Posted By
MMS
on 2017-07-10
18:06:30
 |  Re: One month 'til the Commodore Vegas Expo!
OFF
@Robert,
So, finally I can confirm, that the IEC2IEE converter works properly with SFD1001 as a normal 1541 drive.
(hardwired as #9 device, but can be changed).
I had to clean the heads, remove some dirt from few IC's leg, repait an internal wire, and buy some new Quad Density disks.
(the drive did not format preformatted DD or HD discs, with HD discs it does not work at all, maybe it COULD work with normal fresh (unformatted) 48TPI DD discs too, but I wanted to be on the safe side to not delay further my tests).
Today finally I was able (with a C64):
- to format an 1MB disc with SFD1001 with a fresh Verbatim DS,QD soft sectored 96TPI disc
- save a BASIC file
- load it back successfully from disc.
-I tested with a low level fast Disccopy too, but it just created a bad file and hanged up (though directory reading worked).
I could later remove the bad file with "scratch" format.
-Speed is like the snail IEC version of 1541, no turbo, Jiffy or other speed up is possible, so 100% oldschool!
If anyone could make a Jiffy for this, it could be a beast!
I am sure it will work with Plus/4, just have to add a Plus/4 specific connector for the 5V. Probably it will be the user port, but could be the cassette port too.
My setup was:
I bought my from a guy builds HW stuff to lamers like me 
The interface he built is based on NLQ's ATMEL device. This NLQ guy is Jochen Adler from Germany.
http://www.nlq.de
Go down and check IEC2IEE interface. All schematics and description is there.
The Hungarian guy made for me for ~20USD with all the cables and connectors.
His name is Mate Sebok, and he was on Arok 2015 too. He is an authorzed producer of the device, he got NLQ's confirmation.
My device is much smaller (just fits into a connector) and based on Atmega8, with upgrdaed code.
THEORETICALLY it's kernal support Jiffydos, but no success on that till now, but this one I cannot test myself
Maybe the interface knows it, but the drive also needs a firmware?
There are some really good expert in US who can make it.
But in case: just let me know if you want one, and I will organise it. I think ANYONEwho owns an IEEE488 device, it a must
(theoretically it can work with the IEEE printers and even with Commodore D9090 Hard Disk with a whopping 9.6MB size... or daisy chain 3 or 4 of them to reach the smalled SD card capacity ever made :-D )
This interface was built 2 years, and it required this time to confirm it rewally works (yeah, I had missing media, then dirty head, then some signal issues and a broken cable)
Next step is to modify the Interface to be compatible with Plus/4 too, probably will use the User Port 5V, do not want to risk my last Plus/4's TED with too high currents.
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