SmartDisk II: Usage guide

This page follows what you do, in the order you do it. Each screen name links to its picture and its full description in the OLED screens reference. Every setting is explained in the settings reference.

Before you start. The board is built and fitted (hardware and installation), the firmware is loaded (firmware update) and the SD card is formatted with 32 KB clusters and holds your images (SD card preparation).

Connect the ribbon cable

The SmartDisk II talks to the computer through a 20 conductor ribbon cable plugged into its 2 x 10 pin header J2. Connect it first, with everything switched off.

1. Switch the computer off. Unplug any USB cable or ST-Link from the board: the computer must be its only power source.
2. Check the power jumper: one pair closed, J1 / JP1 (“5V”) or J7 / JP2 (“3V”), never both.
3. Find the red wire of the ribbon: it marks pin 1.
4. Plug the socket onto J2 of the SmartDisk II, red wire on pin 1.
5. Plug the other end into the computer, as in the table below.
6. Insert the SD card last, then switch the computer on.

Computer	Where the other end goes
Apple II+, II Europlus, IIe	the drive connector of the Disk II controller card (slot 6 to boot from it)
Apple II+, IIe with a SmartPort card	the connector of the Liron, SoftSP6 or Yellowstone card
Apple IIc	the external drive port (DB-19), with a DB-19 to 20 pin cable
Apple IIgs	the disk port (DB-19), with a DB-19 to 20 pin cable
Macintosh with an external 800K port	the external floppy port (DB-19). Set Disk 3.5 and 3.5 Mac host first

Always switch the computer off before you plug or unplug the cable. The pinout of J2 and the details for each machine are on the hardware and installation page.

1. Power on

1. Power the Apple II (or the Macintosh). The board starts with it.
2. If no card is in the slot, the SD EJECTED screen appears and the buzzer plays the failure sound. Put the card in. The screen says SD CARD: IS BACK, ENTER: restart. Press ENTER: the board restarts and reads the card.
3. If the card is in but the board cannot use it, a warning appears over the main menu: SD INVALID (the card is not formatted, or its file system is not one the board reads) or CLUSTER NOT 32K (the clusters are not 32 KB). Press RET to reach the main menu, then use Settings > Make filesystem (section 16).
4. The splash (the logo and the version) shows for half a second.
5. The board reads your saved settings from the card and starts the emulation you saved (choosing an emulation).
6. The first screen depends on the emulation and, for the two floppy drives, on the boot mode.

You choose the boot mode in Settings: Boot last image, Boot last dir or Boot favorites. It applies to the Disk II and the 3.5 inch drive only.

Boot mode	What the board does at power up	First screen
Boot last image (default)	mounts the last image you mounted	the image page. With no last image you see the empty drive. If the image is refused, MOUNT FAILED appears over the empty drive
Boot last dir	mounts nothing	the file listing of the last folder you used
Boot favorites	mounts nothing	the Favorites list

The other emulations ignore the boot mode. SmartPort always opens the SmartPort screen and mounts the four volumes you saved. The Smartloader opens the main menu, and the Apple II boots the loader. The Smartloader’s own file manager (on the Apple II screen) opens in the last folder when the boot mode is Boot last dir.

2. The four keys

The board has four keys: UP, DOWN, ENTER, RET.

Key	What it does
UP, DOWN	move the bar. Hold a key to repeat: the first repeat comes after about 0.2 s, then about every 0.1 s
ENTER	chooses the item under the bar. One action per press, it never repeats
RET	goes back one screen. One action per press, it never repeats. On the main menu it does nothing

• Lists are circular. DOWN on the last item goes to the first. UP on the first item goes to the last.
• After a key press the board ignores every key for about 0.2 s. A second key pressed that fast does nothing.
• There is no long press.
• While the board lists a folder, mounts, creates, deletes, formats or restarts, the keys do nothing. Wait for the screen to change.
• Screen saver. With Screen saver on in Settings, the display goes off after 30 seconds without a key. Only a key press restarts the delay. The first key you press wakes the display and does nothing else. Press again to act.
• Key click. With Sound effect on, each key gives a click.

On the SmartDisk II XL

The XL board has a rotary encoder where the standard board has the UP and DOWN keys. ENTER and RET stay keys.

• Turn the knob clockwise to go DOWN. Turn it counter-clockwise to go UP. Press the knob to do what ENTER does: the push switch of the knob is wired in parallel with the ENTER key.
• Each step of the knob is one key press, with its click when Sound effect is on. There is no repeat and no pause between steps: keep turning to go further.
• Everything else on this page is the same. The XL board has its own firmware image, see the firmware update.

