749 Comments so far

1. 
   Waltermixxx - March 11th, 2016 9:29 pm

   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 🙂

2. 
   Steven F - April 18th, 2016 4:36 pm

   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.

3. 
   Steve Hammond - April 18th, 2016 5:51 pm

   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

4. 
   Steve - April 18th, 2016 6:55 pm

   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.

5. 
   Steve Hammond - April 19th, 2016 4:21 am

   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!

6. 
   Steve Hammond - April 25th, 2016 3:43 am

   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.

7. 
   Steve - April 25th, 2016 6:09 am

   Try DigiKey in their “rectangular cable assemblies” section. They have some 20-pin ribbon cables.

8. 
   Marty - May 8th, 2016 5:23 pm

   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.

9. 
   Steve - May 9th, 2016 6:24 am

   Yes, you can do an OS install onto a hard disk, using disk images of the Apple installer floppies.

10. 
    ictjohn1967(John) - May 11th, 2016 9:37 am

    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!

11. 
    Chris - May 12th, 2016 9:36 am

    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?

12. 
    CHRISTOPHE - May 18th, 2016 12:46 pm

    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.

13. 
    Steve - May 18th, 2016 4:50 pm

    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. 🙂

14. 
    Iakov - May 25th, 2016 6:36 am

    Going to buy an Aplle //e ) Do you have shipment to Russia ? Also, will it work with AppleII clones like Franklin Ace machines ?

15. 
    Steve - May 25th, 2016 6:44 am

    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.

16. 
    ictjohn1967 (John) - May 25th, 2016 6:53 am

    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!

17. 
    RubenA - May 25th, 2016 10:38 pm

    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?

18. 
    Steve - May 26th, 2016 6:49 am

    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.

19. 
    John - May 28th, 2016 2:48 am

    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!

20. 
    Steve - May 28th, 2016 5:34 am

    Thanks, and let me know if there are specific sections of the instructions that need more fleshing out.

21. 
    John - May 28th, 2016 7:44 am

    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

22. 
    Steve - May 28th, 2016 9:27 am

    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.

23. 
    Kristian Möller - May 31st, 2016 12:13 pm

    I was wondering if the IIcx, since it has a DB-19, can handle the Floppy EMU?

24. 
    Steve - May 31st, 2016 1:54 pm

    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.

25. 
    Colin Yarwood - June 2nd, 2016 6:29 am

    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

26. 
    Steve - June 2nd, 2016 8:24 am

    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.

27. 
    Colin Yarwood - June 3rd, 2016 6:51 am

    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

28. 
    Kristian Möller - June 26th, 2016 8:56 am

    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

29. 
    Steve - June 26th, 2016 5:41 pm

    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.

30. 
    Kristian Möller - June 27th, 2016 12:05 am

    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

31. 
    Chris - June 27th, 2016 5:47 am

    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.

32. 
    Steve - June 27th, 2016 6:45 am

    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.

33. 
    Chris - June 27th, 2016 11:56 am

    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.

34. 
    Steve - June 27th, 2016 12:25 pm

    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.

35. 
    Jeff - July 26th, 2016 1:30 pm

    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?

36. 
    Steve - July 26th, 2016 5:49 pm

    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.

37. 
    Vitor - July 27th, 2016 12:11 pm

    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.

38. 
    Steve - July 27th, 2016 2:35 pm

    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.

39. 
    Steve - July 27th, 2016 4:11 pm

    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.

40. 
    Ron V - September 8th, 2016 6:01 pm

    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!!!

41. 
    Pat - September 19th, 2016 6:43 am

    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.

42. 
    Steve - September 19th, 2016 7:47 am

    I’ve never heard of a Hunter machine, sorry.

43. 
    Pat - September 19th, 2016 8:10 am

    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

44. 
    Chris M. - September 24th, 2016 8:52 am

    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.

45. 
    Pat Allen - September 25th, 2016 3:07 pm

    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,

46. 
    Roman - September 28th, 2016 11:15 am

    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?

47. 
    Steve - September 28th, 2016 1:20 pm

    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.

48. 
    Roman - September 29th, 2016 9:14 am

    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.

49. 
    Steve - September 29th, 2016 11:54 am

    Hi Roman, I sent you a follow-up email for further support.

50. 
    Marty - September 30th, 2016 7:43 pm

    I’ve purchased a Floppy Emu Model B awhile back. I just got a chance and fired up the Apple ][. When I select Apple ][ from the menu then 5.25″ it lists no files in the directory listing.
    When I load the SD card on my laptop all the files in that same directory list just fine anyone have an idea what I’m doing wrong?

    Nice little device!

    Marty

51. 
    Steve - October 1st, 2016 6:12 am

    You’ll need to install the Apple II-compatible firmware for the Emu, if you haven’t already. 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. Please see the manual for details.

52. 
    John - October 20th, 2016 4:10 pm

    How can I identify my Floppy emulator as a model a or b?

    Thanks,
    John

53. 
    Steve - October 20th, 2016 6:19 pm

    Model B uses micro-SD cards and says “Model B” on the bottom of the board.

54. 
    Ryan - October 20th, 2016 7:52 pm

    Is there any way of operating the unit wirelessly or via gui in the same way as “UNISDISK Air”?

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