23 Jan
2016
23 Jan
'16
12:53 p.m.
"Given the potential flakiness of 1541 drives, why make permanent hardware
changes when a basic program allows you to assign the drive to whatever you
want for the temporary need of the day?"
Though I'm not entirely sure it exists, any "potential flakiness" is
probably a very good reason to make the change in hardware. Device IDs
assigned via software (with a M-W command to the DOS) don't persist between
drive resets and may not persist between serial bus resets either, for that
matter. So if the drive does screw up and requires a power cycle, you're
back to device 8 again afterwards. This means shutting off one drive,
re-assigning the device ID to 9 or whatever, then powering on the second
drive.
If you're using more than two drives, it really becomes a hassle. In any
event, just install a switch (or pair of them..) on each drive and all is
well.
How about a middle ground then, if you must control drive assignment with
hardware, put in a jumper that can be changed externally without opening
the case each time, or a switch. Further, I my friendly opinion that one
should start with a software solution. Switch to hardware when it becomes
a hassle and you're 100% sure you want to leave it permanently. I switch
things around all of the time, to me it's just part of what you do with
Commodore drives.
Among other useful tools I have a drive assignment program on my SD drive
root.
Here is a link to a video I made to demonstrate commodore drive assignment
using a Commodore B-128, 8050 drive, D9090 drive, and 1571 drive together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBeFXDWbw8A
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