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Author Topic: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed  (Read 6937 times)

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Offline save2600Topic starter

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Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« on: October 03, 2009, 06:19:44 PM »
Okay, just picked one of these babies up at the Emergency Commodore show in Lombard, IL the other week. Hooked it up to a couple of different C64's and used a couple of different SD cards. I keep getting the error of "?device not ready", or something like that. Being PeeCee free over here, I have tried formatting in both MacOS FAT (32 I believe) and my digital camera which might be FAT16. Nothing seems to work. Not being a C64 whiz by any stretch, would someone please verify that I'm trying to access this thing correctly? I've tried all these commands to no avail:

load "$",8
load "$",8,1
load "*",8
 

Offline ZeBeeDee

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2009, 06:46:15 PM »
Default device for these units is 10 not the usual 8

OPEN 15,10,15
LOAD"$",10
LOAD"*",10
etc
etc

More info here: http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/uIEC
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Offline save2600Topic starter

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2009, 07:18:49 PM »
Well I'll be.... that did the trick! Thanks ZeBeeDee!

Now, is there a special trick in dealing w/ some of these pesky long filenames or do you simply move the cursor around and edit that way?

Also - is it normal for it to take "forever" for these tiny programs to load off the uIEC card? I'm used to using an Atari 8-bit and the disk access speed (even with SIO2OSX) is quite fast.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2009, 07:50:38 PM by save2600 »
 

Offline redrumloa

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2009, 08:16:43 PM »
File name length is limited by Commodore DOS, 14 characters iirc. Keep filenames uder that size and you should be fine.

The uiec is made to be as system friendly as possible and that is what makes it the best product! The load speed is close to that of a 1541 by design. You can speed this up tremendously with fast loaders such as JiffyDOS. I recommend you get jiffyDOS. If the program is not JiffyDOS friendly, you can disable and use at ~1541 speeds. If it is JiffyDOS friendly it will fly.
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Offline save2600Topic starter

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2009, 08:28:53 PM »
Thanks for the tip on JiffyDos Jim. I've heard it talked about, but didn't know it was a fastloader type of thing. I want to love the C64 experience again, but damn... you can fix yourself a sandwich in the time it takes for a game to load  :-)

And yeah, the file naming seems tricky, but doesn't matter if you place the cursor, type load, delete the .prg denomination at the end, etc. On certain titles, if I modify a files name on my Mac and then pop it in the C64, I notice strange characters in place of where letters should be.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2009, 08:31:05 PM by save2600 »
 

Offline mr_a500

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2009, 08:53:52 PM »
Quote from: redrumloa;524635
The load speed is close to that of a 1541 by design.

Really?? In that case, it's a bad design. I was going to get one of those things, but my main reason for buying one was to speed up that damn slow 1541 loading. If it's the same speed, there is no point whatsoever.

The SD drive for my Atari 800XL is something like 10X floppy loading.

Offline save2600Topic starter

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2009, 09:07:23 PM »
1-1/2 minutes to load Ikari Warriors from this thing. So that's how slow a 1541 is? I don't remember it taking so long back in the 80's. Hmm... are we *that* much more less patient today? lol  In any event, like mr_a500 mentions, the Atari 8-bit adapter is lighting fast comparatively.  

I haven't sought out JiffyDos yet. Is it readily available as a download somewhere? I have a sneaky hunch my C64 won't be getting much use without some kind of disk speedup utility.  :-(

Oh and yes, I'm using a brand new, freshly formatted SD card.

So nothing like the SIO2PC adapter exists for the C64? I read somewhere something about this other 1541 emulating device that's supposed to have more features than JB's product, but no little more than that. Guess I'm going to have to do some homework on this stuff soon. Not today though - it's 20th H.S. Reunion night! Can't wait to tell all my old classmates that I'm still monkeying around with classic computers and game systems.  lol
« Last Edit: October 03, 2009, 09:12:31 PM by save2600 »
 

Offline redrumloa

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2009, 09:15:22 PM »
Quote from: mr_a500;524642
Really?? In that case, it's a bad design. I was going to get one of those things, but my main reason for buying one was to speed up that damn slow 1541 loading. If it's the same speed, there is no point whatsoever.

The SD drive for my Atari 800XL is something like 10X floppy loading.

That's why you use it with JiffyDos, then it flies! Other solutions are fast out of the box, but compatibility is near zero. On my 128T games load in seconds. It also functions as a huge hard drive and is by far the cheapest mass storage solution.
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Offline RobertB

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2009, 09:35:49 PM »
Quote from: redrumloa;524635
File name length is limited by Commodore DOS, 14 characters iirc.

16 characters.

Yes, JiffyDOS in the host C= computer will speed up loads/saves greatly on the uIEC (or SD2IEC), whether that computer is the VIC-20, C64, C128, or Plus4.

Truly,
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Offline tone007

Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2009, 12:28:57 AM »
Quote from: mr_a500;524642
In that case, it's a bad design.


The bad design is the IEC bus, thank Commodore for that. The uIEC and the SD2IEC work within the constraints of the IEC bus for compatibility.

If you want fast and lack of compatibilty, buy an MMC-Replay.
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Offline RobertB

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2009, 01:34:31 AM »
Quote from: tone007;524661
If you want fast and lack of compatibilty, buy an MMC-Replay.

Or the IDE64 v4.1

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Offline mr_a500

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2009, 01:37:04 AM »
Quote from: tone007;524661
The bad design is the IEC bus, thank Commodore for that. The uIEC and the SD2IEC work within the constraints of the IEC bus for compatibility.

Yes, I suspected that after posting.

Offline redrumloa

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2009, 03:43:49 AM »
Quote from: mr_a500;524663
Yes, I suspected that after posting.

Both uIEC and jiffydos for your 64(or 128) is still cheap. JiffyDOS is a must IMHO.
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Offline save2600Topic starter

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2009, 08:52:22 PM »
Quote from: redrumloa;524670
Both uIEC and jiffydos for your 64(or 128) is still cheap. JiffyDOS is a must IMHO.

Yes, have a JiffyDOS chip coming soon. In the meantime... could someone please tell me how to load and run a .crt or .d64 file from the card into the computer? I've tried some of the suggestions off some of the other sites, including the wiki one, but this info seems pretty elusive. And then I'm seeing there's .LNX, .TAP, .T64, .Z64, .D81, .G64 files out there too  :-(   lol!
 

Offline RobertB

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Re: Jim Brain's uIEC SD C64 adapter help needed
« Reply #14 on: October 08, 2009, 09:35:54 PM »
Quote from: save2600;524898
In the meantime... could someone please tell me how to load and run a .crt or .d64 file from the card into the computer?

To open a .d64 file, use

OPEN1,8,15,"CD//SOMEDIR/:SOMEGAME.D64":CLOSE1

or with JiffyDOS

@CD//SOMEDIR/:SOMEGAME.D64

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org