749 Comments so far

1. 
   Marcin - February 27th, 2018 1:16 am

   Michael, if you have original 512k Mac it should work but if I remember correctly original one has no support for 800k drive so you can only use single density 400k so try by using MFS formatted images first. Have you choosen emu mode correctly? My 512k Mac works flawlessly with Floppy Emu.

2. 
   Steve - February 27th, 2018 7:24 am

   @Michael, Marcin is correct about the Mac 512K. Please send me full details via the Contact page if you’re still having troubles, and I’ll be glad to help.

3. 
   Anonymous - February 27th, 2018 9:03 am

   It’s a must-have for owners of computers this item can be connected to. Thank you very much for developing this piece of hardware.
   Me, using it on an Apple IIgs to moount floppy images created some years ago off of my 5.25″ 8-bit and 3.5″ 16-bit collection.

   Also working with the Smartport functionality found in the Floppy Emu, using disk images created off of Apple II CD ROMs found in my collection. These CD ROMs often came with a number of partitions (up to 6 partitions usually), like “Generous Efforts of Many” and “Golden Orchard”. I ended up creating images of each partition separately to add it as smart|x].po…

   Found a hint over at Bondihacks just to rename the .hdv extension to .po to get it recogniced by Floppy Emu. 😉

   Regarding CD ROM use with Floppy Emu, it’s like you’ve added a SCSI CD ROM or Zip Drive to your computer.
   Would like to see removable smartport media support mimicking a CD ROM or Zip Drive by the FloppyEmu, but as a non-hardware developer, I’ve no idea if it is possible at all. Keep up the good work on Floppy Emu!

4. 
   Michael - February 27th, 2018 1:25 pm

   Thanks to you both, Steve and Marcin for such a quick response. I know and understand the original Mac 512k’s only supported 400k disks. Wich it will not load. My goal was to play the original Dark Castle game on this very same machine and relive my childhood. I will get back on it this weekend and send full details. Thanks again for the response and support!

5. 
   Marcin - February 27th, 2018 1:37 pm

   Michael, it’s possible. You need emulator like vmac, and you need to convert image from HFS to MFS as disk image. If it sounds to complicated I may try tommorow.

6. 
   Marcin - February 28th, 2018 12:29 am

   Michael, I have checked – you need to find 2x400k distribution of Dark Castle for Macintosh 512k, the original one was 800k floppy and it won’t work on 512k and even 512kE due to both – 800k floppy and RAM amount. If I will find it, Iwill ping you here. Cheers.

7. 
   Steve - March 27th, 2018 6:56 am

   Yes we’ve been through several variations of case colors and designs! Shipping terms are explained on the store page. For this package I’d guess delivery sometime between March 31 and April 3.

8. 
   Xavier - April 3rd, 2018 12:32 pm

   Thanks !
   I’m in France and got my Disk Emu in 4 days…
   The Disk Emu is great, straight forward and practical ! I only wish the cable ribbon connected to the Disk II Interface would be facing the other side of the connecter (not to be stuck between card and connector) like it is for regular drives. But there’s maybe a good reason why it is this way …

   Now of course all this would even get better with a Liron disk controller !!!
   Any release date in mind ?

   Also what is the biggest SD Card capacity usable ?

   Many thanks again for this great product and the very fast expedition !
   Xavier

9. 
   Walter - April 3rd, 2018 6:31 pm

   Thanks, Steve! Shipping was super fast and I already have it with me! Will still have to wait until I return home to test it, but it’s with me 😀

10. 
    Rubin Binder - May 6th, 2018 5:59 am

    I bought the Floppy Emu after fighting with old noisy SCSI drives and failing 800MB floppies, but trouble no more! I can enjoy my retro Mac Plus reliably in complete in silence. Emulating the HD20 hard drive emulation is fantastic and is very quick, almost as fast as a hard drive.

    What a great job on this product, working perfectly so far.

    I’m now in the middle of buying an Apple IIe so I can play with that using my Floppy Emu.

11. 
    Walter - May 6th, 2018 6:37 am

    Hi Steve, after doing firmware update I guess it-s ok to delete the files from the root, right?
    Also, if you want to switch computer models you have to re-flash every time?

