749 Comments so far

1. 
   Rob Kouwenberg - April 25th, 2015 3:22 pm

   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+ !

2. 
   Steve Chamberlin - May 16th, 2015 2:45 pm

   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?

3. 
   Druaga - June 4th, 2015 2:47 pm

   The Floppy Emu works great!
   Started a YouTube series using it with a Mac 512k:
   https://youtu.be/PBz25fWz5ds

4. 
   Steve Chamberlin - June 10th, 2015 6:50 am

   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.

5. 
   Steve Hammond - July 16th, 2015 8:58 pm

   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

6. 
   Steve Chamberlin - July 17th, 2015 6:28 am

   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

7. 
   Steve Hammond - July 17th, 2015 8:31 am

   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)…

8. 
   Steve Hammond - July 17th, 2015 5:22 pm

   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 🙂

9. 
   Steve Chamberlin - July 17th, 2015 6:46 pm

   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/

10. 
    Steve Hammond - July 17th, 2015 7:14 pm

    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!).

11. 
    Steve Chamberlin - July 17th, 2015 8:01 pm

    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.

12. 
    Steve Hammond - July 18th, 2015 12:24 am

    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?

13. 
    Tim Voss - July 29th, 2015 4:33 pm

    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.

14. 
    Steve Chamberlin - July 30th, 2015 4:53 pm

    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.

15. 
    Chris M. - July 31st, 2015 8:54 am

    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.

16. 
    Eric - August 8th, 2015 8:09 am

    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?

17. 
    Steve Chamberlin - August 9th, 2015 6:28 am

    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.

18. 
    Steve Hammond - August 9th, 2015 9:20 am

    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.

19. 
    Jeff Tranter - September 4th, 2015 5:25 am

    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.

20. 
    Steve Chamberlin - September 4th, 2015 10:48 am

    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?

21. 
    Jeff Tranter - September 4th, 2015 10:56 am

    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.

22. 
    Steve Chamberlin - September 4th, 2015 12:00 pm

    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.

23. 
    Jeff Tranter - September 4th, 2015 12:48 pm

    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!

24. 
    Jeff Tranter - September 4th, 2015 1:22 pm

    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.

25. 
    Jeremiah - September 24th, 2015 7:58 pm

    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…

26. 
    FrankG - September 25th, 2015 4:58 am

    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.

27. 
    Steve Chamberlin - September 25th, 2015 6:52 am

    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.

28. 
    Roy Caratozzolo - September 26th, 2015 7:25 am

    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?

29. 
    Steve Chamberlin - September 26th, 2015 6:20 pm

    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?

30. 
    Roy Caratozzolo - September 26th, 2015 10:38 pm

    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?

31. 
    Steve Hammond - October 15th, 2015 12:19 pm

    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?

32. 
    Steve Chamberlin - October 15th, 2015 2:51 pm

    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.

33. 
    Dana - November 17th, 2015 6:05 pm

    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.

34. 
    Patrick - December 5th, 2015 11:09 am

    Is there anything like this that will run programs to my apple II+?

35. 
    Steve Chamberlin - December 5th, 2015 11:13 am

    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.

36. 
    Adam Goolevitch - December 12th, 2015 12:23 am

    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

37. 
    Steve - December 16th, 2015 5:34 am

    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?

38. 
    Steve Hammond - December 16th, 2015 6:48 am

    The two firmware (Mac/Lisa vs Apple II) are totally different and you need to reflash for each type of machine.

39. 
    Joe O - December 22nd, 2015 6:58 am

    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. 🙂

40. 
    kpw - January 8th, 2016 8:27 pm

    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.

41. 
    MIKE D - January 25th, 2016 8:19 pm

    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?

42. 
    Steve - January 26th, 2016 6:57 am

    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.

43. 
    Kristian Möller - January 27th, 2016 1:27 pm

    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!

44. 
    Steve Chamberlin - January 28th, 2016 7:57 pm

    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.

45. 
    Mike D - January 28th, 2016 8:11 pm

    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!

46. 
    Dave - January 31st, 2016 2:23 pm

    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?

47. 
    Steve Chamberlin - January 31st, 2016 6:02 pm

    I don’t, sorry. Can’t you use a standard USB floppy drive with the G4?

48. 
    Dave - February 1st, 2016 1:11 pm

    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!!

49. 
    Nick Tullar - February 2nd, 2016 10:12 am

    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.

50. 
    Joseph Oprysko - February 2nd, 2016 11:42 am

    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.

51. 
    Steve Chamberlin - February 2nd, 2016 4:47 pm

    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.

52. 
    Steve Chamberlin - February 10th, 2016 12:34 pm

    Apple II emulation of 3.5 inch disks is now also working on the Apple IIc+, with the newest firmware.

53. 
    jay - February 15th, 2016 1:00 pm

    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!

54. 
    Steve - February 15th, 2016 2:40 pm

    Hi Jay, sorry to hear about your trouble. I sent you a follow-up support by email.

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