Getting Started - Applesauce+

Congratulations on your new Applesauce+ floppy disk controller! It offers unparalleled flexibility in connecting, reading, and writing floppy disks from computing's historical media. Here's some basic information about the safe connection and operation of your controller and drives.

1. Always unplug the USB cable to your Applesauce+ before connecting or removing any drive connection!
2. Power floppy drives with the Applesauce+ power connector whenever you can. If you don't, plug in the Applesauce+ via USB before powering up the floppy drive and power down the drive before unplugging the Applesauce+ from USB to keep from causing damaging power backfeed.

The heart of the unit is powered by the USB port on your computer. It ships with a USB-A connector; with a Mac laptop, for example, you may need to add a USB-A to USB-C dongle that is readily available from online retailers. The Applesauce+ can get fairly hungry for power at times (500mA+) and if you have an older computer with weak USB ports, it may cause your Applesauce+ to be unstable. If this is the case, you should use a powered USB hub to provide lots of power to the Applesauce+.

You also need to have a +12V 2A AC/DC Adapter plugged into the back of the Applesauce+. This power supply is used solely to power the attached floppy drives. In just about all cases, you should be powering your floppy drives from the Applesauce+ unit using the Floppy Drive Power Cable. This way, drives can be turned on and off as needed and the Applesauce+ will be able to monitor power conditions and usage. The only time you should not have your drives powered by the Applesauce+ is when it requires voltages other than the provided (+12V, +5V, and -12V) or when the drive requires more then 1.5A. 8-inch drives are commonly in this category.

If you are planning to use an Apple drive for flux imaging disks, you will need to have a sync sensor installed into your drive and this will be plugged into the sync sensor port on the back of the Applesauce. But there is no need for that to simply get started working with normal disks.

An Apple Disk ][ with the 20-pin ribbon cable plugs directly into the Applesauce+ port marked “APPLE DISK II”. Ensure that the red wire is on the left (the triangle marker on the port shows where it should go). If you have an older drive with the rainbow cable, ensure that the ribbon cable is pointing downward when plugged in. Only one drive at a time can be plugged into this port. An example of how that will look:

If you have outfitted your Disk ][ with an optional sync cable, ensure the plug is inserted all the way in - the last little bit can be stiff. It will be flush with the case when fully inserted:

This is what it will look like with everything ready to plug in - the power adapter to the wall, and the USB cable to the computer (again, the sync cable is optional and you might not have one connected):

Apple 19-pin drives are even easier - there's only one way the connector will attach. Disks of this type will look like this when ready to go - the power adapter to the wall, and the USB cable to the computer:

The 19-pin port supports a full daisy-chain of two 5-1/4“ drives (or one DuoDisk) and two 3-1/2” drives. The rules are the same as they were with SmartPort and ProDOS: 5-1/4“ drives need to be at the end of the chain if mixing types.

The original “Naked Mac Drive Adapter” allows you to connect one bare (internal) 3-1/2” Mac drive mechanism to your Applesauce+ without needing to use an A9M0106 drive enclosure. It cannot participate in any daisy-chaining on the 19-pin port on the Applesauce+; it must be the only drive connected to that port.

It is compatible with the following drive mechanisms:

• Sony MFD-51W (800K)
• Sony MP-F75W (SuperDrive)
• Mitsubishi MF355F (later SuperDrive)

It is incompatible with, and must not be used with, any 400K drive mechanism.

Drives attached with the PC/Shugart ribbon cable should be powered by the Applesauce+ unit using the power connector with attached Berg drive power connectors whenever possible. Orientation of these cables is critical for the safety of your drives. The ribbon cable should be oriented with the grey connector plugged into the Applesauce+ unit with the red stripe to the left, matching the triangle marker. The power cable should be plugged in ensuring the yellow wire is on top; the connector is keyed, but it is possible to orient it upside-down with some effort (and will destroy a drive when connected improperly). Here are examples of correct orientation of both cables:

In preparation for identifying drives when running the Applesauce software, it will be important to understand the role the ribbon cable plays. Drive selection changed a bit from the older Shugart wiring standard when the PC came along - gone was the ability to identify a drive using “drive select” configuration on the physical drive itself and switched to cable orientation defining one of two possible floppy drives. For typical PC drives, the place you will plug them in along the cable determines which place in the client software to identify them. With PC drives, you can have a maximum of two connected at once; one at the very end with the twist in the cable as drive A, and the other anywhere else as drive B. Here is how they are related:

With older Shugart-style drives, you will already have “strapped” (via jumper, typically) drives with a particular drive select number, 1 through 4. The Applesauce+ ribbon cable and software will only address three Shugart drives, so be sure to only strap drives as 1 through 3. Then, where you plug them in along the ribbon cable is simply a matter of convenience; there is no real association between location along the cable and drive identification because that is taking place on the drive itself (much like SCSI in that regard). Be sure not to put a Shugart-style drive on the very end with the twist in it, though:

In no case can you have a mix of PC and Shugart drives at the same time.

Here is an example of a connected PC 3-1/2“ drive as drive A, ready to be plugged in - the power adapter to the wall, and the USB cable to the computer:

A word about the ribbon cable regarding orientation and the “key” - the key has been ground off at the factory, and it will appear backwards had it not been missing. Here's what that looks like:

Newer floppy drives often had keyed sockets, but you should ignore the key when using this cable and instead pay careful attention to the red wire. It must always be on the side of pin 1 of the connector. Drives will have some indication of pin numbering - they'll number them individually, or have a number at one end or the other, or there will be some other graphic signifying pin 1. The Applesauce+ uses the graphic of a triangle, as an example. Always match up the red wire to pin 1 (this is a great thing to be aware of in all of electronics where connections are made). You might consider marking your drives with a red pen to indicate where pin 1 is visually so you can easily verify the correct orientation.

The Applesauce client software is available for download here.

When your Applesauce+ is plugged into your computer via USB, it will go through a quick startup sequence and then wait patiently for the client software to initiate a connection to it. While it is waiting, the LINK light will be flashing green. When you start the client, it will connect to your Applesauce+ and the LINK light will glow solid green.

When the Applesauce software is launched, it may notify you that an update is available. In order to keep your software and hardware in sync and up to date, the software will check for updates and allow you to download them automatically. The software also has the ability to update the firmware of the Applesauce+ hardware. If such an update is required, then you will receive a message when starting the software; it is recommended to accept the update when this happens.