    Thanks!

12. 
    Steve - May 6th, 2018 11:40 am

    Yes, that’s correct.

13. 
    3D Printing Pen - May 8th, 2018 2:59 pm

    So awesome. Love it!

14. 
    Steve - May 9th, 2018 6:55 pm

    It sounds like maybe the top panel is bowed – is the board seated fully and flat on the bottom? If the side panel is too loose when the screw is untightened, try adding a piece of tape inside the case to hold the right side piece to the front or back piece. If you’re still having trouble or want to return the case, please send me a note at http://www.bigmessowires.com/contact/

15. 
    Tore - May 9th, 2018 10:57 pm

    Thanks, Steve.

    I was thinking about securing everything with superglue, but I need to get everything working reliably first.
    I’ll check for signs of warping, and do another assembly to see if I made any mistakes.

16. 
    groinksan - May 13th, 2018 5:07 pm

    Steve,

    I just updated the CPLD and AVR software on my Rev B. One suggestion: in the text file that comes along with the other two files, you may want to add a “what happens after the update” list, such as the LCD brightness resetting to default. It has been awhile since I had to adjust mine, so it took me a bit to dig through the PDF and find the procedure. Seeing you already have the text file in the archive, might as well put it in there. Not sure if the disk mode changes as well, but if it does reset after an update, I’d add that as well.

17. 
    Tom - May 21st, 2018 7:47 am

    I’ve recently acquired a Macintosh Plus w/o an internal floppy drive. It’s been difficult to find an original Sony MP-F51W-23 800K floppy drive, while the Sony MP-F75W-01G 1.44MB models are much easier (and cheaper) to come by.

    Is anywhere aware of whether the 1.44MB model will work in the Mac Plus? I know the Plus would still only be able to use 800K floppys, but that’s quite alright. Any info is much appreciated.

18. 
    Steve - May 21st, 2018 9:17 am

    Not sure – I think it might work for 800K disks. Try asking on 68kmla.org, somebody there has probably tried it before.

19. 
    Marcin Rusinowski - May 21st, 2018 9:21 am

    there was ROM update for Macintosh Plus to work with Superdrive, otherwise it won’t work even on external drive with HD floppies. So 400/800k will work only. Same for 512k – only enhenced (so probably ‘e’ education) models will work with 800k floppies, as ROM needs to include procedures for working with another density/capacity drives.

20. 
    Tore - May 24th, 2018 2:46 am

    Hi.
    Just a follow up to my earlier posts about problems with the acrylic case.

    After careful reassembly, it now seems to work as it should, i.e. the issue was –> me <–
    (Not sure what I did differently this time around, though)

    Anyway, thanks to Steve for his support emails.

21. 
    Mike Greiner - May 27th, 2018 8:47 pm

    Enjoying the Floppy Emu so far.

    The only problem I’m having is with the system disks in the vintage software collection. They won’t mount on my Macintosh Plus and I get “FATAL ERROR SD read error” every time I try. Other disks mount fine.

    I tried the disk images from the Mini vMac site and got the same results.

22. 
    Superjer2000 - May 30th, 2018 7:50 pm

    Are there any issues with updating the firmware on a regular basis to switch between Mac and Apple II? If there is a finite number of update cycles the firmware memory can tolerate or if there is risk in failed updates bricking the unit, I am wondering if it would be better to have two separate emus. Have any started to have trouble taking firmware updates after a number of cycles.

23. 
    Steve - May 31st, 2018 7:56 am

    I wouldn’t worry. There’s no risk of bricking, as the firmware bootloader is in a protected memory region. The firmware memory is rated for a minimum of 10000 erase cycles, so you’re very unlikely to reach that in the device’s lifetime (or your lifetime). But you might be interested in this: http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2010/05/25/prototype-flash_destroyer/

24. 
    Raycho - June 4th, 2018 11:07 am

    ClipCopyPlus you can find it in this image under Finder.Extras http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/files/System_Addons.zip

