Bring new life to your old Apple computer!
– Apple2Online
“A great device.”
– Blondihacks
“A boon for classic Mac collectors.”
– RetroMacCast
Floppy Emu is perfect for booting your favorite games, transferring files from vintage to modern machines, and troubleshooting a computer without a working OS. Just plug in the Emu board, and you’ll be up and running in seconds.
Usage Demonstration Video
Features
- Reads and writes emulated 140K, 400K, 800K, or 1.4MB floppy disk images, or hard disk images up to 2GB
- Navigates the list of disk images stored on a standard SD memory card
- Compatible with the original Mac 128K through the Mac II series and Power Mac, all Apple II models, and Lisa 2
- Connects to external (DB-19 D-SUB) or internal (20 pin ribbon header) floppy drive connector
- Supports all major Apple disk image file types
Macintosh Floppy – Supports 400K, 800K, and 1.4MB floppy disk images, in raw .dsk or Disk Copy 4.2 format. Disk image files are the same format as those used with popular software-based Mac emulators like Mini vMac.
Macintosh Hard Disk – HD20 hard disk emulation is compatible with the Macintosh 512K, 512Ke, Plus, SE (not SE/30), Classic, Classic II, Portable, IIci, IIsi, or LC I. Supports bootable hard disk images up to 2GB. Disk image file is compatible with popular software-based Mac emulators.
Lisa Floppy – Emulates 400K and 800K floppy disks on the Lisa 2/5 and 2/10. Boot or mount native Lisa Office System disk images in Disk Copy 4.2 format, or use Macintosh disk images within the MacWorks environment.
Apple II Hard Disk – Emulates up to four simultaneous Smartport hard disks, each up to 32 MB (when formatted as ProDOS) or 2 GB (when formatted as HFS). Smartport disks are compatible with the Apple II GS, Apple IIc (ROM version 0 or newer), and Apple IIc+.
Apple II Floppy – Emulates 5.25 inch 140K floppy disks on any Apple II series system, as well as 3.5 inch 800K floppies on the Apple IIGS, Apple IIc+, or others with Liron disk controller card. Disk image files may be in .DSK, .DO, .PO, .NIB, or .2MG formats. Disk images are compatible with common Apple II emulation tools such as AppleWin and Ciderpress.
Connects to the built-in 19-pin disk connector on the IIGS and IIc, or to the disk controller card on the Apple II, II+, and IIe. Compatible with the Disk 5.25 Controller Card with 19-pin connector, and the classic Disk II Controller Card with two 20-pin connectors. If using the Disk II Controller Card, be careful to orient the cable correctly. The red stripe on the cable should go to the pin marked “1″ on the Disk II Controller Card.
Apple IIc can emulate slot 6, drive 2 with Floppy Emu, because the internal disk drive is configured as slot 6, drive 1. To boot the IIc from 5.25 inch disk images using the Emu, connect it to the internal 20-pin ribbon connector instead of the external floppy connector. See the instruction manual for details.
| Emulation Type | Floppy Emu Model A |
Model A with Universal Adapter | Floppy Emu Model B |
| Macintosh | |||
| 3 1/2 inch floppy disk |  |
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| HD20 hard disk [1] | |
|
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| Lisa | |||
| 3 1/2 inch floppy disk | |
|
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| Apple II, II+, IIe | |||
| 5 1/4 inch floppy disk |  [2] |
|
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| Apple IIc | |||
| 5 1/4 inch floppy disk | |
|
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| Smartport hard disk | |
|
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| Apple IIgs, IIc+ | |||
| 5 1/4 inch floppy disk | |
|
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| 3 1/2 inch floppy disk | |
|
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| Smartport hard disk | |
|
|
[1] Requires Macintosh 512K, 512Ke, Plus, SE (not SE/30), Classic, Classic II, Portable, IIci, IIsi, or LC-I
[2] Reading the disk works, but writing does not
Technology
Interested in how Floppy Emu works under the hood? Check out the Floppy Emu Technology Design page.
FAQ
- Can I boot from an emulated floppy or hard disk?
Yes you can! - Does this require a special driver or INIT?
No software is required for floppy emulation on any system. For Macintosh HD20 hard disk emulation, most supported Mac models require no software, though the Mac 512K requires Apple’s HD20 Init. - What types of disk image files are supported?
Macintosh: 400K, 800K, or 1.4MB floppy disk images in raw .dsk format or DiskCopy 4.2 .image format, or hard disk images up to 2GB in raw format. Lisa: 400K or 800K floppy disk images in DiskCopy 4.2 format. Apple II: 140K floppy disk images in .DSK, .DO, .PO, .NIB, or .2MG format, 800K floppy disk images in the same formats as well as DiskCopy 4.2 format, or hard disk images up to 2 GB in .PO, .2MG, or .HDV format. The maximum size of a ProDOS volume is 32 MB, so larger hard disk images must be formatted as HFS. - Can I write to the emulated disk, as well as read from it?
Yes, for all but Apple II .NIB format images. Note that writing to a DiskCopy 4.2 disk image does not modify its stored checksums – see details in the usage instructions. - Can I format the emulated disk?
Yes for hard disk emulation, no for floppy emulation. Floppy Emu emulates standard sector-by-sector floppy writing, as occurs with normal I/O operations such as copying files or saving data from within a program. Instead of formatting a blank disk, use one of the provided blank disk images. - Can I back-up old floppies using tools like Disk Copy 4.2 or Copy II Plus?
Yes, with some conditions. Many disk copy programs perform a simultaneous format-and-write of the destination floppy, which creates problems (see previous answer about formatting). The best method is to read the source floppy, save the resulting floppy image file to the Emu while it’s in hard disk mode, then use a Windows/OSX utility to open the hard disk image on the SD card. For the Mac, direct floppy-to-floppy copies are possible using Copy II Mac with its “Sector Copy no Format” option. For Apple II, configure your disk copy program to disable formatting of the destination and to copy sectors one at a time. - Can the Emu work with copy-protected disks?
The hardware is designed to work with unprotected disks using standard sector and disk formats. Some copy-protection schemes may work, including some Apple II .NIB disk images, but this isn’t a cracking tool. - Can I emulate multiple floppies at once?
Floppy Emu can store as many disk image files as your SD card will hold, but only one can be “inserted” in the drive at any given time. - Can I connect two Floppy Emus to the same computer?
Yes, if they are connected to separate disk ports. For the Apple II, a Floppy Emu board can also be placed at the end of a daisy chain of other disk drives. The Emu doesn’t have a daisy-chain output port, and can’t be daisy-chained on the Lisa or Macintosh. - How can I edit the contents of a disk image file, or recover vintage Apple II/Mac files, using a modern PC or Mac?
For Apple II disk images, use CiderPress. For Macintosh disk images, use HFVExplorer (Windows) to copy files between the local filesystem and the disk image. Or mount the disk image in a cross-platform Macintosh emulator program like Mini vMac (with ImportFl and ExportFl) or Basilisk II, and use the emulator’s OS integration to copy files from/to the disk image. For Mac OSX, the utility OSXfuse may also be useful.
More questions?
Please see the Floppy Emu manual for complete details and usage instructions. If your question isn’t answered in the manual, send email to steve@bigmessowires.com for help.
Macintosh and Lisa
- Mac Floppy + Hard Disk and Lisa Floppy firmware, for all models: hd20-0.7E-F14.5
Apple II
- Apple II firmware, for Floppy Emu Model B: apple-II-0.1P-F8
- Apple II firmware, for Floppy Emu Model A: apple-II-0.1P-F6
IMPORTANT – For Model A, use the Apple II firmware only when connected to an Apple II computer. If a Floppy Emu Model A board running the Apple II firmware is connected to a Mac or Lisa, it may cause damage.
211 Comments so far
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Neat!!!
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A device like this is desperately needed. There must be thousands of old Mac enthusiasts stuck with no good way to bridge internet disk images downloaded to PCs to their old Apple systems. I’d buy one from you in 2 seconds. It’d pay for at least some of your mortgage
Whoah, this is really cool! I have recently acquired a Macintosh SE and was hoping to get it working after hearing its HDD make unhappy noises. I saw the HxC floppy emulator a while back but I was disappointed to find out that it would never work with my old Mac. Your project has given me hope, though! I’ve subscribed to your blog’s feed and I hope to eventually build one of these floppy emulators, too.
