Help restoring a newly acquired Lisa

[ried]

I have a couple of the ArcaneByte Cameo/Aphid drive emulators and they're fantastic. The things that swung me to also pick up an X/ProFile are:

• Power. The X/ProFile uses the Widget's power cable, whereas the ArcaneByte's solution needs a 5v USB plug - which you need to somehow run inside the machine if you want it to live inside the machine, i.e. where the Widget used to be. This can be done by leaving one of the Lisa's expansion port covers off and running a microUSB power cable through the chassis into the drive cage area.
• Port compatibility. The ArcaneByte solution will boot LOS when connected to the 2/10's internal (Widget) parallel port, but not when it's connected to a port on the parallel expansion card. So you'll have to live with it being inside your machine. Personally, I think it looks fantastic hanging off the back of the machine when connected to the parallel expansion card, where delivering USB power is easy and the ArcaneByte drive's power button is easily accessible - but you lose the ability to boot some operating systems (including LOS) in that configuration.
• Disk image management. Want to run Lisa Office System or MacWorks or Xenix on your Lisa? Just swap the X/ProFile's CF card out for the one you want. The ArcaneByte drive emulator allows you to choose the disk image you want to use in its boot menu, which is nice, but you have to run through that menu each time you power it off / on.
• Mounting and drive activity light. The X/ProFile was designed to be mounted inside the drive cage, as a replacement for the Widget. So it mounts in a very sturdy fashion against the cage and the read/write disk activity LED aligns perfectly with the Lisa front bezel's clear plastic indicator. It's a very clean solution. You'll have to devise a mounting solution for the ArcaneByte drive.

Both are fantastic products, really, and I use both with my Lisas.

 

[ScutBoy]

I have two of the Cameo/Aphid boards from ArcaneByte and they work great.

 

[wottle]

I have a couple of the ArcaneByte Cameo/Aphid drive emulators and they're fantastic. The things that swung me to also pick up an X/ProFile are:

• Power. The X/ProFile uses the Widget's power cable, whereas the ArcaneByte's solution needs a 5v USB plug - which you need to somehow run inside the machine if you want it to live inside the machine, i.e. where the Widget used to be. This can be done by leaving one of the Lisa's expansion power covers off and running a microUSB power cable through the chassis into the drive cage area.
• Port compatibility. The ArcaneByte solution will boot LOS when connected to the 2/10's internal (Widget) parallel port, but not when it's connected to a port on the parallel expansion card. So you'll have to live with it being inside your machine. Personally, I think it looks fantastic hanging off the back of the machine when connected to the parallel expansion card, where delivering USB power is easy and the ArcaneByte drive's power button is easily accessible - but you lose the ability to boot some operating systems (including LOS) in that configuration.
• Disk image management. Want to run Lisa Office System or MacWorks or Xenix on your Lisa? Just swap the X/ProFile's CF card out for the one you want. The ArcaneByte drive emulator allows you to choose the disk image you want to use in its boot menu, which is nice, but you have to run through that menu each time you power it off / on.
• Mounting and drive activity light. The X/ProFile was designed to be mounted inside the drive cage, as a replacement for the Widget. So it mounts in a very sturdy fashion against the cage and the read/write disk activity LED aligns perfectly with the Lisa front bezel's clear plastic indicator. It's a very clean solution. You'll have to devise a mounting solution for the ArcaneByte drive.

Both are fantastic products, really, and I use both with my Lisas.

Good points. I may look to add an X/ProFile to my arsenal later.

For the port compatibility, I was originally going to mount it externally, but I do want to be able to run LOS, so I'm going to try to find a good internal solution.

For the power, I think I was going to get one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LB4F9V7/ref=sw_img_1?smid=A2F0OPAFFWUQKL&psc=1
Then modify this blank Lisa Plate (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4500929) to be able to mount it. A bit cleaner than an open expansion hole.

The LEDs are going to be a bit of an issue I'll want to tackle, because there's apparently and issue with recent PocketBeagles that cause the Cameo/Aphid to not properly start up until you've restarted it a few times. Without being able to see the LEDs, I won't know if it's booted properly.

I'm not too concerned about Disk Image Management, because I can see myself wanting to switch between OSes regularly, so this makes that easier.

Also, for anyone who may be using an older FloppyEmu and trying to get it to work with the Lisa, make sure you. update your firmware. I'm not sure what firmware I was using, but it was causing problems with basically every disk image I tried. I was actually thinking it was maybe the Lisa or the floppy cable. Then I decided to update to the newest ROM and all the disk read errors went away.

 

[ried]

One thing I'll add about ArcaneByte is that James makes absolutely beautiful hardware, across the board. I have at least one of (almost ?) everything he's made and both the aesthetic and quality of the builds are awesome. When I first got the Cameo/Aphid drive emulator, I was trying to boot LOS from the parallel expansion card port which corrupted the LOS disk image on the SD card. No, I'm not always great at reading instructions

James was super responsive and helped me get back up and running in no time. Truly a rock star.

 

[wottle]

Got the microUSB extension today. 3d printed a bracket for it. Not I just need the Cameo/aphid to plug into it inside the Lisa!