25. 
    Claudio - June 7th, 2018 12:34 am

    Hi Steve,
    I received the Floppy emu B & the Vintage Apple Software Collection SD Card on May 28 (3 weeks after my order).
    I tested the device on a Mac Se, Mac SE30, and an Apple IIGS using the floppy mode. Everything is all right.
    I am trying the Hard disk mode in a few days & hope it will be ok, too.
    Once again thanks for your device.
    Claudio

26. 
    Sean's Retroverse - June 8th, 2018 6:37 pm

    I got the Floppy Emu, and had trouble with many games images downloaded off the Internet not working with the Apple IIe. The trouble was not just images I had, but also the included Up n Down image included on the SD card of Apple software. What I found out was that I had plugged the floppy controller into slot 7. Apparently, the floppy controller needs to be plugged into slot 6 in order to work correctly. I wanted to share this here, in case anyone else runs into a similar issue.

    Being new to Apple II collecting, this took me a little time to troubleshoot. Hopefully this info can help other out. 🙂 Happy gaming!

27. 
    dk3406 - June 9th, 2018 6:58 am

    Yes, at its time it was known that the 5 1/4″ usually belongs to Slot 6, and the 3,5″ belongs to Slot 5. Apparently, the controller cards could be technically plugged into *any* slot, but works best with these numbers given.

28. 
    Charlie Ungashick - July 5th, 2018 2:45 pm

    Anyone tried using the model B with a 655-0101 controller? My IIe has a DuoDisk that doesn’t seem to work anymore. When I connect the Floopy EMO to my I/O controller card (via the 19pin adapter), it gets power just fine, but doesn’t let me boot to any of the media on the SD card. Thanks!

29. 
    Jeff - August 1st, 2018 12:45 pm

    My first Mac (512K) got the MacPlus upgrade way back when, and the old beast still works. I have old single density diskettes that it can read and write, but no way to transfer their contents over to my Mac Mini that has a Basilisk II emulator running System 8. Am I reading correctly that with your Floppy Emu Deluxe Bundle, I can plug it into the external floppy port on my MacPlus and copy diskettes from the internal disk to the SD card on the Floppy Emu, then plug that into my Mac Mini and have the Basilisk emulation of System 8 read it?

30. 
    Steve - August 1st, 2018 2:39 pm

    Yes, that’s it.

31. 
    Steve - August 22nd, 2018 10:00 am

    Please use the “contact” link at upper-right for any post-sale support needs, if you have specific customer support problems. The web page comments aren’t monitored regularly and are more intended for general-interest feature-related inquiries.

32. 
    Mikol - October 8th, 2018 6:27 am

    I got my Floppy Emu a few days ago and it’s pretty cool but seems to have a weird (at least to me) problem. After a few minutes of running, the display gets all crazy. Garbled display, all black then all blank. Anything that causes it to re-draw the screen, like ejecting a floppy image, makes it look good again but it quickly messes up again.

    It’s actually working fine all this time but the more messed up the display gets, the harder it becomes to use.

    It seems to work fine at first but as it warms up, it gets worse.

    Weirdly, it looks like it works perfectly when plugged into an internal port but goes mental when plugged into the external.

    Has anyone seen something like this?

33. 
    Steve - October 8th, 2018 1:40 pm

    Yes, this sounds like the LCD mount may be loose, causing erratic behavior. Please see section 3.3 of the instruction manual for some tips that should help. I’ve replied directly to your email, if you need more help.

34. 
    Jeremy - October 9th, 2018 3:38 am

    I’ve got the same garbled screen problem. I’ve also been getting SD card read errors every so often. I’ll try the mounting tips in the manual as and report back.

35. 
    Roy Caratozzolo - October 30th, 2018 4:12 pm

    I busted out my model A the other day and got my mac plus (mentioned earlier in this page) back up and running. The CMS hard drive stopped working (RIP) so the EMU has become a Hard Drive Emulator only for the Plus. The thing is, no matter what I do, I can only get it to boot from a 30 MB HD20 image. When I make a large 2GB image and copy the contents of the computer to it, the mac will not see it. Is there something I need to “bless” it? In theory this should work…..