Thank you, and keep up the good work!
Absolutely amazed with your project. Congratulations.
As the other comments mentioned, is a vital addon in case of old machines like mine, with the floppy unit out of order.
Keep us posted!
Kind regards from Madrid!
Interesting
Wonder if this would word with an Apple IIgs?
If not directly then maybe coupled with a daisy-chain board?
Hello!
Could you also implement support for Roland’s Quick Disks?
It’s not floppy protocol but it should be easier than that and has a huge target group as nobody has already done it till now and there are many instruments using them and no disk’s to buy..
I’m afraid not. From the limited information available about Quick Disks, it looks like it has a completely different data cabling and data format.
Hi Steve
Just to let you know that I received your floppy emu and I have to say it works like a charm! Thank you for the quick delivery to Gibraltar.
Best regards
Francis
A very happy customer
What would be an amazing (and probably easily-implementable) feature for this device would be Apple HD20 emulation.
For those who aren’t aware, the HD20 was a hard drive that connected to the Mac Plus via the external floppy port. The Mac Plus was released with a draft SCSI implementation, and as a result it can sometimes be tricky to get SCSI drives to play nice with it– mine only likes one specific 40MB drive combined with one specific enclosure. The HD20 always works (slowly), but it’s rare, expensive, pushing 30 years old, and uses a hard drive with a completely proprietary interface (not SASI, SCSI, MFM/RLL, IDE, or anything else.)
Yup, I’ve been investigating HD20 emulation and made some small progress on it. Read more here: http://www.bigmessowires.com/2014/02/06/emulating-the-apple-hd20/
Sweet, I hope it turns out to be possible! I’ve just voted with my wallet and bought one. Looking forward to using my Plus without swapping physical floppies if nothing else
I’d love to see a video how to build this! Or even a schematic of the emu would be great!
See http://www.bigmessowires.com/2012/12/15/build-your-own-floppy-emu/
Thank you Steve!!!
Just received my Mac Floppy Emu. Works great on my Mac SE/30. I’d be very interested in getting this to work on an Apple II, such as the Apple IIgs or IIc Plus. I tried it on both, but can’t get it to be recognized. I’d be more than happy to help out in getting this drive to work on the Apple II. I also have an Apple Lisa 2, so I can also help out in testing on that system.
Bryan, with the Apple IIs, was the Mac Floppy Emu in a external drive box with a daisy-chain port?
Some people on the 68kmla forum had partial success getting it to work on an Apple IIgs. See http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=22517 It worked when connected to the pass-through board taken from an Apple 3.5 drive, but not when connected directly to the floppy port. I’m not really an Apple II guy so I’m not sure what’s up, but there are some good ideas in that forum thread if you want to follow them up.
Steve, I got it to work, using the information at the 68kmla site. There’s something about the Sony CXD1085B that allows this combination to work. Thanks for the tip!
Hi Steve,
when are you planning to get a new batch of floppy emu?
Thanks
Nicolas
One suggestion that you might want to consider in a future version… Ability to copy dsk image files within the Emu interface. I keep the blank800.dsk on the SD card, but I’d like to be able to make a copy of it on-the-fly and then use the copy, instead of taking the SD card and performing the copy elsewhere.
Hi!
I really like your project and just bought one Macintosh Floppy Emulator “used” on eBay in germany.
It really does work with my Mac 128k, great!
One question/suggestion though:
Is it possible to preselect one disk image so that it automatically gets inserted on power-up?
If this isn’t yet implemented, you could look for a text file containing the filename or even a list of preselected images.
The C64 SD-Card project SD2IEC does support this…
Good idea!
Yes! It would be great…
And also the feature to copy/duplicate a disk image directly on the device without the need to connect the memory card to a PC…
Sorry for the spamming. 😉
Where is a good place I can download Disk Images “dsk” for my macintosh plus? I use MacintoshGarden.org but all the files from there are “.SIT”. Does the floppy emu only recognize .DSK”?
DSK is not a normal floppy disk format for the Macintosh. The only DSK files I’ve found for the Mac are hard disk images. You can open SIT and SEA files by using the StuffIt for Windows or Mac. When you extract the images from SIT, make sure the image files have the .img file extension. Macintosh Floppy Emu can read .img files, but it won’t write to them. You can use the Disk Copy conversion tool that is linked on this page to convert the .img file to .DSK.
Thank you Bryan but I kind of need a visual. A YouTube video on how to covert my files from macintosh garden into a DSK would nice. I’m very eager to purchase the Mac Emu but i’d like to understand how to do this process before I buy the Emu. @Steve Chamberlin hope you’re reading!
I would love to have this but getting it to fit my Powerbook Duo might be a problem. Duo never had internal floppy disk drive (take that iMac!!) and the external drive support is via dock that uses propriety 20-pin square connector. There are large dock that do have internal disk drive but they are often over $100 on eBay, untested, and the dock are known to have bad power supply so I’d have to pay more on repairs just to make it work for files.
Anyone have any idea how or where could I get a cable that uses the square connector that was widely used in early Powerbooks?
Hi Eric,
you might want to build your own cable using a HDI-20 connector taken from an external 1.44 MB drive.
There is a few available on eBay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-HDI-20-External-1-4mb-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Tested-Works-/390812278432?pt=US_Vintage_Computing_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5afe3a1ea0
Nicolas
Why don’t you support the full 532 bytes per sector? Is there any limitation in your system architecture, or was ist just because 512 bytes equals one SD card block? In this case, one floppy disk sector could be stored in two SD card blocks. Of course this would waste some storage capacity, but with today’s 2GB cards it would be acceptable.
I’m assuming the reason for the 512 bytes has nothing to do the emulator, and everything to do with holding down to standards. HFS standard is 512 bytes per sector. Apple’s DiskCopy utility therefore supports the 512 bytes standard. While true that the 512 byte setting can be changed, it would then throw off the standard, and you might run into incompatibility problems with many other utilities that use DiskCopy’s disk image format.
The other way: 524 bytes per sector is the standard for 400k and 800k floppies and the format used by Apple’s DiskCopy utility. *.dc42 files have 524 bytes per sector, and they have to be stripped down to 512 bytes to be used with the emulator. This causes incompatibilities with LisaOS and MFS.
532 bytes is Apple’s block size for harddisks.
https://68kmla.org/wiki/index.php?title=DiskCopy_4.2_format_specification
The classic Mac OS uses 512 bytes of data per sector for both HFS and MFS – that can’t be changed. True, the disk stores a few additional bytes per sector, but they’re not data bytes and the OS doesn’t use them. They’re called “tag bytes” and are a hold-over from the days of the Lisa, but are basically unused by the Mac. DiskCopy stores the extra tag bytes for completeness’ sake, but if you check any Mac disk image you’ll see the tag bytes are just all zeroes.
DiskCopy images work with MacFloppyEmu just fine unchanged. I can download DiskCopy images right off the Apple site, and the emulator works with them. If however you want to write to the images, then you you have to convert the *.dc42 format to raw .dsk format, using the utility linked on this page. The emulator is advertised not to work with the Apple Lisa, but not because of the reasons with the sector size of the image file. So working with LisaOS would not be an issue.
Does this come with floppy images?
Would be wonderful if this could be tweaked to work with Apple 2 “SmartPort” signaling as well.
I purchased the floppy emu a few weeks ago and I’ve use it with my two Mac 512k’s, works flawlessly. A fantastic product.
Any thought to designing an enclosure for this? …You can 3D print them and sell them.
I’d love to. My 3D printer doesn’t have a large enough print area, though, and the prints are slow and unreliable enough that I don’t think it would be practical. If anyone else wants to try designing an enclosure, I’d be happy to work out a revenue share, or just refer interested people to them.
I just wanted to chime in a say that I just bought one of these… and it works great. I just had to reformat my SD card to Fat32 and MOST files show up and are accessible. I’ve been downloading games, but I think I might want to try and find some apps. I have an ImageWriter II that I want to make use of.
I bought your gadget just in time before it is out of stock.
I want to know how to convert 1.4MB image into 800K. My SE doesn’t support 1.4MB.
800K is a lower capacity disk format, so unfortunately there’s no simple conversion possible from 1.4MB. You can’t fit 1.4MB of data into 800K of space. Most software from the early Macintosh era was sold on both 800K and 1.4MB disks, so you’ll need to find the right disk image for the software you’re using. Or copy the files from a single 1.4MB disk onto two 800K disks, and use them that way.