3. The main menu

The main menu shows what the running emulation offers.

Item	Disk II	3.5 inch drive	SmartPort HD	Smartloader (loads Disk II images)	Smartloader (loads SmartPort or 3.5 inch images)
Favorites	yes	yes	–	–	–
File manager	yes	yes	–	yes	–
DISK II / DISK 3.5 / SMARTLOADER / SMARTPORT	DISK II	DISK 3.5	SMARTPORT	SMARTLOADER	SMARTLOADER
Settings	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes

The item named after the emulation opens its status page. That is the image page for the floppy drives and the Smartloader, and the SmartPort screen for SmartPort.

4. Choosing an emulation type

The board runs one emulation at a time: Disk II, Smartport HD, Smartloader or Disk 3.5. The board keeps your choice and uses it from the next restart.

1. In the main menu, choose Settings, then Emulation type (screen).
2. Press DOWN or UP to reach the type you want.
3. Press ENTER. The box of that type is checked and the choice is saved. Nothing restarts yet.
4. Press RET. If you chose another type than the one that runs, the board restarts at once in the new emulation. It does not ask. If you chose the type that already runs, RET just goes back.

The Settings list and the main menu follow the emulation. After the restart you see the items of the new one (settings reference). Each emulation has its own page: Disk II, SmartPort, Smartloader and 3.5 inch drive for a IIgs or a Macintosh.

HD20 emulation (Macintosh): upcoming. It is not available in this firmware yet. The Emulation type list ends with an entry named HD20 (Mac). Do not choose it: it does not do anything useful yet.

5. Browsing the card

In the main menu choose File manager (Disk II, 3.5 inch drive, or Smartloader that loads Disk II images). The keys do nothing while the board reads the card. Then the file listing appears.

• The first line is ., the folder you are in. ENTER on it opens the folder options: Refresh, Create disk, New folder, Delete folder.

Folders come first, then the images the running emulation can use. The file types it lists (in upper or lower case):

Emulation	File types listed
Disk II	PO, DSK, DO, NIC, WOZ
3.5 inch drive	2MG, PO, IMG, DC42, DC, MOOF
SmartPort	PO, 2MG, HDV

• Nothing is selected when the list appears. The first DOWN selects the first entry. The first UP selects the last one.
• ENTER on a folder goes into it. ENTER on .. goes one folder up. RET also goes one folder up. At the root of the card, RET goes back to the main menu.
• A name longer than 19 characters scrolls in the bar once, to its end and back.
• The board lists at most 255 entries in a folder, . and .. included, in name order. When there are more, the counter shows 255/255+. Put the extra images in sub folders.
• The footer shows the folder and your position, for example 57/150.

Folder options

Select . and press ENTER to open the directory options.

Item	What it does
Refresh	reads the folder again. Use it after you changed the card in a computer
Create disk	makes a new image in this folder (section 10)
New folder	makes a folder inside this folder (below)
Delete folder	deletes this folder, when it is empty (below)

New folder and delete folder

To make a folder:

1. Open the file listing of the folder that should hold the new one.
2. Select . and press ENTER.
3. Choose New folder and press ENTER. The name editor opens with the name NEWFOLDER.
4. Type the name as in section 10 and choose [OK]. Press ENTER.
5. The listing comes back and shows the new folder. If the name is taken, the footer says Folder exists!.

The board makes the name fit the card: it replaces characters a FAT card does not take with _, and drops dots and spaces at the start and the end.

To delete a folder:

1. Open the folder you want to delete.
2. Select . and press ENTER.
3. Choose Delete folder and press ENTER. The footer asks ENTER: delete folder.
4. Press ENTER again. The board deletes the folder and shows its parent.

Any other key cancels the question.

6. Mounting an image

1. In the file listing, select an image and press ENTER. The mount question shows Mounting: and the file name. YES is selected.
2. Press ENTER to mount. To cancel, press UP or DOWN to reach NO and press ENTER, or press RET.

What happens after YES:

• Disk II and 3.5 inch drive. The image that was in the drive is released and the new one is mounted. The board remembers it as the last image. The screen becomes the image page. RET on it goes to the main menu.
• SmartPort. The file becomes the volume of the partition you were working on, then the four partitions are set up again (section 13).
• A refused image. If the file is not an image the emulation accepts, the MOUNT FAILED screen appears and, with Sound effect on, you hear the failure sound. Press RET to go back. On the Disk II and the 3.5 inch drive the drive is then empty.

