World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

7 Dec 2000

Tony Duell wrote:
...
 Since the CBM serial bus protocol is documented
somewhere (and there are 
plenty of hackers who've dug into the C64 and C128 ROMs), I don't think 
there's a good reason why the 1571 (and other CBM peripherals) can't be 
linked up to _any_ computer and the serial bus simulated by bit-banging 
on a TTL-level I/O port.

In fact, isn't there a well-known program to at least read/write disks in 
1541 drives from an MS-DOS box? 
 I remember that shortly after I put my Hero I together, someone was
advertizing plans for a 1541 interface for Hero. I kick myself since
for not sending for those plans.
 What I do have is a Radofin interface board to connect a 1541 to my
Aquarius. The board has an PROM that adds about 15 DOS commands to
Aquarius Basic and includes a machine language monitor. It works like
a charm, and of course I can also read the files on my C64.

 It seems to me that any computer with a cartridge port (meaning one
with address,data, and I/O select lines) is a good candidate for 
interfacing to a 1541. 
 --Doug

===================================================
Doug Coward	        dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work)         
Sr Software Engineer   mranalog(a)home.com (home) 
Press Start Inc.       http://www.pressstart.com
Sunnyvale,CA             

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