I just got my Floppy Emu and love it, my Macintosh Plus is alive again! I highly recommend if your thinking of buying the Floppy Emu to buy the one with the extension cable, It would be a pain to have to lean over the mac every time you want to insert a new disk.
Steve, my Plus can only read the 400k and 800k .dsk images but I have an Apple HD20 (NOT SCSI) which is on my floppy drive port. So is there any chance of seeing a firmware update that would allow Floppy Emu to “mount” a 20mb .dsk? That would make it posable to run all my whole system off the FE and not need the noise Apple HD20 running!
Anyways thanks for a great tool for bring life back to dusty old Macs!
Yes, I think HD20 emulation is possible, and I did some research into it a few months ago – http://www.bigmessowires.com/2014/02/06/emulating-the-apple-hd20/ It’s still a long way from a practical reality though.
this type can apply to 3 module FDD used for NEC PC-9801 ?
No, sorry. Floppy Emu is for classic Macintosh computers only.
Can anyone point me in the right direction where I can find a disk image that will work on my Macintosh Plus? I just got my Floppy Emu and I only have disk images that work on my 512 K Macintosh. I’ve tried the apple support page and Macintosh Garden and I’ve even tried a couple other sites I googled. Would be awesome if I get this Mac Plus back to life. Thank you guys!
The Plus will work with any disk image that the 512K does, as well as many more. Check the instructions included with your Floppy Emu for a link to an archive of some other disk images too. Most things from Macintosh Garden should work as well, for example all of the 800K system disk images at http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macintosh-system-6x
Okay I downloaded the link you gave me. Now I have a “.sit”What should I use to extract it?
There are free utilities available for Windows, MacOSX and Linux that can unpack a Stuffit archive.
The easiest way to get started is with the link in the printed instructions that come with the Floppy Emu. This has a dozen or so disk images, already in the right format. All the 400K and 800K images should work with the Plus, like Dark Castle and MacPaint and System 6.
Stuff from Macintosh Garden can be harder. Often the files are .sit (StuffIt archive – similar to a zip file) or .sea (self-extracting archive, a program you have to run on a classic Mac). If you can find versions of the software you want in DiskCopy II format or raw image format, download those instead, as they’ll work directly with Floppy Emu and save you a LOT of work.
If the software you want is only available as a .sit file, there are programs for OS X and Windows that will directly uncompress a .sit archive, but I haven’t yet found one that I like. If you can find a good one, you could simplify things a little. Steven Hirsch, do you have a recommendation?
Otherwise to open a StuffIt archive, you’ll need a Mac emulator program like Mini vMac, a Mac ROM file, and a copy of the classic StuffIt program. There are several versions of the StuffIt program, which produce different version of .sit files. Newer versions of StuffIt can open older .sit files, but older StuffIts can’t open newer .sit files. The newest StuffIts won’t run on a Mac Plus, though, which can make things complicated. The basic method is to run an emulator like Mini vMac (my preference) or Basilisk II (if you need something newer), launch a copy of StuffIt, and use it to uncompress the .sit file. This will typically give you a DiskCopy II file, but it’s still inside the emulator. Use the Mini vMac plugins ImportFl and ExportFl (http://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/extras/importfl/index.html) to move files between the emulator and the host computer.
Unless I’m misremembering something, I believe I’ve used this:
hirsch@z87:/usr/local/bin32$ ./unstuff
unstuff 5.2.0.611 2001/06/28 15:24 – archive expander
Usage: unstuff [-option[=value]] [–option[=value]] (archives…)
-d= –destination=path destination directory for expanded files
-e= –eol=[unix|win|mac] text type for expanded files
–formats shows supported archive formats
-m= –macbinary=[off|auto|on] MacBinary output option for two-fork expanded files
-p= –password=password archive password
-q –quiet suppresses messages
-t= –text=[off|auto|on] text conversion for expanded files
-v –version shows version information
See unstuff.html for more information.
Unfortunately, I do not recall exactly where it came from. There is a version of Aladdin unstuff for Windows, AFAIK, but I’ve never used it.
Here’s a link for a free-as-in-beer Windows tool:
http://my.smithmicro.com/stuffit-expander-windows.html
I have not used it and cannot vouch for it one way or the other.
also, as we know this also works with the Apple IIgs, as long as you install this into a 800k 3.5 external HD floppy drive.
but wouldn’t it be cool is maybe someone could load up a boat load of images plug it into the back of a IIgs and Start Rocking in vintage App land, W/O needing the 800k floppy enclosure? I have some IIgs’s here.
I really would like to send you a IIgs for free, so you can have it laying around maybe it will give you creative inspiration
for future projects.?
here is a place with all the images.
http://asciiexpress.net/gameserver/
after all a IIgs will do just about everything including all the Apple II software as well.
I’ll second, third and fourth the request for Apple IIgs and, as an added bonus, Apple //c SmartPort compatibility. In the interim, I will temporarily sacrifice an AppleDisk 3.5 to make use of the passthrough board.
Hello,
I’m just received my Floppy Emu. i went out to Best Buy and purchased a cheap 8 gb SanDisk Ultra (40mb/s) . Brought it home, plugged it into my Mbpro Retina. Already pre-formatted FAT – so just copied some .dsk files to it and then put into my new Floppy Emu. Next, I plugged my Floppy Emu into my 1984 (April) original 128k Mac, and that was it. All the dsk files were easy to read/write to with no issue so far. I’m really excited about this. Lot to mess around with this weekend. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the great product and fast service! My floppy emu is working wonderfully. I love the lit LCD. The clear acrylic case took a little bit of assembling, but the finished product looks slick and professional.
Food for thought: As mentioned performance varies with SD card. What about attaching some SPI-Based RAM to the MCU? Open the disk images in RAM for read/write/format access. Then when the Emulator goes idle, or gets an eject command, it commences the write to the SD card at that point?
Good thought. I considered that approach, but eventually decided against it. Performance is mostly determined by the speed of the Macintosh floppy interface, and not the SD card. For reading, there wouldn’t be any noticeable benefit to caching the disk image in RAM. For writing, it might be anywhere from no benefit to perhaps 2x faster depending on the card. I decided it wasn’t really worth the extra complexity.
The kit arrived in good time given it travelled all the way to UK. It works well and I’m looking forward to putting it to good use. One thing, if thing it be, I wish I’d ordered the plastic case for it at the same time as the order. It makes me nervous sitting on the desk there in all it’s unprotected glory. But well done you for making it.
Keep the board off of metal surfaces and you’ll be fine.
I’ve used a pair of Emus without cases for about two years, so they’re pretty rugged in normal use. The case does add a nice touch of polish, though!
OK, thanks for that. I’ve just ordered a case in any event. It seems a good idea. I wish I had done so in the first place but no worries. A super piece of kit for those who like fooling around with old Macs, even if I don’t know why. Next project id capacitor replacement on an SE/30. Terrifying for someone with fingers as stubby as mine!
How does one enable the backlight?
New Floppy Emus have the backlight enabled by default. For older ones, it varies depending on the board revision. For most boards, you can add a piece of wire at the location labeled R5 on the main board, or between LIGHT and GND on the LCD board. See more info here: http://www.bigmessowires.com/2014/04/04/floppy-emu-backlight/
I got the one I ordered for my Classic II yesterday! It works great, and looks fantastic in the clear case. I also got it set up in HD20 mode. My only comment is that I found the firmware updating instructions ambiguous — hold down next and prev buttons, then press and release reset… does that mean keep holding the next and prev buttons until the updating is done, or let go of them? At any rate, I got it to work, but I was a bit nervous about messing it up.
Well, the box kit arrived and after an ‘interesting’ time putting it together, what a darling it looks. I installed the HD20 software and it works a treat on the Classic. All in all a super piece of kit. One query, as the words read I can get HD20 mode running on an SE/30 if I install and boot from a drive containing HD20init. Is that correct? Either way, it’s great. Thanks for working it all out.
The HD20 Init is only for the Mac 128K and 512K, and the SE/30 doesn’t support HD20 mode at all. Sorry for the confusion – I’ve edited the compatibility paragraph to hopefully make this clearer.
