If you're wondering how subsequent testing went: everything felt *much* smoother than when I received this 1571 a few months ago. The drive passed all diagnostics with flying colours, spinning at a sweet 299.8 RPM (within 0.07% of spec)! -- JC

@andrewenglish3810

2 жыл бұрын

You should get your hands on a Mini Chief drive which is a modified 1571 with a MFM 20 or 40MB hard drive inside. The floppy function worked 100% but when you flipped a switch you had access to the 20 or 40MB hard drive inside either as x number of 664 block drives or one large drive. Someone I knew had one but I haven't seen them around in the retro market, my guess is they didn't sell very many.

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

@@andrewenglish3810 Thank you for letting me know about yet another piece of retro tech that I had no idea existed until now! I just found the Mini Chief manual on the Internet Archive, and it seems wild. At this juncture I'm not seeking to actually run old HDDs with my Commodore setup due to age & reliability concerns -- but it's the sort of thing that if I stumbled upon, I would certainly dive into it (and possibly make a video). :-) -- JC

@8BitNaptime

2 жыл бұрын

@@andrewenglish3810 Makes perfect sense though, if you can hook up an old MFM hard disk to the correct pins it's just a question of software to use the HD. Must have been quite a hack. I never heard of it though, but jamming one in a 128D might be fun!

I was able to buy one off of eBay that was basically new old stock (box was intact but open, but everything inside was still in the plastic bags from the factory) and while I prefer my 1541's for the C64's, I love this for my 128. It is a great little drive.

@BasicBitesCA

7 ай бұрын

Nice! The 1571 truly shines with the 128 (and when nibbling disk images with a ZoomFloppy). I agree that putting one on a 64 is largely just a waste of a rarer disk drive. -- JC

With a small hardware mod and updated load-routine the C64 can use a 1571 disk drive in fast mode.

In my opinion this is the finest 5.25" drive made for the 64/128. At least by Commodore. In my limited experience, the 1541-compatible drives made by third parties were not very good, either unreliable or not compatible. Although the Indus GT and the MSD-2 were apparently quite good.

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

"Finest" could be sliced a few different ways, but I would certainly vote it the "most capable"! My own limited understanding of 3rd party drives is that Commodore would sue those who too closely replicated their code, thus rendering 3rd party drives incompatible with commercial software using 1541-specific routines (e.g.- for copy protection) and making it mostly irrelevant how reliable the mechanism was. ;-) -- JC

The source code for the -05 version of the rom has some pretty funny comments, for example wondering how the reset code in the previous versions could have worked at all! A huge deal for keeping your 1571 working is to never leave the drive with the lever in the open position for any longer than needed, and especially, never store it with the lever in the open position. Leaving it in the open position will eventually bend the head assembly, which can turn into a really nasty repair.

@BasicBitesCA

Жыл бұрын

I've since had an 05 ROM made for this drive, but never bothered with the source code. Mental note made to download a copy and take a look! Indeed, I've read in multiple places that leaving the drive open will cause the upper head spring to deform over time. My 1571 always has a transit card in it when I'm not using it. -- JC

There also exist synthetic 'oil' lubricants specifically made for glide bearings, and safe for use on both metal and plastic.

Idk eprom burners aren't too expensive and super useful. Great for making kernal roms, kick start roms, tos for the atari st, utility roms for the empty socket on the c128, game roms for arcade boards and so on. I don't think you'll regret the purchase of an eprom burner.

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

That's a fair point about the falling cost of burners! It's more that I'm generally averse to buying things that I'll have on a shelf forever and almost never use. :) I'm strictly a Commodore guy and stick with the stock ROMs. The 1571 upgrade seems to be a rare case where there aren't too many originals floating around. Happily, I found a service here in Canada called HobbyRoms that will make the odd chip I need at a very reasonable price. -- JC

@user-wj9xq7ig2v

2 жыл бұрын

@@BasicBitesCA I'm in Canada too near Toronto. If you need the odd thing let me know. My email can be found on alfiesgames.ca

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

@@user-wj9xq7ig2v Thank you! I will check out your website. 😎 -- JC

@user-wj9xq7ig2v

2 жыл бұрын

@@BasicBitesCA I can burn the odd rom for you for free. Mostly I sell video game stuff.

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

@@user-wj9xq7ig2v I'm generally happy to pay a reasonable price for a good service, but that's extremely kind of you. Thank you! I will keep you bookmarked in case anything comes up. :) -- JC

Jam in all new micro ceramics too.

@BasicBitesCA

Жыл бұрын

Unlike electrolytics, ceramics don't have a finite shelf life -- so unless one has failed or been damaged, replacing those is just a make-work project (and I've already got too much work)! 🤣 That said, I actually *did* replace the ceramics around the VIC-II & VDC in my video about fixing Commodore 128 80-column video, in order to make it easier to manoeuvre tools inside that little metal box. In that instance, I cracked at least one of the old-school ones while pulling chips. -- JC

So... technically... you can build your own 1571-II... gut a 1541-II, keep the power connectors, place the internals of the 1571, and shift the board around a bit so it fits... and voilá!

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

I'd love to see anyone build their own concept of a 1571-II. I've never seen anything definitive on what direction Commodore was going to go with it (other than the fact that it would be powered by the standard 1541-II brick). Unfortunately, due to the width of the PCB, you wouldn't get the existing internals into a 1541-II shell unless you designed a new mainboard and moved all the chips over. I've always personally envisioned the 1571-II having a typical 1571 faceplate, but with the body shells reduced to 1541-II length -- and the newest ROM, of course! -- JC

@Ty_TEC

8 ай бұрын

@@BasicBitesCA In the German Forum64 a 1571-II was presented, in the housing of a 1541-II. I made this replica myself with 2 modes 1571-II mode and 1541-II mode.

28:00 How do I check if my drive is still under warranty ;D ??

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

Contact your local Commodore Service Centre, of course! 😜 -- JC

@allan.n.7227

2 жыл бұрын

@@BasicBitesCA 😂🤣🕹 have to check my Rom version soner than later. The program you show is that available for dl anywhere ?

@BasicBitesCA

2 жыл бұрын

@@allan.n.7227 I typed it in directly from the Retro Isle link in the description, but the site seems to be (temporarily?) down as I write this reply. Here's a copy I saved to a TXT file: 10 open1,8,15 20 print#1,"m-r"chr$(0)chr$(192)chr$(2):get#1,a$ 30 close1 40 a=asc(a$+chr$(0)) 50 ifa=56thenprint"1571 with new rom chip":end 60 ifa=66thenprint"1571 with old rom chip":end 70 ifa=132thenprint"1571cr" Note that the lowercase ASCII types in as uppercase PETSCII in the standard graphical character set. -- JC

@allan.n.7227

2 жыл бұрын

@@BasicBitesCA WOW. Thank you!!

Would be nice if they would make a copy of the 1571 board like they did with the 1581 right now im making a 1581 i had a 1571 back in the day.. a lot of my old PC hardware was junked in a basement flood at my moms house after i moved out.

Sorry for my blasphemia, but I need a 5,25 inch floppy drive for another computer, and these C64 ones seem to be the cheapest. Is it acceptable to trash the controllerboard and hook it up to another computer's NEC D765 controller?

I have one of these i bought non working. I have not tried to fix it.

5:16 Tell me about it.

@BasicBitesCA

Жыл бұрын

LOL

_"Front_ faceplate"? As opposed to the "side faceplate" or "rear faceplate"? Doesn't just the fact that it's a FACEplate automatically _mean_ it belongs in front? * the faceplate