Posted By
corpsicle
on 2015-04-18
06:36:30
|  Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
So i need some sort of extender to be able to physically fit the uk1541 in the Plus4.
The creator of uk1541 published pictures of it connected to Plus4 with what seems to be just a 1:1 extension board.
However when i look at pinouts for Plus4 and c64 userports they seem very different?
Does anyone know anything about this?
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2015-04-18
07:53:21
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
If it is uses the port only to power itself then there is no problem, because the power pins are located at the same position for both computers.
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Posted By
corpsicle
on 2015-04-18
08:33:04
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
Thats how the adapter looks in the manufacturers picture.
*edit*
Well that link didnt work ...
*edit2*
... yes it did
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Posted By
siz
on 2015-04-18
09:23:38
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
The author (the creator of uk1541) seems to be a bit "interesting" person to me. The uk1541 uses the parallel port itself to allow emulation of parallel transfer. However he did not include the 2 handshake lines which would have been required for parallel DOS extensions (SpeedDOS, Prologic DOS, Dolphin DOS, etc). When someone asked why he said: he checked and no software uses those lines.
Back to the topic: that user port extender looks interesting because the plus/4 user port pinout is very different from the C64 one so the one on the picture can work only if a few pins (ie 1-3, GND, +5V, RESET) are used)
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Posted By
corpsicle
on 2015-04-18
09:47:53
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
Interesting indeed.
And yes, the guy has made some "interesting" comments in the past. =)
But he answered me on Facebook just now saying he would look into it and maybe even provide adapters.
But if that adapter just works by pure luck i dunno if i want one. =D
However, if one would make a correctly wired Plus4 -> c64 userport adapter, that should work right?
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Posted By
MMS
on 2015-04-19
07:22:23
 | Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
hi, why do we need that complex board at all? Maybe a simple card for the IEC device, just for the few power lines connected to cassette port may do the job? Or the IEC needs higher voltage, like 12v?
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Posted By
corpsicle
on 2015-04-19
08:12:25
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
Im not sure what pins the uk1541 uses.
If its just power i guess it could come from another port?
But then im not sure why that would be easier than taking it from the userport. =)
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Posted By
siz
on 2015-08-18
07:07:17
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
I've got the chance to test my UK1541 (#000063 - the maker is very optimistic to have 6 digit serial numbers  ) with the plus/4.
First of all: the card is designed to fit a C64C (the flat version) and nothing else. As the back of the plus/4 comes out of above the ports it makes plugging in the UK1541 impossible.
I was thinking how can I create a converter (Friday morning before leaving to Árok Party) without having to create an adapter PCB. I had some user-port connectors at home and I was thinking about soldering cable to the user port connector and to the back side of the UK1541. I already knew that the important signals are located on the same pin as on the C64 (+5V, GND, ATN). Reset/Data/Clock are taken from the serial port with a 6pin DIN/3.5" jack adapter. The only problem is the 8-bit parallel port but I can live without that (at the moment but I plan to use it in the future).
As I disassembled my user-port connector I found out that it has flat connectors in the back which seem to be ready to be plugged into another port. So I put some 1mm wide plastic between the pins and plugged it into the UK1541, expanding the connector about 2cms.
From the front side:
That's just enough to be plugged into the plus/4. And it works perfectly:
Running rocket science:
I's not perfect but mostly it works quite good.
For example since the last firmware upgrade it stucks at checking for new firmware on power up but it has a reset button and after resetting it starts up. Perhaps next release will fix it.
The things that cannot be fixed with this setup (and will require a real adapter):
- the bottom of the LCD cannot be seen and we have the status line there
- the IR receiver (to change disk image) is also below the edge of the plus/4 and it's hard to make it get the signals from the remote
- the joystick port on the side does not allow a 1551 paddle to be plugged in (they don't fit together)
Others are software related:
- sometimes disk images cannot be mounted (file fragmented error message) - I can only guess the reasons
- only D64 images are supported
- no feedback when entering a directory and sometimes I already went back to the parent when I recognize that actually it received my command but was slow to process it
Other then these mostly minor issues the UK1541 does it's job and currently there is no alternative device for the plus/4.
Now I lent my UK1541 to Murphy so he has no more excuses to finish the demo for Function.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2015-08-18
07:13:46
 | Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
Oooh in the end someome of us did try it, good move siz! 
And yes, unfortunately that's the problem we'd ask to be solved since months in order to put it behind a Plus/4  Hope the creator would listen to our persistent moanngs about...
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Posted By
Chronos
on 2015-08-18
09:08:24
 | Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
i personally love this device, but this design is terrible.. i hope someday the author made an updated version of the pcb to easily coonect all cbm 'puters..
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Posted By
siz
on 2015-08-18
10:44:13
| Re: Userport adapter for uk1541 Plus4
Oh, one thing I forgot to add: the characters are so small in the directory listing that sometimes I had to lean as close as 20cms to be able to read it.
And one more (but this is a software issue again): sometimes directory listing is corrupted (shows corrupt entries in the end). But this does not affect operation.
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