Put together the new case, looks great! I Do have a tip for putting it together, masking tape, makes all the difference when you have to flip it over to tighten the screws!
Steve thank you for the HD20 firmware update, being about to run my Mac plus without using the noisy Apple HD20 is amazing!
Hi,
I curious if your floppy drive EMU could be adapted to work as a as though it was a prototype Macintosh 128k with a Twiggy floppy drive disk that I recently restored and archived.
I have 2 versions of the Twiggy Mac 128k’s motherboard ROM’s which will work on any standard production Macintosh 128k. I also have 13 archived twiggy disk images to test with.
Please let me know if you can help me with this project.
Thanks,
Adam Goolevitch
778-885-2312
If you can make Twiggy drives work with just a ROM swap in the Macintosh, then it’s likely that Floppy Emu could be modified to emulate the Twiggy drive. If you send me whatever technical info you have about the drive, the disk format, and the ROM, I’ll take a look at it.
I’m not getting it… Why would we want to emulate twiggy drives?
The only reason we are even emulating Sony drives is that 98-percent of content for the Lisa are only 400K disk images. If there were twiggy disk images floating about, then that would be one thing. But even then, it is easy to just copy the files from the twiggy disk image to the 400K disk image. We should actually be running away from twiggy drives and disk images.
Hi, I received Macintosh Floppy Emu #0302
Very professional PCB (not really big mess :-)! and wonderful firmsoftware !! Merci
Best regards,
Francis
#302 and growing!
Mine is #91… This and the CFFA boards for the Apple II are two of the finest hobbiest-produced products I’ve ever seen. It is amazing how much the MFE has been upgraded, despite not needing additional hardware to address these new features. It shows that Steve designed the product right when it came to future growth.
Meanwhile, the first Apple IIGS Floppy Emu! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10153725996848677&type=1
Cool. I need to learn what that magic pass-through board in the A9M0106 floppy drive does, because whatever it does, it makes Floppy Emu work on the IIgs. Maybe I can duplicate the functionality in the Floppy Emu, then it could work directly without needing the pass-through board.
It would be even more ideal if Floppy Emu could pretend to be a Unidisk 3.5. That would extend functionality to the Apple IIc in addition to IIgs. There is documentation on the bus protocol floating around in the A2 community. Just say the word and I’ll round it up for you.
Maybe… if you have a link or pointer, that would be helpful.
@Bryan March: it’s worthwhile to work with Twiggies because the Lisa 1 is a historic machine, of course! The software that ran on a Lisa 1—the first GUI environment for a personal computer ever made—will only run on a Lisa 1. There are differences between versions 1.0 and the versions that came later for the Lisa 2.
Twiggy disks are now 32 years old, and many are degrading or already useless. With the emulator, someone could easily boot up a disk utility like BLU and save some of their old media, or install a version of the Office System or the Workshop from images and use that to save their old documents.
There is plenty of Lisa software that hasn’t been backed up onto modern media yet. Twiggy-capable emulators would help.
Also, there definitely are Twiggy disk images floating around:
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/Apple/Lisa/twiggy/
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/Apple/Lisa/workshop_1.0/
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/Apple/Lisa/monitor/
Finally, there is as yet no way to “just copy the files from the twiggy disk image to the 400K disk image” other than stuff like:
– copy disk image to a real Twiggy using a Lisa 1.
– copy file from the Twiggy to a ProFile hard drive.
– plug the ProFile into a Lisa 2.
– copy file from the ProFile to a 400k drive.
and that’s assuming that the newer Lisa OS running on the Lisa 2 can read the old OS’s filesystem on the ProFile (the filesystem changed between versions). Don’t know whether that would actually work.
So, there are some good reasons to emulate Twiggy drives.
A Twiggy mode for Floppy Emu would certainly help Lisa 1 owners for backing up their disks. But I’m not sure it would really help with copying files to a 400K disk or disk image. You could make a Twiggy disk image with the Lisa 1, but then what would you do with that on your Lisa 2? Maybe somebody in the Lisa community could write a software utility to parse the contents of a Twiggy disk image, extract the Lisa filesystem contents, and create a new 400K disk image with those contents.
I just sent a tarball of information on the Apple 2 Unidisk to your e-mail address. Gmail works very hard to strip attachments and dump outgoing mail in the bitbucket, so let me know if you fail to receive it?
The 400k thing is really a red herring, but I remarked on it it since Bryan brought it up.
Lisa 1 and Lisa 2 are very similar computers with some interoperability, but from a conservation perspective, it’s probably more worthwhile to think of them as separate machines with separate filesystems, operating systems, and file formats.
There are probably not a lot of Lisa 1 owners out there who are just dying for a way to finally get their Twiggy docs on a 3.5″ 400k diskette. Even if there were, a Twiggy holds 870k, so it might be a tight fit.
Instead, the real value of a Twiggy emulator comes from things like:
(1) direct Twiggy->disk image backups
(2) making it easy to load/install software onto the Lisa from images, like BLU, the Office System, and the Workshop. This in turn really opens up the number of backup options people have available for their data.
(3) making it easy to create and test “experimental” disk images, in order to reverse-engineer the filesystem.
Item 3 cannot be done in an emulator, since no emulator exists yet for the Lisa 1. Of course, having an easy way to try out arbitrary boot disks in a Lisa would probably speed the development of viable emulators, too.
@Steve Hirsch – got your email, thanks!
Wow, absolutely godsmacked.
Here’s a very happy, just new owner. Excellent design. I left the paper on the acrycl case around the mac icon, looks better IMHO.
A floppy emu must be sold/sent to Steve Wozniak, much better than this flash pci memory biz he’s now in .. At least he’s gonna get good internet speeds down under in Aussie land.
Can’t wait until a universal apple ][, unidisk, mac, hd20 (or hd8192 :)) emulation is fully functional. Or I’ll just have to buy another one
THANK YOU FOR YOUR EFFORT, YOU MADE BY DAY, PROBABLY MONTH+ !
Hi, It says that there is HD20 emulation that is compatible with the classic 2, but with mine when I gives me the question mark floppy. It works perfect with floppy drives however.
Hi Byron, please send me an email with the details and I’ll look into it. With some Macs, you can’t boot from the HD20, but you can mount the HD20 after booting from another disk. I think this is the case with the IIsi, though I’d need to double-check. The Classic 2 might be the same way?
Hi, I am using it on Apple II with firmware apple-II-0.1D-F3. It works nice, but have problem because it cannot remember selected disk on restart(probably I am wrong but…). On each restart I have to select disk. Is it possible to keep somewhere previously selected disk and on restart on computer to boot again from it.
thank you great device
The Floppy Emu works great!
Started a YouTube series using it with a Mac 512k:
https://youtu.be/PBz25fWz5ds
If you restart the computer with CTRL+Apple+RESET, the currently inserted Floppy Emu disk will remain “inserted” in the virtual disk drive. But if you turn the computer off, then on, the Floppy Emu loses power and resets, and will return to the disk selection menu.
A few people have suggested saving the name of the current disk in Emu’s internal EEPROM, and automatically re-inserting it the next time the Emu starts up. I’m not sure if that would be helpful, or annoying, and whether it would be appropriate for Mac disks, Apple II disks, or both. Any opinions? For now I’ve elected to keep it simple and not do any automatic re-insertion of old disks.
I agree. Keep it simple.
Hi Steve,
This is Steve
I have a few questions for you. I upgraded my emu firmware for the Mac+Lisa firmware this week.
1- if I plan/want to use it with an Apple IIc/IIgs eventually, Is there a simple way to switch from one emulation to another?
2- do I need to update both files each tine, or only the second step is enough?
3- pictures of the case do not show the built-in 19 pin DB-9 side, but I suppose it fits well. Going to order one now.
Also, I never tried it, but is it possible to use folders with the emu on the SD card? Could simplify images management for different system types.
Thanks
To switch between the Apple II and the Mac+Lisa, you will need to switch which firmware is installed on the Floppy Emu. Yes, you need to update both firmware files (one is for the CPLD chip and one for the AVR microcontroller). Updating the firmware takes about 1 minute.
Yes, you can use folders to organize the floppy disk images on the SD card.
Here’s a photo of the acrylic case used with an Emu board with the built-in DB19 floppy connector: http://www.bigmessowires.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20141024_200728.jpg
Hi Steve,
I was not sure if the CPLD firmware were identical or different for each usage.
