It's worth pointing out that the reason to get a RAMBOard is it enables you to copy disks that you wouldn't normally be able to copy. (copy protected - tracks longer than 2K etc)
+GadgetUK164 Isn't there a USB based system that allows full copying of every format (including copy protected) known to man on PC drives? It's one of those copy systems that create 10meg files for a C64 disk, but is guaranteed to read and write the disk properly. I think it works at the encoding level.
+GadgetUK164 TBH, I forget. I think the Software Preservation Society (or something like that) uses this setup. I saw it reviewed in YT, I think by lazy game reviews. In fact, I am almost sure it was LGR who featured the hardware/software.
I was searching for 1541 disc change and also head alignment as as normal you have a video covering the subject :) . I found the sensor on my 1541 alps drive is bad and it would be stuck at 4v when I put the disc in and not change. shorting the connections of the sensor made the controller think the disc was change and write enable and I was then passing the performance test and also the speed test would run. I will attempt to replace it, but it looks like the hard part will be removing the old one.
Hi again,thats where I got my Datel CloneMaster from great company..:D I have that catalog on my wall..:D I have that 1541 on my Easy Flash 3..:D We need a video like this for this card,brilliant.
We had Maverick and the RAMBOard, it doesn’t do anything special without the actual Maverick program. Another way Maverick worked around copy protection was tuning the drive speed perfectly. My dad drilled a hole in the bottom of the 1541 case to allow us to change the speed on the fly with a screwdriver to match the ideal speed. Maverick copied about 90% of disks we tried. Good times.
I have the 1541 Diagnostics Cart. It only works with Drive 8 so if you want to use it with another drive then you would need to send the device command to change the drive number which I particularly do not like. I am in the States and the RPM on the Drive reads the same although the Free Spirit Software I believe uses 310 as the speed not 300. I still have to play around with the cartridge a bit more. I do like the Cartridge so far I just need to add the external drive switches to the older drives. I have purchased product from Shareware Plus they sell on eBay and I enjoy doing business with them.
IIRC, the Maverick software has a copy a specific game function and that is where the 8K expansion board comes in. For example, if you chose Bubble Bobble, you need the 8k expansion board because of the V-Max! protection scheme. IIRC, the 8k is used as storage of the entire track so that the particular sector of one of the tracks is changed to random and then can be written back to the new disk (the copy). Otherwise, the way V-Max! works is that an unmodified 1541 will not write randomly in the protected track. It's been a REALLY long time since I've used it, so I may be wrong.... but I am pretty sure that is the use of the ram and how you use it (by selecting a specific game out of a list). It doesn't effect the nibbler or any other copy schemes Maverick uses.
Adding RAM to the 1541 ? :) Fantastic ! My two 1541 are different too regarding motor starting when disk inserted. I don't know why one does, and the other doesn't...
+bwack Thanks, that's re-assuring to know! Sounds like there is nothing wrong with the drive, it just behaves differently to my C, possibly due to the ROM. I did look at the apparent difference between the ROMs but I didn't see any reference to the disk change behaviour.
Did you look at the disassembly ? That would be cool to compare, but I've only seen one rom disassembled yet.. Btw it was my shortest board with hybrid package that reacted to disk insert...
+bwack I had a look at the partial disassembly! I guess it should be easy to just take a ROM dump and run it through a standard 6502 disassembler? Might have a go at some point. At some point I wanted to get back into 6502 assembly to see if I can port some NES games to the Atari Lynx - screen resolution and sprite sizes would be a problem, but in theory its possible. Thanks for the info on the short board and reacting to disk insert! Sounds like you've got the 1541C there, because that sounds like the one I have.
Block allocation map, IIRC. Is this the same 8k upgrade for the 1541 which allows copying V-MAX! copy protected disks? EDIT: 12:38 I posted too soon. I almost certain that it was Maverick who developed this board specifically to get around certain copy protection schemes, the best of which was V-Max!
You can buy the diagnostic cart from Shareware Plus for £18 shipped. sharewareplus.blogspot.co.uk/ You can download the ROM for free from blog.worldofjani.com/?p=2180 There are 6 RAMBOard left in stock on eBay at the moment:- www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Found-Commodore-64-1541-RAMBOard-from-Chip-Level-Designs-adds-8K-to-your-1541-/322068527431?hash=item4afcc7b947:g:RHwAAOSwjMJXCNIc
Hey Man! Love your vids, dude, always interesting to watch. I have a question - do You have an idea if a test cart for GBA is possible to make? I suppose , it is pretty easily possible, but have You heared of one existing. Right now i use Metroid II cart to test buttons on GBA and GBA SP , but i would love to hae a real dedicated test cart... Best wishes from Ukraine! Vladimir
+Vladimir Kunnikov Thanks =D There is a test cart (www.limbofunk.com/gba-test-cart-aging.html) but I cannot find a dump of it. Someone must have dumped it?!? I guess its possible to make something similar - I might have a look at the GBA dev kit at some point in future.
GadgetUK164 Hey! Thanx for Your reply, man. Yeah i saw this item (but kinda forgot about it , lol ). i would love to participate in project , if one occure some time in future. Vladimir
I don't know if you ever got an answer to the question of whether or not the drive spins up while putting a disk in. You probably have... but just in case? I have two 1541 drives that I think are slightly older. They have two round LEDs instead of one round and one square, and the door mechanism is very different. They don't spin up while inserting a disk either.
