> Subject: Using Commodore 15xx drives on PC's...
> Someone found this and sent me a link to it, a cable made to allow
> hookup to any of the Commodore 15xx serial bus drives to your parallel
> port on your PC.
>
> http://www.student.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/~mepk/c64/hw/cables/x1541.html
There has been some discussion on this in the CBM Hacker's maillist about the
newer parallel ports not being able to handle the voltage levels used by the
Commodore's IEC. Here is a copy of one of the latest in the chain:
> Subject: Re: New X1541 standard
> From: "Frank Kontros" <frank(a)kontr.uzhgorod.ua>
>
> Hi Ruud,
>
> >New X1541-cable,
> >
> >A lot of people happily use the X1541-cable to connect their PC with their
> >C= equipment. I was one of them until one day my PC started to smoke. I
> >opened my PC and found out that my I/O-card had gone to the moon. From that
> >day on I used X1541 only in combination with an old-fashion all-TTL-ICs
> >card and was happy again.
>
> Happily I gone into that conclusion in very early time :-)
>
> >When soldering the cable I instantly knew there was something fishy about
> >it because I knew the lines of the IEC-bus were used to transport signals
> >in two directions while the LPT-port had no line capable of doing this.
>
> And the authors of X1541 supported programs doesn't mention risk came with it.
>
> >The problem is that more and more users, including myself, have mother-
> >boards with an onboard LPT-port and no hair on my head thinks of it using
> >this port for things like X1541. It is easy to say to buy an extra card for
> >this purpose but I also have no confidence in these as they are fitted with
> >VLSI-chips as my I/O-card was.
>
> >The hardware:
> >
> >There are two directions to go:
> >1) using transistors, resistors etc.
> >2) using TTL ICs
>
> Or
>
> 3) Use resistors in range 100-200 Ohms, so risk could be minimized (but not
> resolved) and programs should support that little modification :-).
>
> >Another idea is to use pin 10, Acknowledge, as input for the ATN-signal
> >because this input is capable of generating an interrupt. This can be an
> >advantage when using the PC as diskdrive for an C64.
>
> I can remember that some cards won't like correctly generate interrupts.
>
> >Extra idea:
> >
> >The datalines of LPT-port are not used. How about connecting them to the
> >userport for 8 bit parallel transfers?
>
> I already connected and works perfectly.
>
> >For the old ports this can only be used for reading but for bidirectional
> >ports.... (And I rebuild an old one :-) )
>
> Done. What about my version?
>
> http://members.tripod.com/~Frank_Kontros/easyport/cable.gif
>
> OK! Needs bi-directional port, but simple.
>
> >The consequence is that to use this feature the kernal has to be changed.
>
> Changed successfully. Not completed, but the whole serial protocol emulated by
> parallel way, fastload/save/verify, DOS WEDGE, F-keys.
>
> >Yvo Nelemans wrote Server64 and he wrote it in Turbo Pascal :-). He stopped
> >with the devellopment and I have decided to resume with this project after
> >getting his permission. Server64 is meant to use the PC as diskdrive for
> >the C64. Unfortunally it also is as slow as a standard diskdrive in
> >combination with a standard C64.
>
> I wrote it in asm, so you can compare the speedz. Just only 10 native mode drives
> emulated and a 256K REU, but in future ... anything possible.
>
> >My questions to you are:
> >1) does anybody have detailed protocol specifications of a fastloader only
> >using the IEC-cable (example EXOS V3) and/or its sourcecodes?
> >2) the same for a parallel fastloader (like SpeedDos)?
>
> In my opininon there are no fastloader specifications at all. All transfer
> operations should be maximally synchronized. There are general rules, but
> no specifications. Isn't you meant the burst protocol specifications, used
> in 1571/81 drives?
>
> Regards,
> Frank
Thought I should pass it along. :)
P.S. Subscription info for CBM Hackers list is on my web-page - see link below.
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (300-2400bd) (209) 754-1363
Visit my Commodore 8-Bit web page at:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/commodore.html
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
On Sun, 13 Sep 1998 CLASSICCMP(a)timaxp.trailing-edge.com wrote:
>> And 'The ANSI labeled tape spec' is available where.... ?
>
>Should've answered this in the previous message: you can order a copy
>from http://www.ansi.org/, the designation is ANSI X3.27, and it costs
>US$32.00.