What would be cool is if we could put both CPDL/AVR firmware in a specific folder (say appleii and mac folder) and from there having a way to trigger a process (ex: hit reset/select) and have the device able to initiate the firmware swap in an automated way. I guess the board is not “smart” enough to do this…
Thanks for the picture of the case. I placed my order yesterday with one of the new universal cable, even if I may not have a real requirement for it. Could be used for my IIgs ROM3, but it also have the CFFA3000 card inserted. Maybe I’ll be able to use both item for transferring data from one to the other.
Maybe eventually you’ll be able to emulate other floppies (Atari, Commodore)…
Hi again Steve,
Any chance the Floppy Emu will do something like this:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1468153686815336&set=gm.10154084940178677&type=1
Both an Apple III? It needs to be connected in place of the Internal FDD, because the Apple III is hardwired in ROM to both from this drive only. I want it
I don’t know much about the Apple III, but from what I read in that Facebook post, it sounds like the Floppy Emu should work if you use the Emu’s Apple II firmware and this special cable: https://www.tindie.com/products/option8/apple-iii-disk-ii-cable/
I’ll give it a chance on an Apple III and let you know what it does.
If I want to use the Apple III Disk II Cable in the link with your Universal Adapter Extension Cable, I guess I should order the female version of the former cable. Does that make sense?
The Apple III Disk II Cable is only 13″ long and need to be connected internally in the Apple III (to boot from), which mean the EMU will either be on the back of the computer (not ideal) or I’ll have the cable running trough the cover, and it becomes ugly (or a Big Mess of Wires, your choice!).
I’m not certain, but it looks like you could combine the male version of that Apple III cable with the detachable part of the normal Floppy Emu extension cable (or any 20-pin ribbon cable) to make a single longer cable. It’s a little confusing, but I think the female version of the Apple III cable is meant to go directly between the Apple III and the drive electronics, whereas the male version is meant to be connected to a second cable.
First, I need to confess it was late 911pm for me) when I wrote my previous comment, and my brain was not at its best. I wrote “the female version” while I really meant “the male version”.
The other thing I have not realized is the fact that your standard cable already had a detachable DB-19 board. I was under the impression that the ribbon cable was soldered to the DB-19 pins. I have the cable in front of me now, and I can see it clearly.
That said, you’re right. I will order a male Apple III Disk II Cable and I should be able to connect and boot from the Floppy EMU on my Apple III.
The female Apple III Disk II Cable can probably be connected directly to the Floppy EMU 20 pin socket on the PCB. But the 13″ length will make it very weird to use.
Did you attend Kansas Fest this year?
I got mine in today and I love it. One question: I am using it with a Apple //gs ROM03, if I am in Smartport mode and hooked directly to the system, it boots fine. If I hook into the 3.5 drive and try to boot, it doesn’t work. Would the Universal Adapter Extension Cable help with this or is it the way things are? I did update the firmware to the apple 2 firmware before using. Other than that small issue, I love it. I was able to move some files I haven’t seen for years to my PC using floppy emu and ciderpress. Thank you for making it.
I’m pretty sure that behavior is normal and is a limitation of the Apple II hardware. When booting, the Apple II can only check drive 1 for a slot, not drive 2. When you connect the Floppy Emu daisy-chained to a 3.5 drive, then the 3.5 drive will be slot 5 drive 1 and the Emu will be slot 5 drive 2. So the computer checks the 3.5 drive, sees that there’s no disk there (or not a bootable disk), and gives up. If you use that configuration and boot from a 3.5 inch floppy, then you should still be able to access the Floppy Emu as a second disk. You’ve made me curious whether there’s any work-around for this. If you connected a second 3.5 drive and then the Floppy Emu, I think the two 3.5 drives would be slot 5 drives 1 and 2, and then the Emu would be slot 2 drive 1, which might be bootable. Or you could install a separate disk controller card, and connect either the 3.5 drive or the Emu to that, so that it can be drive 1 for that slot.
The Apple IIgs only scans the $Cx00 slot ROMs on boot, the connecting of 2 3.5″ drives will not work. I would check out ProBOOT to see if it can do it: http://www.sheppyware.net/apple-ii-software/proboot.html
Yes, it requires an extra 3.5″ boot disk to store ProBOOT if you don’t have any other mass storage.
The firmware update on my latest Emu has been plagued with the “wrong CPLD” error, though on my older (purple) board, it worked with no issue. I copied both the .xvf and .bin files to the SD at the same time, booted my Mac Classic II with the Emu connected, and then shut down, leaving the safe to power down dialog up so that the Emu had power, but the Mac OS wasn’t running.
As soon as I complete the first part of the update (the .xvf file) I get the frowny “wrong CPLD” error–that is, before I’ve even had the chance to run part two. I ran part two, and the things seem fine, but if I hit the reset (or power down and back up, which is what happens because of the status of the Mac as mentioned above) I get the frowny face again.
I’ve gone back to the non-hd20 firmware with no issues and tried again with the same result.
Any idea why it might not be working?
Seeing “wrong cpld” after installing the first part is normal, because the two halves of the firmware aren’t in sync yet. Is it possible you installed the first part twice, but the second part not at all? This is a common mistake, since the two parts require similar but not identical buttons to initiate. This would explain the behavior you’re seeing.
Yea, I also was surprised when I switched the floppy emu to the Apple II firmware to see the CPDL error on screen. But once I did the second part it worked and never complain again.
I just received my Floppy Emu and it is working great. One question: In Smartport mode I have created four 32MB ProDOS images named smart0.po through smart3.po. The machine can boot from it but only sees two drives (slot 5 drives 1 and 2). Should it be able to see the other two drives?
There was a blog post here (http://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/07/13/smartport-firmware-update/) that said that the Smartport drives should appear as slot 5 drives 1 and 2 and slot 2 drives 1 and 2. But slot 2 on an Apple //c is the modem serial port.
This is an Apple //c with revision 0 firmware and I am using the latest apple-II-0.1J3-F6 Floppy Emu firmware.
Are all four of your ProDOS images displayed on the Floppy Emu’s LCD screen? On my //c with ROM 0 and apple-II-0.1J3-F6, it works as described, mounting 4 Smartport drives on S5 D1 and D2 and S2 D1 and D2. I’m not sure about the serial port mapping… maybe the ROM dynamically maps extra drives to a different slot, depending on whether the serial port is in use?
Yes, all four images are shown. Serialports are not connected to anything.
Accessing S2,D1 and D2 gives NO DEVICE CONNECTED.
I’ll try booting with a different disk image – this is the ProDOS User’s Disk and maybe it does something when it runs it’s startup program. I can try a plain ProDOS image.
I’m testing by running Apple II System Utilities v3.1 (which is on the first Smartport volume), and selecting the “list volumes” option. It shows the names of all four volumes, and the slots and drive numbers for each. I suppose it’s possible that you’ll get different results depending on what boot disk is used for the first Smartport volume – sorry I can’t say for sure.
I fired up the System Utilities disk and I am now able to access all 4 drives, both from the application and from BASIC. I can get to the drives from BASIC by setting PREFIX but I didn’t see a way to find out what slot and drive numbers the last two drives are associated with (if any). I’ll experiment some more, but it looks like this will work and I am all set. Thanks for the help!
I think the issue was the ProDOS version. It works fine when booted from ProDOS 2.0.3, and the four drives are mapped to slot 6 and slot 2.
All I can say is wow!!! I purchased the universal floppy emulator. Now granted, I personally only one a mac. But I have several friend that have some apples, so I thought it would be a great investment to go all in. I could not be happier. The quality of this is great! I have used it for my Mac Quadra 650 (for files only), But where I really think it shines, is using it as a HD for the Mac Plus! Thanks so much for a terrific piece of hardware…
According to this statement: ◾Reads and writes emulated 140K, 400K, 800K, or 1.4MB floppy disk images, or hard disk images up to 2GB
The floppy EMU can write disk images as well. I was wondering if this true? Or am I misreading the statement.
That means the emulated disks are readable and writable by the Mac or Apple II, as opposed to being read-only disks like a CD-ROM. But the Floppy Emu does not create new disk image files on the SD card, if that’s what you’re wondering. To create and edit disk images on a Windows or OSX computer, you can use tools like HFVExplorer or Ciderpress – see the FAQ above.
