Kay Koba's Flippy Floppy REVIEW

[@WelcomeToMarkintosh]

Kay is awesome! Love Frank's panel as well. We live in a great time where passionate members of this community can contribute great products and ideas to make our Vintage Mac experiences even more enjoyable! Thank you for the fantastic video, James!

[@hellion9547]

You deserve so many more subscribers. I hope you get them eventually.

[@JDW-]

Thank you for your kind words. Social Blade projects this channel will hit the 10,000 subscriber point in March 2025, and hit 22k subscribers in 2029. Unless something major happens, that's probably accurate. The only thing they are way off about is monthly earnings from KZbin. I get nothing from KZbin because I deliberately keep Ads switched off. Ads wouldn't earn but pennies, so I decided to keep viewing experience great by preventing Ads from displaying. Even so, my channel has never been about boosting my subscriber count. I just enjoy making videos about interesting things that stand out to me. I'm very thankful so many of you appreciate the content I create. Best wishes!

[@insanelydigitalvids]

I cannot image any other community that would be yelling "COOL!!" at the KZbin screen, but the Vintage Mac community was leaping up and down watching this one! Heartfelt thanks to Kay and Frank. Amazing work. Great video JDW (as always).

[@ActionRetro]

This is awesome!! Just ordered one!

[@JK-mo2ov]

What a special machine made possible by some special people. I enjoy watching these classic Mac videos.

[@HikikomoriDev]

I like these machines, they where quite small and portable. Probably among the most portable CRT machines.

[@dcarlin3]

Great video! Modern hardware add-ons are my favorite part of this hobby.

[@TheBasementChannel]

Always enjoy your clear and concise instructional videos. Well filmed and great content.

[@JDW-]

Thank you!

[@philippeastier7657]

Great work as usual. :) Two questions on Kay's kit : using a DB connector would have made it look more like a regular port. I'm surprised he chose a ribbon-cable connector. Looks professional anyways ! :) The other little comment is that if the LEDs had been slightly higher, they could have gone through the panel. I understand the light still show up enough. Anyways... I'm really picky there, the idea, realisation, and quality is very high ! Keep up the amazing work. and thanks again to Kay for yet another useful hack !! :) (and to Frank as well)

[@JDW-]

Thank you for the feedback, Philippe. Kay Koba designed the Flippy Floppy, so I cannot speak for him. I can only guess that he deliberately avoided a DB25 connector for two reasons (again, I have no idea, this is just a guess): (1) All other connectors are soldered to a PCB and are therefore strong against the force you apply when attaching a big connector like a DB25, so it could be that a DB25 affixed only to a thin piece of plastic like the back panel would not have provided sufficient strength over time to keep that connector in place; whereas the smaller connector for the ribbon cable of the FloppyEMU would experience less pressure on it and therefore will likely prove to be resilient over the years. And (2), I suspect Kay wanted to make it only compatible with the FloppyEMU and not a real floppy drive for some reason. I am taking a guess about that only because Kay talks about the LENGTH OF WIRES in his write-up, and he said he didn't have any issues with the ribbon cable extension used, but the length is of course a concern. So it could be that Kay might have tested a real floppy drive initially and found issues with that, prompting him to go with a FEMU only solution. Or perhaps everything is tied to what I said in reason (1). Maybe a DB25 just wouldn't have been secured well enough on that back panel alone.

[@philippeastier7657]

Oh in fact, I was just thinking (because you mentioned the length of the cables), there could well be an electrical issue if you connected a physical floppy drive. So yes, I suspect intentionally avoided a DB connector to prevent people from using something else than a FloppyEMU. Clever, as usual.@@JDW-

[@FrankConforti]

My $0.02US… When I was fitting in the switch over the ADB and COM ports I discovered there is very little space on the back panel for a DB-25 connector (I had the same thought). The location of the switch was dictated not by the size of the little switch but also by the PCB on the back of the switch and the way you have to tip the back panel into position when installing it. I think the same thing would be a real problem with the DB-25 as it would have a beefy profile behind the panel. I went through a couple of prototypes to get the switch “just right”. Kay’s decision to use the ribbon cable connector was a good one.

[@Stryder_The_Nite_Owl]

Awesome video! The standard kit would also work well with the Macintosh Quadra/Centris 610, the Quadra 800, and the PowerMacintosh models, because none of them have an external floppy drive port.