7. The image page while the host reads and writes

The image page shows the name of the image, its type, the track the head is on, and the last access.

What you see	Meaning
type: DSK (also NIC, WOZ, PO, 2MG, DC42, MOOF, IMG)	the format of the file. Internal ROM is the Smartloader’s own disk
TRACK: 17 and RD	the head is on that track (the cylinder, on the 3.5 inch drive) and the computer read it
WR	the computer wrote that track and it reached the image
ER	the track could not be read, or a write did not reach the image
the turning ball (at the right)	turns at each access. If it turns, the computer is talking to the drive
the heart	filled: the image is a favorite
CL, OT, WP, SYN, V	details of the image. For WOZ files they come from the file header. WP:Y means the computer sees the disk write protected: the file is read only, a 2MG is locked, or the write option (5.25 write or 3.5 write) is off

The display can go off during a long read if Screen saver is on. On the SmartPort screen the same information is the letters RD, WR and I (status) at the right of the partition that was served (section 13).

8. Favorites

A favorite is an image you want to mount again quickly. All the emulations share one list of at most 10 favorites. Each emulation shows only the favorites whose file type it can mount.

• Add or remove. On the image page, press ENTER (the image menu), choose Toggle favorite and press ENTER. The heart of the image page follows. If the list already holds 10, nothing is added and nothing tells you. On SmartPort the same item is in the partition menu.
• Use. In the main menu choose Favorites (floppy drives), or on SmartPort choose Select image from, then Favorites. Select one and press ENTER. The mount question appears as in section 6.
• Remove all. In Settings choose Clear favorites and press ENTER twice.
• A favorite is forgotten when you delete its file with Delete image.

9. Unmounting and deleting an image

On the image page press ENTER to open the image menu.

• Unmount image. Releases the image. The page shows the empty drive. The file stays your “last image”: the next start with Boot last image mounts it again.
• Delete image. The first ENTER writes ENTER: delete image in the footer. A second ENTER unmounts the image, deletes the file from the card, removes it from the favorites and from the last image, and shows the folder. UP or DOWN take the question away. If the file cannot be deleted (a read only file or a protected card), the listing says Delete failed!.

10. Create disk

Create disk makes a new, empty or bootable image on the card. Sizes, contents and file types are in Create disk and image formats.

1. In the file manager select . (the first line) and press ENTER. The directory options open.
2. Choose Create disk and press ENTER. The New disk list shows what the disk can hold.
3. Choose a content and press ENTER. When the content exists on several kinds of disk, choose the kind (the size and the file type) and press ENTER.
4. Type the name (see below).
5. Choose [OK] and press ENTER.
6. Wait. The screen says Please wait... and the keys do nothing. The file listing of the folder comes back with your new image. If something went wrong the footer says Create failed!.

Typing the name. The name editor shows a wheel of 42 items. Press UP and DOWN to go round it: A to Z, 0 to 9, . - _, the space, the case toggle [a/A] and [OK]. The wheel is circular, so UP from A reaches [OK].

• Press ENTER to add the character under the cursor. A name holds 30 characters at most.
• Choose [a/A] and press ENTER to switch the letters to lower case. Choose it again to go back to capitals. Digits and signs do not change.
• Press RET to delete the last character. When the name is empty, RET goes back one screen.
• A strip under the name shows the five items before the cursor and the five after it, so you can see where the next character is. A ~ is the space, ^ is the case toggle and > is [OK].
• Hold UP or DOWN to go faster. The step grows the longer you hold.
• The editor starts with a default name for the content (for example PRODOS, DOS33, DATA, UNTITLED, NEWIMAGE). Delete it or add to it. An empty name on [OK] uses the default.

The new file is named after your name plus the file type. If that name exists, the board uses name_2, name_3 and so on, up to _99.

What you can create depends on the running emulation, because an image the emulation would not list is no use:

Content	Disk II	3.5 inch drive	SmartPort HD
ProDOS bootable	5.25 inch 140K .po	400K or 800K: .po, .2mg, .dc42, .moof	5.25 inch 140K, 3.5 inch 400K or 800K, hard disk 32M: .po, .2mg, .hdv
DOS 3.3 bootable	5.25 inch 140K .dsk	–	–
ProDOS empty	5.25 inch 140K .po	as ProDOS bootable	as ProDOS bootable
HFS (Mac) empty	–	800K: .dc42, .img, .2mg, .moof; with the Macintosh host on, also 1440K .img	–
Blank image	5.25 inch 140K: .dsk, .nic, .woz, .po	400K or 800K: .po, .2mg, .dc42, .moof; 800K .img; with the Macintosh host on, also 1440K .img	5.25 inch, 3.5 inch or 32M: .po, .2mg, .hdv

HD20 emulation (Macintosh): upcoming. It is not available in this firmware yet. Create disk does not offer an HD20 disk with the emulations on this page.