This is a great product! With my Mac Plus (which has a Micro Mac Accelerator installed) I am able to mount floppies from the EMU. But no matter what I do I can never get the Hard Disk part to work. I installed the firmware properly as the device works. Is it possible the firmware needs to be installed again? Every time I go into HD20 mode the screen says something like “disabled” or “write mode changed 6 (or 7, or 2)”.
I make disk files and floppies using HFV Explorer on Windows…. Is there a boot sequence I should follow? Do you have any tips?
I’ve heard from a Mac SE owner that his accelerator causes similar errors in HD20 mode – some kind of accelerator incompatibility it seems. Can you try removing the accelerator from your Mac Plus?
Thank you for replying. Today I did more digging and I found two pre-made hd20 disks that when inserted booted up the Plus. Without the Control Panel and Extension the Plus sees the upgrade as a 020. But this showed promise… I could not seem to format a disk, but that was with the upgrade turned on. I found a way to convert a disk into HFS, and once I turned off the “instruction cache” in the upgrade control panel, the disk mounts! Next is to make a disk and see if the Plus will format it.
Than you for the tip! Floppy mode works great with the upgrade turned on. What exactly am I doing by turning it off; what makes that work?
Hi, I have a flopy emu and it works great on my iiGS, of course once i’d read a bit more and found i mustnt have my 3.5″ floppy daisy-chained with the floppy emu on the end. Ok, generally np as I’m booting it into HD emulation mode or apple ii floppy emu modes and both work great! I’ll soon try it on my iie for floppy emulation.
However, one thing I just cant find how to do – how to cold boot a disk? my iiGS and my iie both have Z80 cards, how can I select then boot from a CP/M disk (physical floppy or emulated) with the floppy emu? has anyone done this? I may be missing something obvious or not understand enough about how apple ii’s work. my iie, btw has disk controllers in slot 5 and 6, so i could use either 19 or 20 pin connections on that machine if it helps..
cheers!
Hi iain, daisy-chaining with a 3.5″ Apple II drive is fine as long as you have the universal adapter with the switch set to the 3.5 position. To boot an Apple II from a 3.5″ or 5.25″ emulated floppy image, turn on the computer, select the desired disk from the Floppy Emu LCD menu, then press CTRL+Open Apple+RESET to reset the Apple II. Feel free to email me directly if you have other questions.
thanks, will try!
Hi Steve,
This item Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch and Cable, $15, it just allow to connect the drives to one cable, and use one at a time, but do not allow daisy chain or use both the EMU and the real floppy simultaneously. Do I get it correctly?
That’s right. The A/B cable is useful for owners of Lisas or Macs with only a single internal floppy connector. If your Mac has both an internal and an external floppy connector, then you don’t need it.
Great device !
On my IIgs, it works well as 3.5 device (did not test 5.25 on this guy) but on my //c+, I cannot make it work as a 3.5 device (here it works fine as 5.25):
neither connecting it externally with the universal adapter nor connecting it internally instead of the default 3.5 drive.
Any idea ?
Alain,
Do you have the ROM 3 version on your Iic? If not, that may be the issue.
Earlier this week I had a report from a //c+ user that 3.5 inch emulation didn’t work on his machine. I don’t have a //c+ myself, so I can’t directly verify that, but I will update when I learn more.
One thing that I can tell is:
(1) when I plug it inside the //c+ instead of the internal drive, the status led blinks, but it does not boot.
(2) when I just plug it to the outside connector, the status led does not light at all.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the skills to investigate further, such as trying to boot trace scenario (1) to find out where it fails.
It looks like the //c+ isn’t compatible with the current 3.5 inch emulation mode, sorry. Apparently it differs somehow from the 3.5 inch disk interface on the IIGS, which was the basis for the Floppy Emu design. As a temporary work-around if you need to mount 800K disk images on a //c+, you can mount them in Smartport mode instead of 3.5 inch mode. If I find a better solution, I’ll post an update here. My apologies for the misleading info – I’ve updated the user manual to reflect that the //c+ does not work in 3.5 inch mode.
I ordered my Floppy Emu on Friday June 5 and it arrived Monday June 8 which I thought was incredibly fast from the southern California to Maine over the weekend. I bought it for my MacPlus and my MacSE. It is amazing for the Macs.
I have an Apple //c (ROM 3) and want to use the Floppy Emus Smartport Hard Disk Emulation.
I have the Floppy Emu SN 0392, Clear Acrylic case and the Standard Adapter Extension Cable.
Do I need the Universal Adapter instead of the Standard Adapter?
Nope, you will be fine with the standard adapter for that configuration.
Is there anything like this that will run programs to my apple II+?
Hi Patrick, Floppy Emu is compatible with the entire Apple II series including the II+. See the user manual and feature list, above, for more details.
Hi guys,
I have come across a very interesting disk, which appears to be something that Larry Kenyon wrote. It is a test disk for the Sony 400k drive, with programs dating from July 1983. It looks as though this was used for the original configuring, testing, and variable speed control for the “new” Sony 400k drives that had not yet been approved by Steve Jobs at this point (still going for the Twiggy drives on the Macintosh).
You can actually control the different speeds of the sony drive, like a software gear shift.
This is a very exciting discovery. Perhaps this would be a useful utility for the Floppy EMU for the orignal Mac?
Let me know if you would like me to send you photos, or a copy of the disk or disk image to check it out.
Best regards,
Adam
Under Apple II it says “requires firmware update”. If I want to switch this between a Mac Plus and an Apple IIc, do I need to keep reflashing the firmware, or does the firmware update support both?
The two firmware (Mac/Lisa vs Apple II) are totally different and you need to reflash for each type of machine.
Thanks Steve!
Thank Steve! I’m number #612!! Hopefully will be able to help Steve get more of them into the hands of other vintage computer hobbyists! I’m a member of a non-profit group, the Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/ we do a number of shows around the country, and are affiliated with addtional shows around the globe. So it couldn’t hurt working with us.
Model B #801 arrived today. Case is a work of art and floppy emu works great on my //e so far. Easy setup and operation. Forgot to update firmware for Apple II at first, but update was easy. Default is Mac. Super fast shipping.
Just ordered the B model, can’t wait to get it. Wanted a case but they were out of stock. Any ETA on when those will be available?
Thanks, I expect to have more cases available by the time shipping resumes on the 29th.
Hello,
I just got my model B, I’m trying to get the firmware updated to run on my IIe Platinum. I have tried several 4gb microSD cards (smallest I could find,) and the device does not recognize them, despite all of them being formatted FAT-32. The screen reads a big question mark, with “No SD card? Card Error 10:5″ when I try to boot it. I am trying to troubleshoot it and I am at a loss as for why it isn’t recognizing the cards. Any advice?
Another person recently had the same problem, and was able to resolve it by trying a different sd card. Or if there appears to be a hardware problem, you can return the board for a repair. I’m traveling this week with limited internet, but I’ll send you some specific suggested sd card models when I return home on Friday.
Cute and useful, good combination!
My Model-B has been up and running for about a week now! Together with my Mac Plus it has become the centrepiece of my establishment. I love it!
Hi Mike D, following up on your question: the card I’m currently using for the “vintage software collection” is a Kingston 4GB class 4 SD card, and the UPC code is 740617120639. The Floppy Emu should work with pretty much any SD or SDHC card, though. If you’ve tried several different cards and they all show a message saying “No SD card? Error 10:5″, then please contact me at the “more questions” email address above, for more troubleshooting or to arrange a return.
Found that SanDisk Ultra microSDHC UHS-I @8gb works as well. Just got my butt handed to me on Karateka and Conan. Nice product. Thanks!
Do you have something that works in the opposite direction? I have a vintage macintosh plus that i will be upgrading to G4. I want to be able to use the internal 800K or 1.44MB floppy drive but i need a device to control the drive with the 19-pin interface that connects to the host with USB. Do you make something like that?
I don’t, sorry. Can’t you use a standard USB floppy drive with the G4?
Thanks anyway, i wanted to avoid using an external mechanical eject drive for posterity reasons (I want the floppy bay to be useful) and i found a good solution that others may be interested in if they are doing the same build.
I actually opted for the Iomega LS120 (SuperDisk) drive as it can be modulated to read / write as little as 800KB and as much as 120MB. Plus, it has an auto-eject feature similar to that of the Macintosh. It is an IDE interface so i will be using an IDE to USB adapter. Thanks anyway!!
