Wanna see my almost completed C= related project?

[redrumloa]

Yeah, that's an old SBC with ATX power supply, 2.5 HD and CF reader shoehorned into that 1541 with original controller and 5.25 floppy mechanism. This project is about 90% done (except possible paint job). I just have to add more wires to change the XA1541 adapter to a XAP1541 adapter. The plan is to use this as a stand alone nibtools station for archiving old original floppies in pristine, not cracked state with copy protection left in place. With any luck, I will be finished tonight.

[redrumloa]

Pretty Frakkin sweet! Will there be a video when it's ready for prime time?

I could probably do that if people are interested.

[redrumloa]

Pretty neat & impressive bit of kit ... :cool:

It looks like you've spent a lot of effort, time and probably money building this, but the thing I don't quite understand is WHY !

Probably not as much money as you might think, time is a whole other story:lol: Figuring out how to crack this nut on a budget took the longest. I used mostly parts I had laying around.

I mean you can find every bit of old CBM software already archived on  the net, so why go to all the bother of re-archiving everything again  

Every bit? Not necessarily. You can find a ton of software online, but the vast majority has been cracked, modified, intros added etc. Unmolested originals are very difficult or impossible to find.

[redrumloa]

Very nice! Any particular reason for the "regular" hard drive rather than another CF card? I'm guessing the extra space the case comes from replacing the power supply.

The reason I am using a laptop HD at the moment is money, I am short of it atm. I had an old 2.5" HD on hand, so it is being used for the time being. The SBC I am using has a socket for a DiskOnChip. Early next year when I have a little extra cash, I will replace the HD with a DiskOnChip.

[redrumloa]

Did some testing with good old Star Commander. So far it works fine (no parallel cable yet), but the passive heatsink on the pentium cpu was not sufficient. I removed the passive heatsink and added a heatsinkfan. Now the wires are in the way when closing the case. I'll have to figure out a way to tidy up the wires, which may mean some extra work...

Won't be finished tonight, but happy to see everything working closed up! With any luck I'll be using nibtools with a parallel cable by tomorrow night.

[redrumloa]

PS: Perhaps it's a crazy suggestion, but I suppose you could go one step further and pop a C-64 emulator on that sbc mainboard (assuming it has on-board VGA out etc.) to create standalone C64-ish system box from it?

It is entirely possible with one problem, the SBC has video built in but no sound. If there was room, I could add an ISA sound card, but there is no room. I could replace this elderly SBC with a newer one, but no need when I have real C= computers hooked up.
 
One thing I am considering doing is to add an IEC port to the back, so I can connect this to my 128T. That way this can access the drives in my 128T. I could also access the other way around with something like 64HDD, but that would be overkill.

[redrumloa]

Overkill?
 
/me points at your C= 128 tower

Overkill? Naah, not yet ;-)

[redrumloa]

Very interesting project indeed.
I have to get another collection of "old stuff" so I can tinker again.
I might be heading to your neck of the woods soon, to see an old friend who has loads of C=, Amiga, computer stuff that he isn't using these days.
I'll try to give you a call when I get down there.

Do you have my number? If you need it, PM me.

[redrumloa]

Ok, added XP1541 cable.



After a little head scratching and reading, I realized this short board is from a 1541C and thus needed pin 2 of the 6522 disconnected from the logic board. Now it works like a champ with parallel and Warp mode enabled. Writes a whole D64 back to real floppy in ~44 seconds.

Now to do a little house keeping inside the case and it is time to close it up. Tomorrow night the real fun starts, I will put nibtools on it and start archiving (and writing back some uncracked software)!

[redrumloa]

damn that looks sweet red:afro:

 
Thanks! It would actually have been a MUCH easier project if I used a newer, smaller SBC. I've seen some newer, MUCH smaller SBC second hand that have a parallel port and passive cooling for $30 or so. One of those could probably be powered by the original 1541 power supply and fit in the case without heavy modification.

[redrumloa]

This is completed tonight. I am not painting atm, it is staying cosmetically as it is for now. I ended up getting rid of the laptop HD. I am using the CF for everything, MS-DOS is installed directly to the CF.

Holy farckin crap is nibtools fast!!!!! :eek::eek::eek: Writing an entire disk back takes about 8-9 seconds!