This isn't really on-topic, but quite a few "common" ISO/ANSI standards seem to
have ECMA equivalents (ISO9660 is a definite example).
Copies of these standards cost money to obtain from ISO or ANSI, but the
identical ECMA documents are available free of charge from the ECMA web site at
http://www.ecma.ch/.
There is at least one ECMA standard that covers tape formats; maybe it is the
same as the mentioned ANSI standard?
-- Mark
On Mon 14 Sep 1998 21:56:40, Mark <mark_k(a)iname.com> wrote:
] The other week I bought an IBM 4869 5.25" floppy drive. This is an external
] unit that hooks up to a PC via a 37-way D connector. The case is massive,
] ...
Hope you didn't pay much; I have three of these available on my
"for trade" web page. See this URL:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/fortrade.html
I'm in NC, zip code 27514 (for those of you calculating postage).
Cheers,
Bill.
Mostly, there are some motherboard design difference between the two.
However, it is known that you can actually swap the boards between the
two if you preferred one case over another and have a bad unit. There
were at least 4 different board revisions, so some boards may not move
to another case. Another thing you might notice is the power supply
connector is different. There was a connector redesign between the newer
(aka 'flat C64') and older (aka 'Breadbox') C64's. The flat 64 has a
square connector where the breadbox 64 has a round one. The flat 64 also
has a different component layout due to IC consolidation. Maybe those
newer chip designs are what's overheating your system. Or it could be
the fact that the parts are closer to the outside of the case.
I'm toying with the idea of swapping boards in my systems. I only heard
that it can be done. I want a functional version of each and I have 2
working flat units and 7 dead breadboxes (of which I salvaged parts from
to get an SX-64 working). For my display units, I would like one of each
design in working order.
Hope this helps,
Jeff Salzman
>I was wondering, what is the difference between a regular Commodore 64 and a
>64C? I've got one of each, and everything seems identical other than that the
>64C looks like a 128. (Well, one other difference is that the 64C overheats
>after about an hour or so...)
>
Popular science used to be a good magazine, until they changed
editors a few years ago and it became much less informative.
While before they had some real journalism, now it's just constant
articles about 'the new superplane'.
>On Thu, 10 Sep 1998 sethm(a)loomcom.com wrote:
>
>> > Is anyone interested in the Popular Science review of the Lisa?
I've
>> > stumbled across that particular issue and if any one is interested
I'll
>> > get it scanned and uploaded.
>> >
>> > colan
>>
>> I'd love to see it! Thanks for letting us know.
>>
>> Next to old computers themselves, my next favorite collectible is
>> classic computer collateral -- ads, catalog entries, old photos,
>> that kind of thing.
>
>I like this kind of stuff, too.
>
>We actually have a large pile of Popular Science magazines that are
slowly
>degrading in the basement. We were going to throw them out, so I got
busy
>with a razor blade and cut out a lot of things. Unfortunatley that got
my
>father and I reading the old issues, and as a result they still haven't
>been thrown out. But I do have a binder full of interesting
>computer-related stuff.
>
>The single-system reviews I've collected from Popular Science are:
>
>Apple ///
>Xerox 820
>Timex Sinclair 1000
>Apple Lisa
>Epson QX-10
>Access
>Kaypro 10
>Gavilan
>Macintosh
>Sinclair QL
>Acorn (unknown model, it's just called the Acorn in the article, looks
> like BBC-B)
>Kaypro 2000
>Amiga
>Atari 520ST
>Macintosh Plus
>
>A lot of other computers are mentioned (and photographed!) in articles
or
>mini-reviews, including:
>
>Sinclair ZX80
>VIC-20
>TRS-80 Pocket Computer
>Sharp PC-1211
>NewBrain
>TRS-80 Color Computer
>TRS-80 Model III
>IBM-PC
>NEC PC-8001A
>Osborne 1
>APF Imagination Machine
>Casio FX-9000P
>TI-99/4A
>HP-86
>Sony SMC-70
>Olivetti M20
>Commodore BX256
>Zenith Z200
>Commodore Max
>Astrocade
>Altos
>Cromemco
>.
>.
>.
>(the list is lengthier than I want to type ;) )
>
>There are also ads for things like the TI-99/2 with Bill Cosby, the
Adam,
>the PMC-80, Ohio Scientific Challenger, Atari 400, Color Computer with
>Isaac Asimov, VIC-20 with William Shatner, etc, etc, etc...
