Nate's xum1541 prototype
Tired of having to use an archaic Parallel port to connect your PC to your C64 drive?
Don’t want to buy expensive hardware like the u1541, or other memory card solutions?
Want to backup your diskettes with your modern day computer without the hassles involved with stuff like TPC64?
Fear ye not, my friend, a solution is in the works! Actually, currently in alpha stage.
Not long ago I was alerted about xu1541 by Mr. Animal Style, and I was wondering, “why is it that nobody took over this idea and continued it?”. Obviously, someone was on the subject.
Nate Lawson of the Root Labs has taken the xu1541 and improved upon it, creating the xum1541 (pronounced zoom 1541), a USB interface to connect your IEC bus disk device to your modern day computer.
High speed, and supporting parallel cables too, this device will be running easily with the OpenCBM software, and also will support Nibtools (for copying copy protected software)
Best part of this whole deal? The schematics will be free, of course, and it seems this will possibly cost under 40 dollars to build (not bad considering you need a hardware USB controller, based on an Atmel chip… This is not just a cable).
Watch it in action!:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/tjanCxSX6aQ" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
very cool! and at < $40 it is cheap enough for even me :-)
This seems like MORE of a hassle than a C64TPC, in terms of using programs. Why use the limited space on a floppy with a big heavy floppy drive, when you can read/write faster straight from the practically unlimited space of a light thin laptop’s hard drive? This is cool, but it only seems useful for backing up stuff that is already on floppy.
The C64TPC is also cheaper. That said, I’ll probably get one of these anyway, so I can make physical floppies to mail/give to people.
“Why use the limited space on a floppy with a big heavy floppy drive, when you can read/write faster straight from the practically unlimited space of a light thin laptop’s hard drive?”
dude, this works just like any Xx1541 interface. That means anything will work, like with a cable, or C64TPC… You mean 64HDD? That shit runs only on archaic systems. Anything else is running under OpenCBM nowadays.
Oh… I didn’t know you could connect a PC straight to the C64 with this. From the video and description above it sounded like it only connected to the floppy drive.
This device is fully compliant and has teh same functionalities as any X1541 type cable.
Actually, I don’t know if you can use C64TPC with 64HDD, can you?
The C64TPC uses its own software that runs under Windows.
Hi all, glad to see you like the work. This project is not intended to compete with 1541 replacements like the 1541-III, 1541 Ultimate, etc. Instead, it’s an advancement of the X series of cables to allow you to hook up a 1541 to a PC.
I’m most interested in this from the perspective of imaging originals. nibtools can both read and write raw images, which means you can remaster a game with all protection intact if you want.
The only USB X-adapter now is the xu1541. With all respect to it (the xum1541 is partially based on its firmware), the xu1541 is slower and does not support the parallel nibbler protocol. That is pretty tricky over USB since it’s a low-latency protocol.
Keep in mind its intended use and it will make sense. Thanks.
is there any way u would build one for me and sell it? rich rcon303 at yahoodotcommmm
Nice one!
This is what I was looking for…it will be awesome !
I have an akai music sampler with floppy drive only. Will this work to send floppy to usb?