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Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation

Date 2015-07-03 15:54 -0400
From Gary Gray <vengefultacos@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.sys.apple2
Subject Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation
References <4e0d959b-d2c4-4b49-8451-a68bc9bda90a@googlegroups.com> <D1BB5603.1142A%hughhood@earthlink.net>
Message-ID <PLOdnd6oubLldQvInZ2dnUU7-IGdnZ2d@giganews.com> (permalink)

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I got mine a few days ago, and attached it to my original //c. I haven't 
had too much time to play with it yet. But, here are my quick overall 
impressions, compared to my UNISDISK 
(http://tulip-house.ddo.jp/DIGITAL/UNISDISK/english.html) which I have 
attached to a //c+ (and, to a lesser extent, the CFFA 3000s I have in my 
IIgs and IIe).

I've mainly used it in smartport mode. Trying to boot 5.25" DSK images 
didn't work, as Steve's web site indicated. I'd need his (unreleased as 
of yet) plug adapter to get that to work. Definitely would be nice to be 
able to play old floppy-based games. I didn't try 800k images.

For the "hard disk" smartport mode: On the plus side: you don't have to 
select a smartdisk image each time you boot. Once it's in smartport 
mode, it remembers that setting. It boots right into the smartport hard 
disk image. On the downside, it looks like the filenames for the 
smartport devices are hard coded (i.e. you must have the first smartport 
disk image named SMART0.2MG (or .PO or .HDV). The UNISDISK lets you get 
to choose your smartport disk images (although not on the fly, I believe 
you have to reboot to have it take effect). However, I haven't found 
myself swapping the hard disk images that much on the UNISDISK, so this 
isn't huge.

The //c recognizes two smartport hard disks (even though I have four on 
disk). I think this is a limitation of the //c.

One odd issue I've encountered: after initial power on,  //c only sees 
the first smartport drive. It recognizes both drives after reboot it. 
Not sure why this is... However, it seems simple enough just to reboot 
the IIc after power on (assuming you even need the second disk).

I believe Steve says that the Floppyemu should be daisy-chainable off of 
other drives. I tried this by hooking it up to my Unidisk, but it fails 
to boot, and the //c gives me a "Check Drive" message. I suspect this 
might be a power issue (the //c, the Unidisk, and the Floppyemu are just 
too much for the //c power supply to handle), rather than a problem with 
the Floppyemu. I bought a modern replacement power supply for my //c, 
but that seems incapable of powering the //c with the Unidisk attached. 
It works fine for the IIc alone (or even for the IIc + Floppyemu). Maybe 
I'll try hooking up the external 5-1/4" floppy I have and see if that 
can daisy chain with it. The UNISDISk specifically says it cannot be 
daisychained (at least I think I read that).

As for speed... I haven't benchmarked it or anything, but it seems nice 
and fast. I generally haven't noticed much of a delay from disk 
operations. I think it and the UNISDISK both lag a bit behind the CFFA 
3000 I have, but this is just a subjective feeling. I also feel the 
speed issue is a little moot... it's certainly faster than real floppies.

The display on the Floppyemu is larger and is easier to read thanks to 
its bright backlight. The UNISDISK display is rather small and hard to 
read. That's somewhat moot, with the ability to use a Flashair card and 
use a web browser to select disk images and change the emulation mode 
between hard disk and floppies.

Neither the UNISDISK nor the Floppyemu can do both floppy and hard disk 
emulation at the same time. The CFFA 3000 can, as long as you leave slot 
6 on your system empty.

The upshot is that my 31-year old //c finally has mass storage attached 
to it, so that's a huge win :). I also like that it frees it from the 
mechanical drives, whose days are more numbered than the rest of the 
machine, I'm sure.

I also appreciate that Floppyemu comes with a real and sturdy 19pin 
adapter. The plug on the UNISDISK is made using pins pushed through a 
circuit board. That makes me wince when I detach it. I can understand 
why the UNIDISK creator went that route: 19-pin plugs are very rare... 
not something you can easily source.

The final clincher is that you can get the Floppyemu right now. 
Unfortunately, the UNISDISK isn't available at the moment due to its 
creator's health issues.