Great Product!!!!
I have been waiting a long time for a device like this. This is defiantly the crown jewel accessory for my retro Apple and Mac collection.
Is it possible to upgrade the firmware to allow multiple floppy images at the same time (like to have a boot disk and data disk mounted simultaneously)
Is there a way to connect an external LED for the access light? I’d like to try 3D printing my own case, that resembles (or fits into) either an Mac external floppy enclosure or an Apple II enclosure.
The hardware is designed to emulate one disk at a time. There’s no plug-and-play connection for external LEDs, but a few people have soldered extra wires to the PCB for similar purposes.
Apple II emulation of 3.5 inch disks is now also working on the Apple IIc+, with the newest firmware.
Hi there, I love your device and am so glad to see someone supporting our old hardware.
I tried to update the firmware on my model A, and something went wrong. Restarting, I couldn’t get past the error screen, and on a second restart I no longer get anything on the screen. The power light is on, but the screen is blank and the status light does not blink.
I have tried a bunch of button presses and combinations but to no effect. Is there a way for me to revive this unit?
Thanks!
Hi Jay, sorry to hear about your trouble. I sent you a follow-up support by email.
I just purchased a Model A + Universal Adapter + Acrylic case.
This is such a cool product, I think it is the creme de la creme of Apple retro storage devices.
the Video’s on YouTube sold me. Cannot wait to get my IIgs connected and booting
This is an amazing device! It helped bring my 128k Mac with a bad internal drive back to life. It’s really elegantly designed and I love the acrylic case.
Hi Steve,
I was recently listening to the RCR podcast (an episode from late last fall) and they talked a little bit about the FloppyEMU model B. Can’t remember who sneaked of it, but he said that the new version can emulate Apple II and Mac without a firmware change. Can you confirm if true? Maybe I misunderstood too…
Thanks
That’s not quite accurate. The newer model B can emulate all types of Apple II drives without the need for extra hardware, whereas the older model A requires a separate adapter if you need Apple II 3.5 inch disk support. See the compatibility table above for the complete details. Both models have separate firmware for Mac or Apple II support.
Thanks Steve
The episode 118 can be listened to here, at 55 minutes: http://host2.cyberears.com/29988.mp3
Paul really says there’s no firmware flash required, so his understanding is wrong!
Steve, do you know where I could buy a small(2-3 inches) disk cable to put on the board of the floppy emu to get the internal connector just outside the the emu case? I think it would need to be female to male.
Try DigiKey in their “rectangular cable assemblies” section. They have some 20-pin ribbon cables.
Question – given that one can only “mount” one disk image at a time, I’m wondering if the Emu can be used to do an Classic Mac OS installation to a real SCSI hard drive mounted in the Mac. I’m guessing the answer would be YES if there is an appropriate Disk Copy utility installed in the .DSK file one is booting. Restating the question, can I easily use the EMU to “image” a blank SCSI disk already installed in a Mac, as opposed to just booting the Mac.
Yes, you can do an OS install onto a hard disk, using disk images of the Apple installer floppies.
Hi Steve.
Will we see the “BMOW Floppy Emu Deluxe Bundle” back for sale/in stock someday?
Also do you ship to the UK?
Thanks,
Chris.
Yes and yes. I hope to have more stock ready in the next few days.
10th of May has come. True to your prediction: stock has returned.
Chris! Buy now! Who knows how many DB-19 connectors he will have left. Unless the efforts in getting new ones made was successful.
Have been waiting on these to come available. Hadn’t checked in a few days and just saw today they were available. Have a ][+, 2 //gs machines, a Mac Plus and Mac SE30 that I’d love to get booted back up again. Can’t wait til it arrives!
Just bought mine. Looking forward to getting it. Only thing I’m curious about, can you install a System to a Mac only using this? I.E. Can you ’emulate’ disk swaps without powering off the machine?
hello, i’m french and i use you floppy emul. Now i’m use it with the 2gs but with smartport, when i put 1,2,3 or 4 image disk, i have sometime “files not contiguous” what is the problem?
thanks.
The files must be in a contiguous range of sectors on the SD card, in order for optimal performance. If they’re not, you can delete all the files on the SD card and then copy them back. Or reformat the SD card, and then replace the files. A defragmenting tool should also work, but the other methods are easier.
thanks, it’s good now
bye
Going to buy an Aplle //e ) Do you have shipment to Russia ? Also, will it work with AppleII clones like Franklin Ace machines ?
Yes, shipments can be sent to any country by US Postal Service First Class Package service. See the shipping rates on the product pages in the BMOW store. I don’t have any direct experience with the Franklin Ace, but in general if the computer is Apple II compatible then it should work.
I’ve been really happy with this unit. Allowed me to get my //gs back up and running again, which then turned into figuring out how to get the hard drive in it running again, and now a fully functional system again. Can’t wait to try it out on my old Macs… Great product, just wish I would have the patience to put the box together! LOL!
Hey, Steve I’ve been trying to get the emu to work on my Mac Plus, but to no avail. My Mac has a bad disk drive, and a disk icon with a question mark. When I try to boot from the 6.0.8.dsk, you see the icon change to a happy face, also see the track, and side numbers changing, then “idle” appears. But no boot. I’ve tried this with the other 800k or 400k .dsk images with the same results. Any ideas as to why no complete boot?
That’s hard to say without knowing the history of the machine – possibly it’s RAM-related? Send me an email or ask the Mac gurus as 68kmla.org for troubleshooting advice.
Ive had my Floppy Emu (Model B) for about a week now.
It is a MUST HAVE!
I previously had a MicroDrive, which was hard to put files on. Not with this! In disk emulation, all you have to do is drag the disk image to the folder. For HD, you have to open it in cider press. Still easier than the MD! And Micro SDs are EASY to find vs CF cards.
Its definitely faster than a regular old disk drive, but it is slower than a MicroDrive, which really doesn’t matter since coursing a 25 year old computer!
The only thing I wish it had was the ability to emulate the disk emulation and HD at the same time. I know, all you have to do is turn the computer off and on again, but still, it would then be perfect.
Instructions are a little unclear at a few spots, but after a day of trial and error, I finally figured it all out.
Overall, GREAT product!
Thanks, and let me know if there are specific sections of the instructions that need more fleshing out.
I know I probably shouldn’t post this on here and just email you, but its a question everyone might want to know the answer to.
When I plug the Floppy Emu into a 3.5 inch drive, my IIGS boots from the drive, NOT the Emu. This is when its on smart port mode. Even if I restart, it doesn’t pick up the HD, which boots if its directly plugged into the computer.
And by the way, looking in the Apple IIGS manual, it says the disk drive daisy chain should go 3.5 drive first, smart port(FEMU), and 5.25. If I wanted to use a 5.25 drive, would it still work fine if I plugged in a 5.25 drive, with the FEMU attached?
I might just be doing something wrong too.
Thanks!
*your using, not coursing
That’s right. Apple II systems can normally only boot from drive 1, not drive 2. When you have the Emu in Smartport mode and daisy-chained behind an Apple 3.5 drive, the Emu becomes slot 5, drive 2. You can use it as a data disk with that setup, but the IIGS won’t boot from it.
Ok, thanks! Thats what I thought, but figured Id ask.
I was wondering if the IIcx, since it has a DB-19, can handle the Floppy EMU?
Yes, please see section 7 in the manual. Any Apple computer with an external DB-19 or internal 20-pin floppy disk connector should work.
Steve
I am pretty well sold on your Floppy Emu.
Can I be very basic and ask: will it work with an Apple ][ Europlus? Mine has been sitting quietly watching 16 later Apples/Macs pass it by and it would be great to get it going again if only to allow another generation to play Lemonade Stand and learn Economics from it like my 38 year old did at age 2!
Secondly do I gather it will run on my Mac Plus too? If I can get it out of its carry bag and start it too!
Howabout LC475?
Is ther anyt limit to the size of SD card – I have a 128 GB SD card which I use for storing movies with a compact flash on a USB card reader so I can download stuff for my older Macs from my MBP….?
Other wise getting it and setting it up to amuse me after my upcoming hip op!
