. I do hope to find the time to get to know the machine better.

I did do a little testing with the wDrive, but not much, I tried out a few other programs and such, I want to try out the GS OS graphical interface. I need a mouse for that, and I have one on order that is supposed to be tested and working.

I have a few more things to do with these machines. I have to finish up the RGB Monitor cable and SCART RGB Cable, which should be next (they are made now, I just have to finish the posts and get a couple of the SCART shots of it in use and a bit more testing). I still have that filthy and messed up keyboard that I don’t want to touch, and then to do an internal clean and maintenance on the other two 5.25″ drives so I know their condition. I need to get a battery as well the next time I place an order at Digikey, or somewhere else that I trust to get quality parts from.