XA1541 cable to USB

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Jeff-20
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XA1541 cable to USB

Post by Jeff-20 »

In theory, would an XA1541 or XE1541 work with a Parallel to USB cable and a relatively newer notebook?

Has there been a direct to USB cable made? I'm hesitant to throw out my cumbersome desktop because I may on rare occasion want to back up disks I find.
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Pedro Lambrini
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Post by Pedro Lambrini »

There's the XU1541 from commodore16.com. That wee unit is USB to IEC and the software is up to date and even has a friendly looking GUI.

I don't have the link easily to hand as I'm posting from my phone but just check out commodore16.com. :)
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Jeff-20
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Post by Jeff-20 »

Awesome! That's exactly what I was looking for. Now, I wonder what to do with my old computer.
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Pedro Lambrini
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Post by Pedro Lambrini »

Yeah, it seems like the perfect solution for newer machines. Now I just need to find time to play with mine!

Keep your old machine. It's Murphys Law that the minute you get rid of it your laptop will break!
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Post by rhurst »

You should hang on to that old computer, because you may feel differently about it 30-years from now and want to startup a user community forum to discuss the software of the day, and that may even attract some electronic hackers to make new expansion gizmos that make it compete with the next gen technology . . .
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GreyGhost
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Post by GreyGhost »

hehe
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gklinger
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Re: XA1541 cable to USB

Post by gklinger »

Jeff-20 wrote:In theory, would an XA1541 or XE1541 work with a Parallel to USB cable and a relatively newer notebook?
In case anyone encounters this thread in the future the answer to that question is no, such adaptors will not work.

Anyway, why not use the uIEC you already have?
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Diddl
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Post by Diddl »

Don't use XU-1541 cable!!

I have one and it is not very good.

OpenCBM Team is working on a XUM-1541 like cable which will be able to connect any Commodore Floppy to PC and OpenCBM.

This USB cable will support IEC, IEC + parallel, IEC + burst (1571, 1581) and IEEE-488 also ...
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Pedro Lambrini
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Post by Pedro Lambrini »

Why isn't the XU1541 very good?
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Jeff-20
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Re: XA1541 cable to USB

Post by Jeff-20 »

gklinger wrote:Anyway, why not use the uIEC you already have?
I'm talking about transferring files from disk to PC. It would take too long to load them to the VIC individually and reSAVE them to the uIEC. I guess I could just transfer ever single disk I have now, and I wouldn't have to worry about it later.
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Diddl
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Post by Diddl »

Pedro Lambrini wrote:Why isn't the XU1541 very good?
XU consists of an Atmega8. An Atmega8 is not a USB device, it is not made for this.

Atmega 8 is most of its CPU time busy with acting on USB. It supports only 1.1 with low speed, all other devices have slow downs cause speed is limited by slowest device.

It is no good solution, only cheap. it is like a bicyle on a Highway ...

A XU works slower than a normal XA-1541 without a controller.

A XU never will support MNIB.
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otherside
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Post by otherside »

Diddl wrote:OpenCBM Team is working on a XUM-1541 like cable which will be able to connect any Commodore Floppy to PC and OpenCBM.

This USB cable will support IEC, IEC + parallel, IEC + burst (1571, 1581) and IEEE-488 also ...
The xum1541 is what he is referring to. We're working on board layout for the production version. A prototype has been working since October 2009. You can see info here:

xum1541 firmware site
http://www.root.org/~nate/c64/xum1541/
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Diddl
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Post by Diddl »

Only for completeness.

Zoomfloppy is available from RETRO Innovations


It is the commercial product of a XUM-1541 and works very well. For all IEC and IEEE-488 drives of Commodore.
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