36. 
    Roy Caratozzolo - October 31st, 2018 4:53 am

    update (if anyone cares!), I discovered that app vMac and \”booted\” my 30mb disk image on my real mac, mounted my 2GB disk image, renamed it to the same disk name that my 30mb drive is called and copied the files in vmac. the 2GB dsk file booted! It seems that using HFV explorer to copy system files does not bring over all that the plus needs to boot I guess. Keeping the files in Mac os does the trick!

37. 
    Francis - November 8th, 2018 3:44 pm

    De ar sirs, do you deliver it in Brasil? Thanks

38. 
    Steve - November 9th, 2018 10:28 am

    Yes, there are many Floppy Emu customers in Brazil. International shipments are sent by USPS First Class Package International service. However, typical shipping times to Brazil are very slow – as long as two or three months. If you need it faster, you may wish to use a reshipping service such as reship.com.

39. 
    James Wages - November 12th, 2018 5:51 pm

    I downloaded the ‘femu-instructions.pdf’ above and read the ‘Contrast Fluctuations, Garbage on Screen, Missing Lines, or Blank Screen’ instructions and made absolutely sure those 4 metal tabs were locked-in and positioned correctly, but I still have garbage on my screen most of the time (not all, but most of the time) and sometimes the screen just goes blank. The root problem seems to be the design in that those soldered contact points aren’t making good contact with the PCB pads. If they were making great contact, I wouldn’t have these screen issues. Any advice on how to solve this problem once and for all? (Fiddling with those 4 tabs doesn’t work for me.) Thanks.

40. 
    Steve - November 13th, 2018 7:43 am

    If it’s not working correctly and none of the suggested remedies help, please use the “Contact” link above to get in touch and request a warranty replacement.

41. 
    James Wages - November 13th, 2018 3:02 pm

    I know, but returning it would cost me 2-way international shipping which I am desperately trying to avoid. Because you have a dedicated page in the FloppyEMU manual that talks about the problem with clear photos, it’s rather obvious the problem affects more than just a few select people. As such, by posting here, I was hoping that other users of the product might have come up with a DIY repair solution that I could try. If you have a potential solution I could try myself, Steve, I look forward to hearing it. If not, I’m open to hearing suggestions from other users of the FloppyEMU. Thanks!

42. 
    Mikol - November 14th, 2018 7:12 am

    I had problems with mine as documented above and a replacement was sent out that works well.
    After reading the most recent comments I went back to my old display to have another look.

    Under the microscope it looked like some of the solder joints that connect the headers to the display board might have cracked a little.

    I touched them up with the iron and a little extra solder. I then put it back together and tested it out for a couple of hours.

    So far, so good. Before it would sketch out after 5 or 10 minutes.

    It might be a coincidence but….????

43. 
    James Wages - November 14th, 2018 3:26 pm

    Thank you for sharing your experience, Mikol. I had thought about refreshing the solder myself, but I didn’t want to accidentally kill the screen entirely by doing that. Your experience indicates that it actually may improve or completely fix the situation. I’ll give that a try. It would be much cheaper for me to do that than pay for two-way international shipping.

44. 
    Steve - November 14th, 2018 4:24 pm

    Customers aren’t responsible for shipping costs for warranty repairs, and for hardware that’s no longer under warranty, replacement LCDs can be found on eBay for a few dollars. Each LCD is inspected and hand-adjusted prior to sale. The sensitive spot is the pressure-fit connector between the LCD module and the square red board. It has 8 tiny pins that flex slightly as they’re pushed against the contacts on the red board. If any pins are misaligned or are taller than others, it can cause intermittent display errors or a blank display. Tightening the four metal tabs puts more pressure on the pins and helps get a more reliable contact.

45. 
    James Wages - November 27th, 2018 4:36 pm

    Steve and fellow FloppyEMU lovers! I am pleased to report that after applying fresh solder to the PCB pads that drive the LCD, ensuring to make each new solder blob a tad taller than the stock solder blobs, my FloppyEMU display is now perfect. Sadly, my fix wasn’t in time for my new video where I show off the FloppyEMU a little bit, but at least the display problem is fixed now. I hope this advice can help other FloppyEMU users in my shoes. BTW, you can see the FloppyEMU at about the midway point in my video here: https://youtu.be/hiN7mP9iQxA?t=1581

46. 
    Steve - November 27th, 2018 6:19 pm

    Cool, thanks for the tip!