The Smartloader that loads Disk II images offers the Disk II choices.

11. The empty drive page

Whenever no image is mounted, the image page shows an empty drive: a drawing of the front of the drive, Insert a disk and ENTER: choose image.

You see it:

• at power up, with Boot last image and no last image;
• after Unmount image;
• after a refused mount, under the MOUNT FAILED message;
• after the computer ejected the disk (3.5 inch drive, section 12).

Press ENTER on the empty drive to list the card, then choose an image. ENTER does not open the image menu here, because Toggle favorite, Unmount and Delete mean nothing without an image. Press RET to go to the main menu.

12. The host ejects the disk

• 3.5 inch drive. An Apple IIgs or a Macintosh can eject the disk. The board plays the eject sound (with Sound effect on) and the screen shows the empty drive from wherever you were. A message, a question, a name you are typing or a format result stays on the screen instead. Choose another image with ENTER on the empty drive. A Macintosh that sends an eject before it has read or written the disk is ignored.
• SmartPort. An eject command from the computer empties that partition on the SmartPort screen: the line says [SELECT]. The volume stays in your saved settings: after a restart the board mounts the image again, unless you used Unmount image in the partition menu.
• Disk II. A 5.25 inch drive has no eject command. Nothing happens.

13. SmartPort: the four partitions

The SmartPort emulation offers up to four volumes. The SmartPort screen lists them. 1:name is a volume, 2:[SELECT] is an empty partition, and a star *: replaces the number on the partition that boots first.

1. Press UP or DOWN to select a partition. Nothing is selected when the screen opens.
2. Press ENTER on an empty partition. Select image from opens: choose Favorites or File manager, pick the image and answer YES.
3. Press ENTER on a partition with an image to open the partition menu: Unmount image, Select image (another one), First to boot (this partition gets the star), Toggle favorite.
4. While the computer talks to the card, the letters RD, WR and I (status) appear at the right of the partition that was served, and the ball at the top right turns.

You can also set the boot partition in Settings with Boot Img Index (1 to 4).

14. Sounds

With Sound effect on in Settings, the buzzer gives:

• a click for each key press;
• a short click when the board loads a track from the card or writes it back (Disk II and 3.5 inch drive), and a click for each block read or written (SmartPort). While the card is out these clicks stay silent;
• an insert sound when an image comes into the drive;
• an eject sound when an image leaves the drive (the computer ejects it, or you choose Unmount image);
• a failure sound, two beeps and a falling tone, when the board refuses an image (MOUNT FAILED), when you pull the card out while the board runs, and for the warnings SD INVALID and CLUSTER NOT 32K.

If there is no card at power up, or the card is invalid, the board cannot read your settings. It plays the failure sound anyway.

15. The SD card out and back

If you take the card out at any time, the SD EJECTED screen covers whatever was shown. The keys do nothing and no listing, mount or save runs.

When you put the card back, the screen says SD CARD: IS BACK, ENTER: restart. Press ENTER to restart the board. The board does not restart by itself, so it does not cut the Apple II or the Macintosh off in the middle of what it was doing.

16. Settings you will use first

You want to	Do
mount the same image at each power up	nothing: Boot last image is the default
start in the file manager	Settings, Boot last dir
make a Disk II image read only for the Apple II	Settings, 5.25 write off
let a Macintosh or IIgs write to a 3.5 inch image	Settings, 3.5 write on
plug the 3.5 inch drive to a Macintosh	Settings, 3.5 Mac host on. The board asks first, then restarts
switch off the display after a while	Settings, Screen saver on
silence the buzzer	Settings, Sound effect off
load the file list at once in the Smartloader, with no countdown	Settings, Autoboot last img off
send a log to the maker	Settings, Log to SD on (settings reference)
forget all your settings	Settings, Clear prefs, ENTER twice: the board deletes the saved settings and restarts
forget the favorites	Settings, Clear favorites, ENTER twice
format the card	Settings, Make filesystem: it erases the whole card, see below

Make filesystem shows the question Erase the SDCARD? with NO selected. Press UP or DOWN to reach YES and press ENTER to erase and format the card (FAT32, 32 KB clusters). The keys do nothing while it works. A result screen says Result: OK or Result: ERROR and the reason. Press ENTER: the board restarts.

