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I *might* have mentioned that, if I knew anything about Amigas. 😛 -- JC

That's a difficult question without knowing what your set-up is. Since you mention using Maverick and G64, I'm guessing you're using real C64 hardware with a cycle-exact emulator like a Pi1541. If you have a Pi1541 and a real 1541 hooked up to your C64 as device 8 & 9, dual disk-copy programs should be able to copy one to the other. I have done this quite successfully with Fast Hack'em. HOWEVER, your G64 may be a nibbled image of a copy protected retail disk. If that is the case, then you need to bear in mind that your G64 may contain all the same copy protections as the original retail disk, and that may be why your copies are failing. -- JC

No detrimental effect at all! In fact, the original Commodore CRTs are 13". It has simply been my experience that 15" is the closest size of 4:3 LCD TV that is easy to find. -- JC

TH-cam often dislikes links, but feel free to "tell" us where to find it. :) -- JC

My v1.24 is still running on the build in this video and serving me quite well. I assume v1.25 is still in beta, because the official Pi1541 website is still serving v1.24, and I don't know of any download links other than the official site. Sorry! -- JC

Thank you for sharing! Those breakout adaptors are excellent for using modern A/V cables with your Commodore -- especially if you still have the original RF Modulator installed, as they have the built-in resistor to attenuate the chroma signal to proper S-Video specs. -- JC

December 1988 was the last official revision. What you have there is a Final Cartridge III+ (FC3+), which encompasses various efforts to continue improving the cartridge. -- JC

My pleasure! I don't know the history of edits to the German manual, but I can tell you that the English manual later included a supplement of things that were missing from the first printing, and the OFF command was one of them. -- JC

@@BasicBitesCA My German manual does not even mention the tape fastloader/saver, no word about it. May even be a reason why the Datassette is more ridiculed in Germany than alsewhere it seems. For Germans: You have to use LOAD or SAVE "NAME",7 - makes it 10 times faster.

Others have also commented about having old 1541 internals in the new case (etc), and it seems to parallel the Commodore 64 itself: in general there is a standard for what constitutes a given model and what one should or should not find within a particular shell, but it's always buyer beware on what Commodore may have thrown together in any particular unit. :) Interestingly, it has also been suggested by others here that if you cannot open up a 1541C, the presence or absence of the metal shielding around the IEC ports will point towards what kind of internals are inside. -- JC

Hah! Thanks. :) I don't know if Commodore ever designed a printer from scratch, versus using some other company's existing internals. Even though they badged their own ribbons, it seems to be the case that the same ribbons work in a variety of machines. I would enjoy having an MPS-1xxx series printer in my collection because they are extremely capable machines and also match the later cream-coloured wedge aesthetic that I prefer, but my 802 and 803 combined do a technically fine job at everything I still enjoy printing with my Commodore computers. In the modern era, I wouldn't buy anything besides laser. The economy per page of inkjet printers is generally bad, or worse. -- JC

It's a computer from the 1980s with analog video. Of course the outputs "stink" in comparison to modern tech, unless you install a modern solution that gives you perfectly clean output (and they do exist). Short of that, the existing Composite & S-Video outputs can be noticeably improved with a modern RF Modulator replacement, which removes the RF. Regardless, even when using a completely stock C64, Composite output is much better than the RF, and "Commodore/separated video" (S-Video) is much better than Composite. Recommending that those with a real machine use the downright worst of the outputs (RF) just because the other significantly better outputs aren't perfect by modern standards seems like terrible advice to me. -- JC

@@BasicBitesCA The C64 was worse than any of its peers, so yes it did stink. 1981 BBC Micro: clean RGB output, 1981 P2000T: clean RGB output, 1982 Sharp MZ700: clean RGB output. Even the s-video (y/c) on the C64 is a huge mess with over-saturation and checkerboard patterns. And it is quite remarkable as the major C64 factory was in Germany, and in Europe RGB SCART was pretty well standard by 1982. The Americans were too much set on scraping the last cent of the production cost, where RGB actually was cheapers as the RF modulator could be left out. You can see SEGA got the hang of this with the Master System, its RGB only video circuitry of the Made-in-China EU model is crazy simple.

