When it comes to Apple II, I’m easy to please. Every time I see a new product or something that gives new use, combines new technology and makes my retro computing more fun, I’m very happy with it.
Now add some lights to the equation and let me control it within the computer – I’m in heaven!
That’s just what Plamen Vasilov from a2heaven did: the newDisk II LED, is a perfect addition to the retro gadgetry. It allows me to control the disk LED lights, using a RGB LED, a small hardware adition and Apple II software to configure.
The hardware itself is very simple, a small card that goes between the internal connector and the cable that connects to the computer, with a 4 wire LED included.
The setup is pretty easy – just make sure you notice the pin numbers marked on the board – connect and go!
It was tricky to install on the //c, as it’s designed to fit nicely on the Disk II.You have to bend the cable a bit, but will work fine. Also I lay the LCD cable under the drive, which worked perfectly.
to make the installation reversible, I masked the drive LED with black masking tape, and attached the new LED with a rubber band. It holds it in place nicely.
After that fired the computer, ran the software and configured it. It’s very nice, it allows you to set the colors for standby, write and read states. Each one has five options: on, off, color, pulse and heart.
On and Off are obvious, color performs a constant change to all available colors. Pulse will fade the light in a pulsating form, and heart will do it like a heartrate.
The colors are Blue, Cyan, Violet, Purple, Magenta, Pink, Custom, White, Red, Orange, Amber, Yellow, Green, Teal. You can also add your custom color via HEX color, just like HTML values. The software allows you to also change that value by clicking on the R, G & B keys (Red, Green and Blue) and it will change in real time!
Overall I’m very happy with it. I’m a sucker for color LEDs and being able to control and have them in my //c, makes me real happy.
This is a nice, easy to set and fun gadget. Works real nice and gives a new functionality to my drive light, i can see when is writing or reading.
Disk II LED is not yet available on A2Heaven store, but I’m sure will be very soon, and it will sell like pancakes!
