Introducing the Floppy Emu Model C
Today I’m thrilled to announce the newest member of BMOW’s Floppy Emu disk emulator family – the Model C. Floppy Emu is a floppy and hard disk emulator for classic Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa computers. The new Model C introduces an eye-catching 1.3-inch 128×64 OLED display, with crisp text and amazing contrast. Fonts are more detailed, and the OLED shows eight lines of text for better context when scrolling through a long list of filenames. The new display is a real treat for the eyes.
The extra resolution of the OLED helps a lot. Text characters are 5×7, compared to 3×6 characters on the previous generation LCD. This provides a nice improvement in legibility.
The Model C also features a new push-pull style micro-SD card holder, for improved durability. Some past customers lobbied for the change to a push-pull vs push-push style, and after some experimentation I decided that I agreed. This is the same style of SD card holder found in most mobile phones today, and if you’re the sort of person who’s constantly inserting and removing the SD card then you’ll appreciate this change.
With the introduction of the Model C, Floppy Emu is also moving to a gloss piano black color scheme. It won’t impact the disk emulation, but it sure looks good.
The same great disk emulation features from earlier models are also supported in the Model C. It’s directly compatible with the entire Apple II line, emulating 5 1/4 inch disks, 3 1/2 inch disks, or Smartport hard disks all without the need for a separate adapter. Of course classic Macintosh and Lisa disk emulation is supported too. Model C reads and writes emulated 140K, 400K, 800K, or 1.4MB floppy disk images, or hard disk images up to 2GB, if supported by your Apple computer.
Features
- Apple II Floppy – 140K (5 1/4 inch) and 800K (3 1/2 inch) disks
- Apple II Hard Disk – Smartport disk volumes up to 32 MB
- Macintosh Floppy – 400K, 800K, and 1.4MB disks
- Macintosh Hard Disk – HD20-type disk volumes up to 2 GB
- Lisa Floppy – 400K and 800K disks, Lisa Office System and MacWorks
- See the compatibility table for more details
Model C Case
A new board requires a new case, so today I’m also announcing the Frosted Ice Acrylic Case for Model C. The cut-out surrounding the SD card has been enlarged, to make it easier to remove from the push-pull card holder. The opening in the top has also been repositioned and resized to fit the OLED, and there’s a subtle engraving surrounding it.
The new case is designed specifically for the Model C. If you need a case for the older Model A or B, I’ve still got that too.
All of this new hardware is available now on the Floppy Emu product page, or directly from the BMOW Store. Thank you for supporting retro computer designs!
Read 21 comments and join the conversation21 Comments so far
Leave a reply. For customer support issues, please use the Customer Support link instead of writing comments.
If we are able to solder are current owners able to upgrade their current units? If so, do you offer upgrade kits and/or instructions to the parts?
Congratulations!!!!! I’m one of the testers of the Model C for Steve. I’ve been using mine for a few months now, and it works great! The new OLED is extremely clear, and works great in the dark.
Steve,
This looks awesome!! This will make my seventh FloppyEMU I purchased. Can’t get enough of these since I saw one at the Vintage Computer Fair East about 7 years ago. 🙂
This is a great device again.
Thanks everyone! Regarding soldering, there’s no easy “upgrade” mod from the Model B, sorry. Model C is a new board with a new PCB layout and part footprints. The OLED also uses a top mount where Model B’s LCD uses a bottom mount, so there would be physical issues to resolve on top of the electrical differences. Send me an email message if you’re interested in the gory details.
Hi Steve,
I would be very interested in converting the LED display on my 2 other Floppy EMU’s to the newest OLED version. I would love the “gory details” on that if you have it… 🙂 I’m an experienced board designer and I’ve worked on surface mount designs (I have all the equipment) so maybe I can come up with a written instruction for others if they want to “chance it” themselves.
Thanks very much for making this design. Many of us love what you’ve done with the original design and see this as a substantial improvement. Keep ’em coming!
Best Regards, Bob
About gory details, I need to emphasize that Model C is a new board, with a new layout, and new components. Sorry, but there’s no practical way to “upgrade” a Model B, even for somebody with advanced soldering skills. If you’re keen for an OLED, consider selling your old board on eBay and upgrading to the newer one. With your own supply of parts and extensive cutting, patching, dead-bug soldering, and other butchery of a Model B board, you could connect an OLED, but it would still be in the wrong location and would never fit the Model B or C cases. It’s not something I want to encourage or will support, but EMAIL ME if you’re a masochist and determined to try it anyway. I’ve removed a couple of “me too” notes on this. Let’s keep the comments discussion here focused on the Model C.
Awesome! I’ve been thinking of getting a second floppyemu, and this looks like a great improvement. Have you considered offering rainbow ribbon cable instead of grey to jazz it up a bit? Rainbow cable looks great with old Apples.
Rainbow cables would be great, but I don’t know of any source of pre-made rainbow cables, and I don’t want to get into the cable making business. Know of any suppliers who offer them?
DigiKey?
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/assmann-wsw-components/H3DDH-2006M/H3DDH-2006M-ND/1218610
Did I guess the right cable?
They\’ll even custom make them for a one time $20 setup fee.
I got one from aliexpress, and there are suppliers on alibaba that will do bulk orders.
Ah, nice! Thanks for the DigiKey link.
I’m brave enough to try a conversion from model B to model C 😛
But there will be a (future) firmware update for a converted model B? Or after heavy changes the board will be a “real” model C?
My only gripe is I just bought a B!!
Hey Steve – any plans to revisit the Lisa firmware issues between the 2/5 and 2/10? Have to run some old firmware for things to work properly on a 2/5, and miss out on the convenience of consolidated firmware. I have one of each and am happy to beta test if you want to give it a go.
Hi,
Sorry to bother you with that. I bought a second hand Floppy Emu Model A (Board is rev 1.2 and SD card not microSD). When I connect to an APPLE IIe (DISK 2 interface card) with the 20pin flat cable, the FLOPPY EMU powers up (Apple II disk mode) and I can select a .dsk file. When I select the file, the display shows that track 00 is reading and the status led is flashing but nothing loads on my IIe. I can leave it forever, it keep saying track 00 read. I can click NEXT to return to the list of files.
If you can help me, that would be great.
thanks in advance. (A french follower)
Didier
Hi I have a model C, I want to use woz disks but it says not suppported, is there a firmware upgrade for woz disks like there is for models A and C? Or am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
The product page says that the Model C does support Woz images. I’d start off with updating the firmware to the latest/greatest.
I have the same problem with my Floppy Emu A (Latest firmware) . It won’t read more than Track 00. In my case Green led flashing but get frozen and can’t go back to menu…
DrakeP
Does the emulator itself have storage?
Hi, I have a Floppy Emu of type A. I would like to challenge the modification to C type. Can you tell me how I need to abuse myself?