Flashing continually means a lot of things. Highly unlikely the wdc chip is bad. More likely you have a bad rom or bad ram or bad 6502 or bad 6522 (or 6526/8520). I've repaired hundreds of drives and those chips are the most common faults. I suggest you read Ray Carlsen's '1571 fix' document to better understand what those parts do and how they affect the drive operation and what the LED does when any of those parts fail.

@@g4z-kb7ct I already read Ray Carlsen's '1571 fix' document. For the symptoms observed it suggests the wd1772 fdc chip has failed. i have an unknwn spare from an atari st that i'll try.

@@drpc98014 Did you do the proper test to determine if it's doing EXACTLY the same thing? "Normal looking startup (LEDs and motors) but when computer boots, drive can't read disk and stepper moves head to track zero. Subsequent disk access shows 74 DRIVE NOT READY error and green LED flashes rapidly." So move the head away from track 0, power on and see if it does the same thing and the same Drive Not Ready error. If yes then it may be the 1770. If it's not the same it can literally be anything else. I'm not sure what you expect people to tell you when you've already got all the relevant info out there from Ray's site. Follow his advice first and if that's not it change some other stuff starting with what I already told you... 6502, 6522, 6526/8520, ROM, RAM etc. There's only a handful of chips and it isn't that complicated.

Just to add this my last reply, if the green led flashes once per second it might be the ram. If the green led flashes rapidly then it might be the WD1770/72, as per Ray's document. You should ascertain which type of flashing your led is doing first before moving forward as neither of those chips are in a socket.

@@g4z-kb7ct yes rapid flashing, perhaps 3 times a second. However by removing the 1772 fdc chip in prep of trying out a fdc from an atari st, my desoldering tool damaged the pcb so now I have to find an accurate schematic and insure all the connections to the 1772 are still valid. So far I found about 5 pins that should connect but don't connect to the rest of the components.

You're welcome! The shell of my 1571 doesn't look all that bad to me, and I do not have a retro-brighting setup. I soaked some extremely yellow C128 keycaps in hydrogen peroxide in sunlight (and they improved remarkably), but that's about as far as I've gone down that path. -- JC

Thank you sincerely! I started Basic Bites during those weird years when a lot of us were stuck at home, and diving back into Commodore computing just happened to coincide with a curiosity to try out this YouTubing thing. :) I certainly have more videos and small software projects that I would like to finish & release in the future, if I can find the time again! -- JC

@@BasicBitesCA So glad to hear you are still planning on some stuff and staying with Commodore! That makes my day, I fully understand the busy part of life. I myself am wishing I had more time away from work so I could use all the C64 stuff I enjoy so much.

Thank you for pointing people here; I'm glad the video continues to be useful. 😎👍 Nothing beats fast nibbling of floppies, but if all you have is a stock 1541, whether or not I would recommend a ZoomFloppy depends on your use case: If you are now exclusively using Commodore emulators on your PC and just want to make D64s of your old (NON-copy-protected) floppy disk collection from the 1980s, the ZoomFloppy with D64copy is a good way to go. However, if you use real hardware and own a cycle-exact emulator like a Pi1541 (which I also have a video on), the first thing to try is to hook that up to your C64 alongside your 1541 and use a dual disk copier like Fast Hack'em with its 35-second disk copy. It is blazing fast, works perfectly well, and may even be able to tackle some copy protected disks with its nibbler utility (just make sure you're copying into a blank G64 rather than D64 when nibbling). -- JC

yup pretty much, same for why many call Zed instead of just Z. potato pertato

@@drpc98014: What you just said doesn't make sense, because you just tried comparing a zed against itself. But if you meant "zed" and "zee" instead, then this is my reply: Nope, not the same thing. This is a branding thing. These companies don't say "mark..." as part of their branding. Plus, it's pointless extra work. Potato/tire.

