The Power-Loader cable

Description

The Power-Loader cable is a companion cable for the X1541 cable, the XE1541 extended cable, the XM1541 multitask cable and the XA1541 active cable, giving an additional parallel connection between a Commodore machine and the PC parallel port. It's compatible with PS/2, EPP and ECP parallel ports and Commodore 64, 128 and VIC20 machines.

Hardware requirements

You need the following hardware to make use of this cable:

Software support

The following PC softwares support this cable:

  • 64HDD (© by Nicholas Coplin, 1999-2001)

Important notes

  • This cable is a companion, it doesn't work alone. On a PS/2 port, you can use it along with any of the four serial cables; on an EPP or ECP port, the X1541 cable is ruled out because it doesn't work on such ports.

Construction

You can find the details on how to build this cable at the construction page.

An alternative construction method is building a Commodore cross cable and plugging it onto an XEP1541 adaptor, XMP1541 adaptor or XAP1541 adaptor. This way, the cable and the parallel half of the adaptor will work, effectively, as a genuine Power-Loader cable. Furthermore, a Commodore serial cable and the serial half of the adaptor will give you the serial connection that you need anyway.

Usage

Switch your Commodore machine off. Connect the user port plug onto the user port of your Commodore machine, being very careful not to do it upside down, otherwise you may kill your PC parallel port within a second! Connect the parallel plug into the parallel port of your PC. Switch your Commodore machine back on.

Make sure to put your equipment far away from monitors, TV sets and other devices with strong emission, otherwise cables may pick up interference and you may experience data loss or corruption.

Copyright

The Power-Loader cable is © Nicholas Coplin, 1999-2001.

Source: The Joe Forster-STA homepage

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