47. 
    Walter - November 28th, 2018 7:12 am

    Steve, skund like great advice, mine does that too. Could you give a little more detail on how/where to add more soler?

48. 
    Mikol - November 28th, 2018 9:11 am

    Very cool,

    that was the next thing I was going to try but haven’t done it yet as it’s been working very well lately.

    And yeah, these are all over eBay for almost nothing. I didn’t realise that they we so common. Good to know for future. I just searched for Nokia LCD and a bunch popped up.

    Again, thanks for building this, I love it.

49. 
    James Wages - November 28th, 2018 4:43 pm

    Walter, Mikol (and everyone else with the LCD problem),

    Scroll up on this page and click the “PDF” text link to the right of “Instruction Manual” in the Documentation box, then scroll to page 6 (which sadly has no page numbers) and look for “Contrast Fluctuations, Garbage on Screen…” That shows you the LCD module and how the 4 little tabs should look on back. That module connects to the main PCB with 2 connectors and is easily removed.

    To apply fresh solder, you will need needle-nose pliers to bend those 4 metal tabs you see in the photo in the Instruction Manual in such a way that you can pull off the LCD from that little PCB. It will then be obvious where the PCB pads are that you need to resolder. Before you resolder, obviously, you need a copper desoldering wick to remove the factory solder, then apply fresh solder in the shape of a little mountain on each pad. I suggest using very thin solder (most solder is a bit too thick, and you might apply too much using thick solder).

    I took before/after photos: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0wGFssfGGrdABZ

50. 
    Mike - December 1st, 2018 10:59 am

    Is there a reason why these things are up over 100 bucks now? I was thinking about getting a 2nd one until I saw the price and said nope.

51. 
    Steve - December 1st, 2018 11:36 am

    I’m sorry you don’t find it’s a good value. The price of the Model B hasn’t increased and is the same as it’s always been, and there’s currently a Get 10 Give 10 promotion on the Deluxe Bundle – see the front page for details. In short, the hardware is priced at where it’s worth my while to continue making and supporting it. As you found with your Mac Portable RAM product, these niche designs require major time and effort.

52. 
    AL - December 17th, 2018 6:28 am

    In answer to Mike,
    I bought the whole kit and found it well worth it given what each of these programs that are loaded were charged for back in the day.
    Then have the ability to store more? Naa, well worth the money to me.

    Steve,

    I apologize if the answer is somewhere in the docs, I just haven’t find it.
    Is it possible to do a simple a copy of the micro-sd to archive?

    Thanks

53. 
    Steve - December 17th, 2018 7:26 am

    You can copy the the Vintage Software Collection SD card on any modern PC, Mac, or Linux computer with an SD slot. It’s just a standard Windows-formatted (FAT32) volume.

54. 
    James Wages - December 19th, 2018 4:08 pm

    @rami shaked, “nothing on the display” sounds like my problem. The backlight worked great, but the LCD was glitchy and sometimes displayed nothing at all. Fixing the little metal mounts as directed in the documentation did NOT solve my problem, but applying fresh solder did (see my earlier post about that). As to buttons not working, that too is covered in the documentation, specifically the button in the lower right corner. Loosening the nut isn’t ideal, so what I did was take a box cutter (razor blade knife) and cut out a little of the part of the transparent button extended piece that goes over the button in the lower right, that worked great to solve the problems I was having on that button, so it might help you as well.

55. 
    rami shaked - December 20th, 2018 1:52 am

    James thanks,
    i’m not sure that the buutons are not working because i cant see anything on the screen, so i’ll wait to solve the presentation problem first.
    i’m not a soldering man so i’m afraid to mess it, i’ll wait for Steve response (i emailed him with a movie and hope he will find a way to helkp me).
    right now most of the time it’s not working, from time to time it’s shows the text and after one or two boots it’s gonbe again.

Leave a reply. For customer support issues, please use the Customer Support link instead of writing comments.