Thank you kindly, Miles! Technically I am not "gone"; I just haven't been "active" in a while. :) I started Basic Bites during that weird time when many people were stuck at home. I have more videos that I would like to make and more software that I would like to finish & release, if I can find the time again! -- JC

remove the top spindle section cover by removing the circlip, clean and polish the metal parts and apply a tiny amount of lithium grease to the spindle parts that touch the top section and reassemble. This problem is well documented so just search and you will find more info about this than you can handle ;-)

Depends on whether the squeaky noise is coming from the drive, or from your spouse that you're wasting time with retro-computers again. 😛 If the drive is doing it with all disks, the other comment about lubricating the top spindle is on point. In fact you can usually get a drop of lubricant into it without disassembling it, and that may or may not be enough. On the other hand, if you have a particular floppy disk that squeaks (not just a noisy disk, but actual squeaking), check that it isn't deteriorating and rubbing its iron oxide coating off on your drive heads. -- JC

@BasicBitesCA its a 1581

I assume v1.25 is still a beta, because the official website is presently serving v1.24. I can't directly address your issue because I haven't used it. However, the creator of Pi1541 commented on this video (see pinned comment) and indicated that he might implement my suggestions regarding blank disk images in v1.25, so perhaps that piece of code is in the process of being worked upon in the present beta? -- JC

Might be but I suspect any future releases are for Patreon members only at this stage.

Thanks for the tip! I know there are also fastloader cartridges for the C64 that can speed up a 1571. However, 1571s are so rare and expensive now, that using one with a C64 seems like a waste, unless one has some very special use case to need one in 1571 mode (rather than 1541 mode) with a C64. I bought mine primarily for nibbling disks with a ZoomFloppy, and occasional use with a C128. :) -- JC

You're welcome; I'm glad you found it useful! I have not used the CBMXfer GUI. For my purposes, using NIBTOOLS on the command line is sufficient and straightforward. Floppy disk drives do need their heads cleaned more frequently these days due to the deteriorating magnetic coating, which is why none of mine have the bottom screws put back in. The top covers can simply be lifted off when needed. :) -- JC

Congratulations on managing to make printing from geoWrite even slower... LOL! But the printer is a tank, and a good deal is a good deal. 👍 I love the 1526/802 for printing text documents for the same reasons you mention: higher-resolution characters, and higher-quality imprints off the carbon-coated ribbon. -- JC

@BasicBitesCA I wish I still had the thing, are there still ribbons for it?

@@8BitNaptime Yes. I'm not sure if they're all "New Old Stock" at this point, but unlike other dot matrix ribbons that are ink on cloth, these are carbon on plastic and therefore never dry out. :) I talk more about this in the Ribbon Cartridges chapter at 38:49 -- JC

Thanks! Yes, some fastloader cartridges do boost the 1571 as well... although the 1541 & 1581 are the most useful. I can't think of many use cases for a 1571 in its native 1571 mode on a C64. -- JC

I am interested. Have you managed to create such a program?

@lordaragorn6072 yes, still a work-in-progress. It will now do all versions of v-max and Vorpal (epyx) protected disks. I may consider adding RapidLok to the list, but that one is fairly easy to reproduce already

@@wadz668 Great news. I have collected a lot of games in the nib / g64 format, which does not work properly due to protection, such as vmax or rapid lock. I'd be happy to test the program if you'd like to share it.

@@lordaragorn6072 I'd be happy to share but TH-cam doesn't allow links in comments. Any ideas?

@@wadz668 It won't be easy, TH-cam deletes everything I type

Yes! Commodore actually made that cable. The extra green monochrome input on the 1802 monitor sold alongside the C64C in the late '80s was intended for C128 users on a budget. ☺️ -- JC

Sorry, I don't use the Pi1541's HDMI output at all (and have never tried to). -- JC