>
>Lots of cool articles on computer technology stuff, too.
>
>If you cut up Popular Science magazines and condense them to just the
>computer stuff, you end up with a really interesting read. :)
>
>> -Seth
>
>Doug Spence
>ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
>http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
< >Or a 11/780
< >equipped with a DECterm100 (bit mapped and the map is vax resident)?
<
< Didn't this get called a VAXstation-I. If it's the device I remember it
< one (several) Unibus cards and a fibre optic connect or was this somethi
< different again?
Thats the beastie, I've used it too. Not bad for it's day.
Allison
On Sep 14, 16:11, Sam Ismail wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, James Willing wrote:
>
> > As I recall, (going a little out on a limb here) you are correct on the
J2
> > connector. That was to support an Apple marketed numeric keypad. And,
I
> > believe that the other switch (along with cutting the marked pads)
enables
> > lower case encoding.
> >
> > Which of course does little good on an Apple II / II+ with standard
ROMs.
>
> True. You still needed to acquire (or burn) a character ROM with
> lowercase characters.
A few years ago, I made the mod and created a suitable character set ROM
image, which I burned into a 2716. If anybody wants it, you can pick up
the ROM image at
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/NewCG
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
>You're making some of it up. DOS intercepted the command line input and
>only parsed out DOS commands. If it didn't recognize a DOS command it
>passed the line off to BASIC. His DOS enhancement COULD have converted
>any lowercase command line to uppercase before passing it on to BASIC so
>it wouldn't puke.
That's the way I interpreted his description of the action.
>That's entirely doable and would be rather elegant.
Except what's the purpose of the hardware lowercase modification if
the first thing you do with it in software is convert to uppercase? :-)
The only software that I extensively used on a Apple II that dealt with
lowercase characters was Paul Lutus's _Applewriter II_. A very excellent
editor, with what amounts to almost "regular expression" search and
replace. If only EMACS (Eight Megabytes and Continually Swapping?
Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift?) were as lean and mean!
Tim.
>
> The other week I bought an IBM 4869 5.25" floppy drive. This is an
external
> unit that hooks up to a PC via a 37-way D connector. The case is massive,
for a
> simple floppy drive.
>
The extra space (length) is the power supply. I also have one of those
drives.
> Anyway, I can't get it to work properly. It is probably a 360K drive
mechanism,
> and my PC (Philips 386SX AT clone) boots normally with this type of drive
set
> in the backup RAM.
It was made to work with the XT, plugging into a special port on the disk
controller card. Yes, it is a standard 360K drive.
>
> I can format disks and use DIR, but reading or writing any files always
gives
> an Abort/Retry/Cancel error. Unsurprisingly, cleaning the heads made no
> difference. Actually, to elaborate on this copying a load of files to a
newly-
> formatted disk gives an error after copying (say) the first two files.
>
> Does this drive have some non-standard pinout, different from the 37-way
D
> 5.25" port on the back of the PC, or maybe only work with IBM PS/2
machines?
>
The D connector goes directly to the disk drive.
> If it is just faulty, what might the problem be? The cable is unlikely I
think,
> as is the power supply.
>
> The casing has a couple of tamperproof Torx screws. I'd like to know what
size
> they are so that I can buy a suitable screwdriver bit.
Tamperproof screw solution: a SHARP 1/2" drill bit. Just drill off the
heads, and you'll have no problem.
The drive that I had, I had no use for, and couldn't get it to work with my
PC, so here's what I did:
-Pulled the old 360K drive, and replaced it with a 1.2 meg drive.
-Cut a hole in the top of the case large enough so that I could attach a
3.5" drive on top of the 5.25".
-Super-glued the 3.5" to the 5.25" drive.
-Split the power cable, and put a 3.5" floppy connector on it so that the
P/S could power both drives.
-Using a TRS-80 printer cable (ribbon - type), I twisted the cable and put
on new plugs to connect the floppies.
-Ran the ribbon cable under the P/S, and out a slot that I cut in the back.
-Connected all cables, and put the case back together.
-Ran ribbon cable into open slot on back of computer and connected to
floppy connector.
It may seem like a bit of work to get an external drive, but it sure beats
buying a new $80 tower case.
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
