Floppy drive upgrade
A common floppy drive upgrade for older embroidery machines is a floppy disk emulator. This is a device that emulates a mechanical floppy disk drive with a solid state or network storage device and is fully compatible with the drive it replaces.
History
Embroidery machines built from the 1970s until the mid 2000s often used a floppy disk drive to input data to the machine. When compared to newer storage technologies, floppy disks are fragile and prone to dysfunction. A floppy disk emulator can replace the legacy floppy disk drive. The floppy disk drive emulator replaces the legacy magnetic floppy disks with solid state USB thumb drive sticks for a more robust data input solution.
Floppy disks and floppy disk drives are still available but are gradually being phased out of production. However, replacing older, industrial machinery and working systems with newer storage technology is often more expensive that the floppy drive upgrade option.