Oh, and if you buy the Floppyemu, I strongly suggest buying the 
enclosure too. One thing I worry about with the UNISDISK is that it's 
exposed, and stray static charges could zap the thing while I am poking 
at its buttons. Or my idiot cat could jump on it. Plus the fragile LCD 
is also exposed. Floppyemu's enclosure eliminates those worries. Plus, 
The case is freakin' gorgeous. It's laser cut acrylic, giving the unit a 
real professional polish that a bare circuitboard doesn't match. The 
only downside I can say about the case is that it makes me wish the 
Floppyemu had more blingy flashing lights to show off ;)

TLDR version: strong recommendation to buy if you have a //c or //c+. I 
still prefer the CFFA 3000 in a IIgs or IIe, unless I also had a need 
for emulating Mac floppy disks as well.

On 07/02/2015 09:56 PM, Hugh Hood wrote:
>
> <http://www.bigmessowires.com/category/macintosh-floppy-emu/>
>
> Has anyone yet benchmarked the read/write times for the FloppyEmu when used
> with an Apple IIc, IIc+, or IIGS? I would imagine that the SmartPort
> interface sets the throughput ceiling, but it would be nice if overall
> performance for the device at least came close to touching that ceiling.
>
> Like many here, I had been hoping for Cédric's SPVHD to make it to market,
> but this product, particularly with the case and extension cable, looks like
> it has potential, particularly when used with a IIc/IIc+.
>
> There is one thing that I do wish Steve would change -- allow selection of a
> default image that would 'stick' after power down. I'd like to hook it up to
> a IIc+ with a 32MB boot image on the SD card and not have to select anything
> (unless I wanted to change the image, of course).
>
> If you've got a FloppyEmu, please share your impressions. Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hugh Hood
>
>
>
>
> in article 4e0d959b-d2c4-4b49-8451-a68bc9bda90a@googlegroups.com, pitz at
> pitz.wong@gmail.com wrote on 4/6/15 2:56 PM:
>
>> Good news for those following the FloppyEmu device.  Steve has finally got
>> ProDos 800K disk emulation going, and it's just a firmware update for those
>> who already have used it for their older Macs.
>>
>> http://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/04/01/apple-ii-800k-3-5-disk-emulation/
>>
>> Support for 5.25" disk emulation and SmartPort block devices are also already
>> in the works.
>>
>> /pitz
>

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Thread

FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation pitz <pitz.wong@gmail.com> - 2015-04-06 12:56 -0700
  Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation "Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net> - 2015-04-06 17:55 -0400
  Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Hugh Hood <hughhood@earthlink.net> - 2015-07-02 20:56 -0500
    Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steven Hirsch <snhirsch@gmail.com> - 2015-07-03 09:17 -0400
    Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Gary Gray <vengefultacos@gmail.com> - 2015-07-03 15:54 -0400
      Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Hugh Hood <hughhood@earthlink.net> - 2015-07-04 11:01 -0500
        Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Gary Gray <vengefultacos@gmail.com> - 2015-07-04 17:25 -0400
          Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-13 14:16 -0700
            Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation TheJ <thej@shaw.ca> - 2015-07-13 22:36 +0000
    Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 17:06 -0700
      Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Hugh Hood <hughhood@earthlink.net> - 2015-07-07 09:51 -0500
        Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2015-07-07 15:32 -0500
        Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-07 16:45 -0700
          Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation roughana <andrew.roughan@writeme.com> - 2015-07-07 18:49 -0700
            Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation "Christopher G. Mason" <cgm1@my-deja.com> - 2015-07-07 23:19 -0400
            Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 10:17 -0700
              Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steven Hirsch <snhirsch@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 21:53 -0400
                Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 20:29 -0700
                Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation RJ <moddkid@gmail.com> - 2015-07-20 11:31 +0000
                Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-20 07:20 -0700
                Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-20 09:26 -0700
                Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation RJ <moddkid@gmail.com> - 2015-07-21 11:46 +0000
                Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Steve Chamberlin <steve.chamberlin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-21 08:36 -0700
          Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation "Christopher G. Mason" <cgm1@my-deja.com> - 2015-07-07 23:16 -0400
            Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation mdj <mdj.mdj@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 05:43 -0700
        Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation TheJ <thej@shaw.ca> - 2015-07-08 15:57 +0000
        Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Sean Fahey <a2fan@hotmail.com> - 2015-07-08 09:12 -0700
          Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Hugh Hood <hughhood@earthlink.net> - 2015-07-09 09:00 -0500
    Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation Warren Ernst <wernst@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 10:34 -0700
      Re: FloppyEmu now supports 800K disk emulation TheJ <thej@shaw.ca> - 2015-07-08 17:56 +0000

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