KRSEAR01@ULKYVX.BITNET (Kendall 'Opusii' Sears) (03/12/89)
>> I have a Commodore 1581 disk drive. This is the 3.5" drive for the 64/128. > >> Since it is hooked up to a serial-type bus, it has alot of intelligence >> that in not required from "normal" drives. > >>I wondered if it is at all possible to hack it up so that it can be used >> as an external drive on my amiga 2500. > >> Thanks....... > If what you mean is that you want to use the 1581 as another floppy > for Amiga software, I would have to say not likely. > If you built your own interface (not too big of a job) and wrote your > your own driver for it (bigger job) you could possibly get to use it > as SOMETHING. Just better that 800k and comparatively slow speed. > I doubt you could ever read Amiga disks, and possibly not even > C64 disks. I expect that this would be a BIG project and not worth > the time and money spent. > There are two alternatives that I can think of. One is use the new 64 Emulator 2 which includes a plug that allows CBM 1541/71/81 and compatibles to be used with the Amiga, I dunno if comes with drivers as I haven't bought the thing. Another alternaive is to remove the drive from the case and use the drive it- self. The '81 uses the same drives as the Amiga so all it would take is a small 2 chip circuit to hook up the bugger. One good thing about this method is that you can still use the '81's power supply and not the Amiga's. Some bad points are: * you have to mutilate your drive. * you void your warranty * you take the change of trashing your drive if you dont know what you're doing. I thought about doing these modifications a little while ago, but have since started using my 128 and Vic-20 again. If the 64 emulator has drivers (anyone out there know about this?) then that would be the way to go. Else you could hack away. Any suggestions Commodore? Ps I really wish that Commodore would have put just ONE CBM serial port on the Amiga. That would have really sped up sales of the Amiga because more people like me who have mega 8 bit stuff could use the stuff on the Amiga. But I'm getting along without the stuff on mine. BTW, is anyone thinking about a card to do this? Sorry for rambling. Opusii. Kendall "Opusii" Sears KRSEAR01@ULKYVX.bitnet ...!psuvax!ulkyvx.bitnet!KRSEAR01 (UUCP) Opusii (GEnie) --------------------------------------------------- "VIC's LIVE... Really. I just used one..."
dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) (03/13/89)
In article <8903121350.AA00545@jade.berkeley.edu> KRSEAR01@ULKYVX.BITNET (Kendall 'Opusii' Sears) writes: > >There are two alternatives that I can think of. One is use the new 64 >Emulator 2 which includes a plug that allows CBM 1541/71/81 and compatibles >to be used with the Amiga, I dunno if comes with drivers as I haven't bought >the thing. > I am new to the Amiga, so please excuse my ignorance. What "64 emulators" are avaliable? How well do they work? Do they work with "non-standard" serial bus I/O (which is used by over 50% of '64 programs these days)? >Another alternaive is to remove the drive from the case and use the drive it- >self. The '81 uses the same drives as the Amiga so all it would take is a >small 2 chip circuit to hook up the bugger. Can someone get me the details for that "2 chip" circuit? >One good thing about this method is that you can still use the '81's power >supply and not the Amiga's. Some bad points are: > * you have to mutilate your drive. > * you void your warranty > * you take the change of trashing your drive if you dont know what you're > doing. >I thought about doing these modifications a little while ago, but have >since started using my 128 and Vic-20 again. >"VIC's LIVE... Really. I just used one..." I sold my VIC last summer for $50. Included dataset and lots of pgms and carts. The guy I sold it to LOVES it. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- "This isn't Heaven, this is Cleveland!!!!" Dave Lowrey Amdahl Corp. Houston, Texas (713)-850-8828 ...!{ames,sun,decwrl,uunet,....}!amdahl!dwl10 [ The opinions expressed <may> be those of the author and not necessarily those of his most eminent employer. ]
simon@copper.columbia.edu (Thor Simon) (03/14/89)
Look at the parallel port pinouts in the amiga manual. Several of the pins are actually the 64 type serial port with a different shape. Somebody at CA just forgot to write the drivers. Unfortunately, 64 emulator 2 uses this port in 64 mode, but only includes *printer* drivers for amiga mode. AAARGH! I have a serial hard drive I wanted to use...maybe 1.4 will support serial drives (hint,hint) after all, why put it into the hardware if they don't mean to support it... Also: The 1010 will read 1581 disks, so the 1581 must be able to read 1010 disks... Furthermore, the 1020 can(just barely, the GCR code is about 1/2 supported by the 1020 guts)read 1541 mode disks, and a 1571 could easily read I*M disks, as a 1020 is just a decerebrated 1571. Now if we could just use the GEOS fonts on the amiga...
jbh@mibte.UUCP (James Harvey) (03/15/89)
In article <6222@columbia.edu>, simon@copper.columbia.edu (Thor Simon) writes: > Look at the parallel port pinouts in the amiga manual. Several of the > pins are actually the 64 type serial port with a different shape. > Somebody at CA just forgot to write the drivers. Unfortunately, 64 > emulator 2 uses this port in 64 mode, but only includes *printer* > drivers for amiga mode. AAARGH! I have a serial hard drive I wanted > to use...maybe 1.4 will support serial drives (hint,hint) after all, why put it > into the hardware if they don't mean to support it... > > Also: The 1010 will read 1581 disks, so the 1581 must be able to read > 1010 disks... > Furthermore, the 1020 can(just barely, the GCR code is about 1/2 > supported by the 1020 guts)read 1541 mode disks, and a 1571 could > easily read I*M disks, as a 1020 is just a decerebrated 1571. > > Now if we could just use the GEOS fonts on the amiga... The C64 Emulator II itself doesn't work very well. However, there is a program called "Transfer" included that is worth the price alone. This is a file copy program that will read 1541 disks from either a 1020 drive or a 1541 plugged into the Amiga parallel port with the special Emulator II cable. It will also write to 1541 disks in a 1541 drive. Reading is quite a bit faster from a 1020 than a 1541, the old serial buss has to be slower. Since the 1541 interface is done over the standard C64 serial cable, I would assume that it will also talk to a 1581 drive directly, and I believe there is a mode to read 1581 disks inserted into an amiga 3 1/2 inch drive. "Transfer" is not a full dos, it won't even open an Amiga directory for you, but as a file transfer utility it works superbly. I have transferred many megabytes of text and graphics files between the C64 and my Amiga with it. It even does the requsite ASCII - PETSCII conversion for you. I have had no problems reading (but don't try to write) 1541 disks on my 1020 drive. By the way, I also tried the "Disk-2-Disk" program that is marketed to do the same kinds of file transfers. It was much slower, didn't support a real 1541 (1020 only), and tended to error out a lot. -- Jim Harvey | "Ask not for whom the bell Michigan Bell Telephone | tolls and you will only pay 29777 Telegraph | Station-to-Station rates." Southfield, Mich. 48034 | ulysses!gamma!mibte!jbh