• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

Apple III Floppy Emu

Huxley

Well-known member
Hi again @jajan547! I bought two of these Apple III-to-Floppy Emu adapters from you recently, and I have a couple questions. The adapters I received look great with their blue 3D-printed enclosures (see pic below), but they don't look like anything pictured in this thread and I can't find any "beginner friendly" instructions.

  1. Connecting the Floppy Emu to this adapter is easy, since the Emu already has its little ribbon cable attached. What cable should I buy to connect the larger port on the adapter to the floppy port of the Apple III? Do I just need a female-to-female 26-pin ribbon cable?
  2. Once I have the correct ribbon cable to go from this adapter to the Apple III, do I plug the cable into the external floppy port on the rear of the Apple III, or do I have to open the Apple III and connect the cable to the internal floppy port?
  3. There's no visible switch on this adapter. How do I set it so that the Floppy Emu will be a bootable drive for my Apple III?

Thanks for any guidance you can offer!

Huxley


IMG_8830.jpeg
 

jajan547

Well-known member
Hey there happy it arrived okay and I apologize for the confusion with using it I hope the following helps:

1. The cable you mentioned is what you would need to use (26PJN female to female).

2. Basically you plug it into the rear of the apple /// and the floppy emu goes into the smaller cable slot, so 26 pin to rear of apple ///. You can also choose to mount the cable internally but I wouldn't go about doing this as it seems too much of a hassle.

3. The Apple /// should recognize this as an external drive for example such as on an Apple II when using a disk ii you would do PR6 to use that drive.

If I was unable to adequately answer your questions more information can be found here.
 

Huxley

Well-known member
Hey there happy it arrived okay and I apologize for the confusion with using it I hope the following helps:

1. The cable you mentioned is what you would need to use (26PJN female to female).

2. Basically you plug it into the rear of the apple /// and the floppy emu goes into the smaller cable slot, so 26 pin to rear of apple ///. You can also choose to mount the cable internally but I wouldn't go about doing this as it seems too much of a hassle.

3. The Apple /// should recognize this as an external drive for example such as on an Apple II when using a disk ii you would do PR6 to use that drive.

If I was unable to adequately answer your questions more information can be found here.
This is helpful info, thank you! The one detail that I can't figure out from the Github page is this: if I connect the Floppy Emu (via the adapter) to the external floppy port on the Apple III, will I be able to boot the system from a bootable disk image on the FloppyEmu, or does booting require that the FloppyEmu be routed to the internal floppy port, thus replacing / taking the place of the internal floppy drive?

I hope my question makes sense!

Huxley
 

lisa2

Well-known member
Hey Huxley,
The adapter you have is not meant to allow you to boot an A3 from the external port.
I understand your confusion, this thread had started with a post from Zezba9000 who had adapted the FloppyEmu IIc converter to boot the A3 from the FloppyEmu, but morphed into a discussion about the fact that the A2 drives on the A3 are not fully supported due to the additional signals on the A3 drives.
The FloppyEmu does not support the extra disk change signals used in the A3, and thats what the adapter from jajan547 is all about. To boot the A3, you will still need to connect to the internal connector or use another device like FloppyEmu IIc converter.
Rick
 

Huxley

Well-known member
Hey Huxley,
The adapter you have is not meant to allow you to boot an A3 from the external port.
I understand your confusion, this thread had started with a post from Zezba9000 who had adapted the FloppyEmu IIc converter to boot the A3 from the FloppyEmu, but morphed into a discussion about the fact that the A2 drives on the A3 are not fully supported due to the additional signals on the A3 drives.
The FloppyEmu does not support the extra disk change signals used in the A3, and thats what the adapter from jajan547 is all about. To boot the A3, you will still need to connect to the internal connector or use another device like FloppyEmu IIc converter.
Rick
Ahh got it - thank you for clarifying! I'm happy to have the adapter regardless, but it's comforting to know what its capabilities and limitations are.

Appreciate the info!

Huxley
 
Top