[@JDW-]

Thanks for your kind feedback. You very well could be right, but I only mentioned the two machines which Kay Koba mentions in his documentation - the MYSTIC and the LC III. The Mystic requires the deluxe kit because only the deluxe kit includes the back panel. However, people who have cards probably will not want to use the included back panel and instead use Frank’s. I suspect the bulk of the cost of the deluxe product is the back panel, so perhaps the buyer could negotiate with Kay to offer a kit that includes everything except the back panel and that way people can use Frank’s panel instead, at an overall reduced cost.

[@MacEffects88]

Brilliant - love it!

[@JDW-]

It really is a fantastic product, Mark. I will admit not everyone will share my enthusiasm, perhaps. But connecting a FloppyEMU to a motherboard that otherwise would not accommodate it is pretty ground-breaking stuff!

[@CayMacVintage]

Great video and product from Kay.

[@cali4tune]

Freaking Awesome! Nice job on the video too!

[@JDW-]

Thanks. May sound silly, but Flippy Floppy holds a special place in my heart! 😍 The simple things tickle my fancy.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

That is awesome!

[@BollingHolt]

Very cool! I wish there were a similar solution for a stock Color Classic. I have two Color Classics and would like to change one of them into a Mytsic, but I haven't found the logic board as of yet... not to mention all the other open projects I have ;)

[@JDW-]

I cannot speak for Kay Koba as to why he doesn’t have a stock Color Classic compatible version of Flippy Floppy, but I can say that the only way I could find an LC 575 motherboard was to buy the actual LC575 machine. Many of those LC575 computers fall to pieces anyway during shipping because the plastics are so brittle; and when that happens, you basically are left with only the motherboard as something that’s valuable which you can use. So the situation was that because I live in Japan, Kay Koba found a cheap LC 575 machine on Yahoo auctions Japan and kindly told me about it. I was able to make a winning bid rather easily. The entire purchase including shipping to me was about $100. Of course, once you have the board in your hands, there’s still a lot more work to do because it needs to be recapped, and then you’ll probably want to overclock it, and then you might want to even swap out the CPU for a better CPU with a full FPU. I have videos about all of that. I should also mention that I put a link within the text description to a Mystic sale. It’s not the motherboard only but the entire machine. However, the machine is fully re-capped and has some nice extras too, so I wanted to alert people about it.

[@BollingHolt]

@@JDW- Yes! I have watched (and enjoyed) those videos. I figured I'd have to get an entire LC575 system, but I just haven't looked. Lots & lots of retro computer projects on the board right now... I just need to win the lottery so I can get them all done LOL.

[@JDW-]

@@BollingHolt I hear you about winning the lottery (i.e., having enough cash so you can quite your day job and start doing important things). 🙂 I'd love to do KZbin full time, but it's financially impossible. And right now, I am so busy with family and work commitments I can barely kick out one video per month. The other upside to having all that disposable income (i.e., from the lottery) is that you could then afford to buy machines that once were out of reach. Instead of buying parts to build a Mystic, you could then just buy the Mystic outright, even if it costs $1,000.

[@BollingHolt]

@@JDW- Yes! I'm actually trying to garner more viewership on my channel. I haven't had much luck yet, but I'm in the process of creating new content. I know I'd never be able to do it full time, but even if it raised just enough to fund the projects to MAKE the videos, I'd call that a win for everyone. Being able to purchase machines that were once out of reach is always a plus. I guess you could say I'm already doing that as ALL Macs were out of my price range when I was just a kid with a CoCo 2 and then a hand-me-down Amstrad PC1512... before I built my first computer, a 486. I'm quite proud of my ever-growing collection. I have a 4,000 square foot house, and I'm already looking at having to get a climate controlled storage unit. Not a bad problem to have, I say. ;)

[@iocat]

really nice video!

[@danielwilliams4482]

This is an awesome product and backplate. In addition to the Apple IIe card, I also have an ethernet card in my color classic so neither the original (included with the deluxe set) or the one designed by Frank would work with my system. I printed one from plans I downloaded some time ago hat I works now but won't once I buy the Flippy Floppy. As I am terrible at designing/changing designs for 3D printing I was wondering if there is any solution for this setup?

[@JDW-]

I'm afraid I don't understand the incompatibility. I don't have an Ethernet card myself, but I had the understanding Frank's back panel is also compatible with Ethernet cards. Are you saying your card is special and requires a much large slot opening in the back panel? If it does require a much large slot opening, would you mind sending a photo to Frank via Message on his Printables page here? www.printables.com/@Radar939_1372091 I can't guarantee he will make a modification, but it would be good for him to see exactly what you are seeing.

[@FrankConforti]

I’m going to update the design to support the Ethernet card. I hope to have it up in a week. It’s a minor tweak. Thanks for the interest.

