Posted By
MMS
on 2024-11-07
14:15:32
 |  Re: Pi1541 experiences
My experience:
-I own an SD1541/II, also bought from Zoltan Kollar after we agreed on an past Arok Party.
Works great, all Plus/4 and C64 trackloader demos I tried work, also Geos.
I supports Jiffy, though I found that the Jiffy seems to be less reliable on Plus/4 than on C64 (10-20% hangups I noticed, but mybe my Jiffy ROM is damaged), and switching off the screen during loading is not so great experience.
The rotating knob and the clear OLED, nince UI and that it runs from an external USB power source makes is a great platform independent, very compatible device.
But (except Jiffy) it is not really faster as a normal 1541. Though working fastloaders help a lot.
RIP Zoltán! 
-I will check out TCBM2SD, I ordered mine. It is the latest release, so it should be more 1551 compatible, though I understand it is compatible on logical level, no a full emulation like SD1541/II.
Here I am looking for a speed demon  I always wanted an 1551, and this is like that in a way., just better)
TCBM2SD has a great extra, supports the CRT files, and even two at the same time. So I already have important CRT in my ordered piece: Plus/4 mouse driver starts with F key 
BTW is there any great CRT toolset you may suggest? I opted for Octasoft BASIC 7.0 as a second CRT, maybe not the best choice, but despite Script Plus is a great SW, I would not use it in practice.
I would be a little surprised if the TCBM2SD disc loading would not be faster than an 1541, as it works on parallel 8 bit wide data channel. But anyhow I will test it.
I am sure it will become faster sooner or later
-As you know, I had/have an SFD-1001 bought from a great scener, but it get damaged during a trip to an Arok Party few years ago. I was really depressed
I could use it with an IEEE2IEC converter card. Speed was like an 1541, but the capacity was 1MB per disc.
TCBM2SD will solve this long term pain I have on that specific point. @ytm just recently added the .D82 file format support to TCBM2SD, so if the speed is great AND has 1MB floppy capacity, you can use it natively with DOS commands. Size and speed in one hand. This is I always dreamed of.
(my personal comment: 1551 should have based on that 1MB double sided beast called SFD-1001. It was the marvel of Commodore engineering, same size as an 1551)
If Commodore marketing would REALLY wanted to sell the Plus/4 as a small office computer, for that you need FAST and BIG storage. 1551 way a little faster, but was NOT bigger, and in 1986 the IBM HD 5.25" drives were available with 1.2MB capacity. Then the 170KB one sided 1551 looked like a toy.
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