The X1541 cable

Description

The X1541 cable is the original cable that connects Commodore drives to the PC parallel port. It's compatible with SPP and PS/2 parallel ports and with all Commodore drives and clones that have the usual serial bus port.

Hardware requirements

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

  • A PC with an SPP or PS/2 parallel port
  • A Commodore 1541, 1570, 1571 or 1581 drive, or any other Commodore drive or clone that has the usual serial bus port

Software support

The following PC softwares support this cable:

  • C64 Software Emulator (© by Miha Peternel, 1994-1997)
  • Disk64 (© by Alfred Schwall, 1993-1994)
  • mtap (© by Markus Brenner, 1998-2000)
  • prlink (© by Marko Mäkelä and Olaf Seibert, 1994-1996)
  • The Star Commander (© by Joe Forster/STA, 1994-2000)
  • Trans64 (© by Bernhard Schwall, 1994-1997)
  • VC1541 (© by Torsten Paul, 1997-1998)
  • X1541 (© by Leopoldo Ghielmetti, 1992)

Important notes

  • Don't let the name "X1541" fool you. This cable works with all kinds of Commodore drives that have the usual serial bus port, not only the Commodore 1541 drive.
  • This cable definitely needs an SPP or PS/2 port. You can check the compatibility between your parallel port and this cable with X1541Test. For parallel ports incompatible with this cable, you need the XE1541 extended cable instead.

Construction

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

Usage

Connect the serial plug into the serial port of your Commodore drive. Connect the parallel plug into the parallel port of your PC.

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 X1541 cable is © by Leopoldo Ghielmetti, 1992.

Source: The Joe Forster-STA homepage

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