Colin
Please see the manual (above) for full details. Yes, those machines are all supported. The LC475 will require an internal connection to its logic board, as described in the manual. For SD cards, smaller capacity cards are preferred and usually give slightly better performance.
Thanks Steve,
Well Friday afternoon has come and I am delighted to say that both my screen and Apple ][ powered up first time after 30+ years!
I know from using them 18 years ago with a 2e I had and foolishly loaned to a neighbours boys – who trashed it – that at least one of the Disk ][ drives isnt set up right but with Floppy Emu I can work without.
It will be interesting to try Visicalc and Supercalc again.
Cleaning to do now….. 30+ year grime on the A2M2010P Green requires attention.
So My order is in the box
Thanks
Hello again,
I just bought a Macintosh IIcx, and thought I give my Model B a try. Floppy mode works no problem, but when in hard disk mode, I can’t boot since I have internal hard drive. How can I make the EMU bootable? This was (of course) never issue with my Mac Plus.
Thanks,
Kristian
Some Macintosh models like the IIcx lack support for HD20-type hard disks. See the “Macintosh Hard Disk” section above for the list of compatible Mac models.
Ah, missed that one, thank you Steve.
If you ever come up with a SCSI-type-thing-a-ma-jigg — I’ll buy it instantly!
K
http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=SCSI2SD
Interesting!
Hi again. Loving your Floppy Emu. However, I have hit a snag. Nothing wrong with the fantastic unit, more the machine I intend to use it with.
In short the only (safe-ish) way to use it in something like a Macintosh Colour Classic is to use it and try and peak at the LCD display, while the casing is off!!!
All that I’d need to fix this is a male to female Floppy ribbon cable (instead of the supplied female to female). Do you think it could be possible to make such a thing and maybe even add it as an option to buy one for us Colour Classic users? Or has someone else thought of this?
Thanks in advance.
Digikey sells 20-pin ribbon cables in many lengths and genders, although I’m not following how a different gender cable would be used. The supplied 20-pin cable (with the detachable 19-pin adapter) is the correct gender to fit the floppy connector on the Color Classic’s logic board. Since the CC doesn’t have an external DB-19 port, this is the only connection option for that machine.
I can only use the female internal floppy cable in the CC which really needs to be extended out. Since that goes deep inside the machine and to the edge connector. Meaning I had to use that cable inside the machine directly to the Emu since it wasn’t the correct gender (female cable supplied with the Emu and female from the edge connector). It’s hard to explain clearly but basically the only way I’d get it to work without an extra cable or gender changer is to plug tthe Emu directly into the cable that was plugged into the internal floppy drive, which gives little slack. That’s why a simple gender changer for either ribbon would work and would be simpler solution.
It just wasn’t a fun experience trying to read the display while barely a couple of inches way from a toasty death by CRT! xD
I might check Digikey out, hopefully postage won’t be too much of a problem. Just thought I’d suggest it anyway! Other Classic/Compact users probably wouldn’t have the problem being their floppy connector is on the mainboard.
The internal ribbon cable is designed to go directly from the computer’s logic board to the Emu. It’s not an extension cable for the pre-existing floppy cable, so there shouldn’t be any need for gender changers unless there’s something unique about the Color Classic that I’m not aware of. Here are some cables like you described, if you want to experiment:
https://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/cable-assemblies/rectangular-cable-assemblies/1573018?k=&pkeyword=&pv77=2384&pv77=2389&pv77=2426&pv77=2429&FV=1600022%2C1680002%2C117c0006%2Cfff40018%2Cfff8009a%2C700656&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=1000011&page=1&stock=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25
If you’re still stuck, please email me directly and I’ll do my best to help.
I just got my Floppy Emu rev. B – it’s great! I have a potentially stupid question, though. I’m using an Apple IIGS and I have four real drives – two 3.5’s and two 5.25’s. I understand this is normally the max for daisy chaining but the IIGS manual says you *can* daisy chain more drives, they’ll just appear in slot 2, which is the “overflow” slot.
Will this work in any configuration with the Floppy Emu? I briefly tried it last night and it didn’t seem to work, but I’m wondering if it just limits me to using one type of emulation.
Failing that, is there any way to remove one drive (so the Floppy Emu would be the fourth) but still be able to use all the emulation modes while in the daisy chain? Or can you only switch modes back and forth if you’re connected directly to the IIGS as the only drive?
The Floppy Emu can be daisy-chained or be directly connected to the IIGS as the only drive. If daisy chained, you need to observe the drive type ordering rules (described in the manual) as if Floppy Emu were a physical disk drive – 3.5 inch drives before smartport drives before 5.25 inch drives.
Hello, I have an original Macintosh 128k and I’d like to ask you a question: if I use my computer with the Floppy Emu, will I have to put a system diskette in the internal disk drive, or can I emulate having a system diskette plus a software disk, both mounted in the computer? That is, I’d like to know if I will really become “free” of having to use diskettes, or if I will still have to use a system disk always in the Mac internal disk drive. Other option would be to emulate a hard disk, containing both the operating system and all the softwares. But do you know if this original 128k Mac can understand a hard disk emulated by the Floppy Emu? Thanks.
You can boot a 128k from the Emu, but it can emulate only one drive at a time. If you want two, you’d have to use the internal floppy.
That’s right. You can also remove the emulated system disk after booting, and select a different software disk through the Emu’s menus, then the Mac will prompt you when you need to reinsert the original system disk. The Mac 128K doesn’t support the Floppy Emu’s hard disk mode: see “Macintosh Hard Disk” in the description above for the list of Mac models with the necessary hard disk support.
Ok, thanks for your answer!
FANTASTIC!! I just got mine and just loaded up Hard Hat Mack and Lemonade Stand!!
Thanks so much for your quick shipment and awesome product!!!
Hi, i am fixing an old Hunter machine that seems to use powerpc and MAC floppy with unknown programm. i would like to ditch out the floppy drive to gain robustness on this machine because the floppys keep on breaking and the programm is becoming very rare and hard to find.
Is there a way to know if your unit could work. it uses a 3.5 sony floppy MP-F17W-10 which is meant for macs.
thanks for any help.
I’ve never heard of a Hunter machine, sorry.
sorry, some explications are necessary
It is a car alignement machine, manufactured by Hunter. model is K111, it uses a strange powerpc inside the main tower of the machine or maybe an old mac, and uses raw software directly onto the floppy (maybe assembler)
I came to the conclusion that its mac based because of the floppy drive meant for mac’s.
thanks for any guidance to see if the sony floppy can be swaped over your unit, assuming i can read one of the disquette and make an image of it on the SD card.
machine image
http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt64/coalvillep1/1085.jpg
Hi! I’ve purchased a Floppy Emu Model B just before I found that the default firmware is for Apple II. But I only have a Macintosh Classic. Since I noticed that “use the Apple II firmware only when connected to an Apple II computer. If a Floppy Emu Model A board running the Apple II firmware is connected to a Mac or Lisa, it may cause damage”. Is it OK if I connect Model B running Apple II firmware to my Macintosh Classic for firmware updating? Thanks! 😊
Pat,
That Hunter machine uses standard MFM PC floppy drives. There are many floppy emulators out there that support those drives such as the HxC and Gotek clones.
Yuancun Zhao, that warning only applies to the Model A, which has been discontinued. You can connect the Model B to your Macintosh Classic without worries, and install the Mac-compatible firmware.
Hi, i know at least 2 persons who did try with the gotek and they gave up after 10-12 month worth of work. What could realy go wrong with that ? i have many floppy drive from the same era, only the Sony one works on this machine. could it be that the machine recognise the drive in some way ?
otherwise it completely refuses to work.
thanks,
Hello! I bought it some times ago and it is working great! But there is one point: I did not see new files on the SD card. I copy file to the card on my macbook (mac os x 10.11) but then I connected the emu to apple ii I did not see some of them. It is not depending of format. For example I can see one DSK file and did not see another DSK file. Also PO and IMAGE format. What can be wrong?
Disk image files are displayed in the LCD menu if they’re compatible with the currently selected emulation mode and disk size. For example, 3.5 inch disk images won’t be displayed if the Emu is in 5.25 inch disk mode. The disk image file must also be in a supported format, with the expected file size and signature bytes for that format.
Thank you Steve! It\’s clear! But also i could not see some files what was at the card already. I get the emu with sd card, with software collection.
Hi Roman, I sent you a follow-up email for further support.