17. Using the board from the Apple II with the Smartloader

With the Smartloader emulation, the Apple II boots a small loader from the board. The loader then lists the images of the card on the Apple II screen. You do not need the keys of the board for everyday loading. The keys and the display of the board keep working beside it.

Keys on the Apple II.

Key	What it does
Up arrow, Down arrow	move the bar (Ctrl-K and Ctrl-J do the same on a keyboard without arrows)
Left arrow, Right arrow	previous page, next page
Return	opens the selected item: goes into a folder, boots an image, changes an option
B	boots the Apple II again
R	restarts the SmartDisk II, then the Apple II
M	back to the main menu
F	the favorites
E	changes the emulation type: Disk II, SmartPort and, on a IIgs, the 3.5 inch drive
A	the About page

What happens at start. The loader says PRESS ANY <KEY> TO CONTINUE and counts 3, 2, 1. If you press a key, it opens the list. If you do not, it boots the last image you booted under the same emulation type. With no last image, it opens the list.

You can turn the countdown off: set Autoboot last img off (see below). The loader then goes straight to the file list.

Loading an image. Open the list with File manager, select a disk and press Return. The board mounts the image and the Apple II restarts from it. When the image is of another type, the board hands over to that emulation (SmartPort, or the 3.5 inch drive on a IIgs) and its screens and menus replace the Smartloader’s.

The Settings page on the Apple II. The main menu of the loader has a row SETTINGS. It shows the same options as the OLED shows for the emulation the loader works with, with the same values.

1. In the main menu of the loader, select SETTINGS and press Return.
2. Press the up and down arrows to select an option.
3. Press Return. A check box switches between ON and OFF. A number goes to its next value.
4. Repeat for the next option. The bar stays on the row you changed, so you can change it again or go to the next one.
5. Select the last row, <- BACK TO MAIN, and press Return, or press M.

A change on the Apple II is a change on the OLED, and the other way round. The board saves it as it does for the OLED. Clear favorites asks first: the first Return shows SURE? and the second does it (DONE). Any other key cancels the question.

The Apple II does not offer the options that would take the loader away or erase your data: Emulation type, Clear prefs and Make filesystem. Use the keys of the board for them. If an option needs the board to restart, the loader shows RESTARTING and restarts the Apple II by itself.

Autoboot last img. On the Apple II this option is named AUTO-BOOT LAST. It is on by default.

Value	What the loader does at start
on	counts down, then boots the last image
off	shows the file list at once, with no countdown

The settings of each option are in the settings reference. See also the Smartloader page.

18. What differs per emulation

	Disk II	3.5 inch drive	SmartPort HD	Smartloader
Boot mode applies	yes	yes	no	no
Main menu	Favorites, File manager, DISK II, Settings	Favorites, File manager, DISK 3.5, Settings	SMARTPORT, Settings	(File manager for Disk II images), SMARTLOADER, Settings
Image types listed	PO, DSK, DO, NIC, WOZ	2MG, PO, IMG, DC42, DC, MOOF	PO, 2MG, HDV	those of the emulation it loads
Status page	image page (track, RD / WR / ER)	image page (cylinder)	SmartPort screen (4 partitions, RD / WR / I)	image page (Internal ROM)
Write to the image	Settings, 5.25 write (default on)	Settings, 3.5 write (default off)	the computer writes the volume file	the loader’s own protocol
Image menu	Toggle favorite, Unmount, Delete	the same	partition menu: Unmount, Select, First to boot, Toggle favorite	as the Disk II
Empty drive page	yes	yes (3.5 inch drawing)	the partition says [SELECT]	yes
Host eject	none	yes (IIgs, Macintosh)	yes (eject command)	none
Create disk offers	5.25 inch 140K	400K, 800K, HFS volume, .moof	any ProDOS size	the Disk II choices
Sounds	key, track, insert, eject	key, track, write, insert, eject	key, block click	key, track
Options in Settings	boot mode, WeakBit, 5.25 write	boot mode, fast read, fast seek, trace log, 3.5 write, Mac host, SuperDrive	Boot Img Index, SP resync	those of the emulation it loads, and Autoboot last img

19. Where to go next

• The OLED screens reference: every screen with its picture.
• The settings reference: every option, its default and its effect.
• Troubleshooting, FAQ and the log: when something does not work as described here.

---

SmartDisk II user documentation · latest firmware · Documentation home