[@JDW-]

@FrankConforti what is the minor tweak? Did the large hole need to be made larger?

[@danielwilliams4482]

I would think it needs to be a second hole, not just the current one bigger. Mind you Frank is the expert and would know better! Thanks again for the quick responses and I also spoke to Frank on Printables - so great he is accomdating this request. I am also going to try my hand at altering the design, but I'm no expert. I'm planning on getting a Bambu Carbon printer as well...my 2018 3D printer a bit long in the tooth...

[@doylemooney]

Just bought a Mac se, I'm trying to see if I can make a mod so I can use the crt as a monitor for analog inputs. If anyone has any info on something like that or if anyone knows a good place to start looking let me know

[@JDW-]

You might not find help in the comments section here because the comments tend to pertain to the topic of a given video, and my video is focused not only on the Color Classic, but especially on the topic of floppy drive connections. The best help would come from a good online forum, so I would recommend you post about what you want to do on Tinker Different so forum members can chime in: tinkerdifferent.com/forums/compact-macs.34/

[@theaustralianconundrum]

I've owned two colour classics and hated both of them. Another of the FAIL Apple Macintosh range. That tiny colour screen and woeful CPU was terrible even on release.

[@JDW-]

Had I retained the stock motherboard, I too would be a techno-sadomasachist. That horrifically slow stock motherboard yields nothing but pain. It shocks me to the core when I run across Color Classic Purists who treat all upgrades with utter disdain. Moving to an LC575 motherboard was the best thing I could do for my CC, and I later overclocked it to 50MHz, making it blow past a Q840AV, yet in a much smaller package. Not everyone appreciates the smaller screen until you consider that we folks here in Japan have limited space. So getting something amazing in a tiny package is what we're always after. And once you do the VGA mod, you get 640x480 and can then run most games. Sure, everything is smaller on the screen, but consider how much space is required for a larger screen (especially a CRT, if you want to be period correct). So I agree that Apple released a really bad machine. The Color Classic II was better because the motherboard was fast enough to be usable, especially when you consider the stupid 10MB RAM cap was then gone. So while not everyone will appreciate the compact size of this little guy, it's upgradability is astounding. I've also done the stereo mod too, which makes it sound better overall. It's a fun machine to upgrade.

[@theaustralianconundrum]

@@JDW- I apologize if I came across too harsh. I have now subscribed to your channel from here in Australia and as an Apple Macintosh user since 1984, I get a tad frustrated when Apple would try something maybe a tad too different. Great channel.

[@JDW-]

@@theaustralianconundrum Thank you for your kind words and for your subscription. I believe in honest opinions, so I greatly appreciate yours. I too can be harsh on Apple at times. My first computer was in 1984 when I was 13 - the Mac 128K. I've actually owned Macs exclusively through the years, never having owned a Windows PC. So believe me, I know the Apple screw-ups are many! We really do have some legitimate gripes. And by the way, I actually didn't like the look of the Color Classic until I actually owned one. It slowly grew on me (after I found the joys of swapping out that stock motherboard, of course).

[@theaustralianconundrum]

@@JDW- I loved the look of the Colour Classic so I bought a couple. ;-) My father bought us our first Macintosh when they released in 1984 and I would have been 24 at the time and already left home. Yes. I am in my senior citizen stage as of 2024. lol. I am now loving BlueSCSI V2's and having a wonderful time collecting vintage hard drives and almost anything Apple however Australia was such a small market compared to global that it's a real challenge here to dig up some gold. Our youngest son recently returned from Japan and LOVED it! My wife's cousin married a lovely Japanese lady way back and he has been to Japan many many times. Good health and peace to you sir. And thank you for your kind reply.

[@JDW-]

@@theaustralianconundrum Living in Japan can be a bit challenging due to the language and cultural differences, but simply visiting the country is almost always a unique and enjoyable experience. My parents, who live in California, have visited us a couple times through the years and enjoyed it each time. You're still in your 60's, so I can honestly say it probably would prove to be a great trip for you, if you have the time and financial means to make the journey over here. There's never been a better time, now with the Yen being as weak as it is. I see today's exchange rate showing $1 AUS = ¥104. Back in Jan. 2020, $1 AUS = ¥76. So you have much more buying power today. Please know that I enjoyed our conversation today very much. Feel free to comment under my videos or email me directly anytime. My email is access on my channel page. KZbin frustratingly has made it harder to find, but you simply click on the "Welcome!" text to the immediate right of my avatar circle, then scroll down in that popover content to find it. Until we speak again, I wish you well!