Naw its got to send a pulsed wave Length from one of the IC's to Detect whether the Tab is covered or not. you said the voltage goes up and down.thats the pulse coming from the inverter if i remember correctly. its like this Its a Handshake method. the programming asks to check if the tab is covered or not, and if its not you'll get the high value with the circuit open, but if you close it the value goes down. scope it just for the fun of it. you'd be surprised. PS i don't know if the Chips that you use are TTL or Cmos.
No, it doesn't work that way on the 1541 - it really is just a switch. It's either on or off and the LED is just powered all the time, not pulsed at a frequency. I will get the scope onto it next time I take it to bits (which will be soon, as I've got another 1541 on the way), but I am sure it's not pulsed - there's no reason to, its the sensor side is either high or low, there's no reason to modulate etc.
The RAMboard is primarily used to copy some original games - it can be used to copy whole tracks at once (I think), so some of the protection schemes can be replicated. At least that's what I think its used for?!?
I have a question about the alignement test. Do you know what half tracks should be? On my drive full tracks are all 100 and green but half tracks are all 100- including track 35 and red. I see your half tracks are all 100+ and red except track 35 which is 0 and green so i think all half tracks should be 0 for a perfect aligned drive?
I wouldn't worry about half track alignment - that software is inaccurate anyway imo, because the alignment is based on whatever disk you put in and the alignment of the drive originally used to format it. If whole tracks are 100 and green that's all you really need to worry about I think. Try testing with some games that make use of half tracks and you will probably find it works OK.
Thanks for reply. I think this alignment test should be only made with an original commodore test disc. Have you ever seen everything green (100 full track and 0 half track i think). As i have a very bad drive which i have to align i'll trying to test it out if i can get full green on everything.
I used the CRT image of this cart to fix a drive mechanism that I cobbled together from two dead drive mechs. Discussion here: www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62711 I think I may buy the actual cartridge, too cool.
Hi bud, I just bought the C64 diag cart. Same guy. I plugged it into my black screen C64 and only once out of many switch ons did it say "U21 bad" - I've had a black screen since. I tried the cart in my second C64 that works fine only to test the cart and that displays "U9 & U11 bad" - sometimes it says "U9, U11 right up to U21" weird... I wondered if you could drop me a message on hangouts and help us. Cheers.
+Ant - oobumblebeeoo That sounds like a RAM fault. Maybe your PSU is causing that! If the PSU connection is dirty, or the switch is dirty, or the C64 needs the main smoothing caps replacing, you can get random RAM errors like that reported by the diagnostics cart.
+Anthony Jordan I cannot do repairs for other people at the moment due to health and full time job! It's a challenge and a half just doing my own stuff lol
I cannot remember off the top of my head. You would need to look at the service manual for your model. The mains input will be 110v or 240v depending on which region the drive is from, and the output is probably 2 AC voltages - something like 16v AC for the 12v regulator, and 9 or 10v AC for the 5v regulator. Those AC supplies are rectified and fed to regulators I think. Current wise I would suspect up to an amp on each one, but it might need more.
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
It's worth pointing out that the reason to get a RAMBOard is it enables you to copy disks that you wouldn't normally be able to copy. (copy protected - tracks longer than 2K etc)
+GadgetUK164 Isn't there a USB based system that allows full copying of every format (including copy protected) known to man on PC drives? It's one of those copy systems that create 10meg files for a C64 disk, but is guaranteed to read and write the disk properly. I think it works at the encoding level.
I think you're talking about Kryoflux or something?
+GadgetUK164 TBH, I forget. I think the Software Preservation Society (or something like that) uses this setup. I saw it reviewed in YT, I think by lazy game reviews. In fact, I am almost sure it was LGR who featured the hardware/software.
I was searching for 1541 disc change and also head alignment as as normal you have a video covering the subject :) . I found the sensor on my 1541 alps drive is bad and it would be stuck at 4v when I put the disc in and not change. shorting the connections of the sensor made the controller think the disc was change and write enable and I was then passing the performance test and also the speed test would run. I will attempt to replace it, but it looks like the hard part will be removing the old one.
Hi again,thats where I got my Datel CloneMaster from great company..:D I have that catalog on my wall..:D
I have that 1541 on my Easy Flash 3..:D We need a video like this for this card,brilliant.
We had Maverick and the RAMBOard, it doesn’t do anything special without the actual Maverick program. Another way Maverick worked around copy protection was tuning the drive speed perfectly. My dad drilled a hole in the bottom of the 1541 case to allow us to change the speed on the fly with a screwdriver to match the ideal speed. Maverick copied about 90% of disks we tried. Good times.
I have the 1541 Diagnostics Cart. It only works with Drive 8 so if you want to use it with another drive then you would need to send the device command to change the drive number which I particularly do not like. I am in the States and the RPM on the Drive reads the same although the Free Spirit Software I believe uses 310 as the speed not 300. I still have to play around with the cartridge a bit more. I do like the Cartridge so far I just need to add the external drive switches to the older drives. I have purchased product from Shareware Plus they sell on eBay and I enjoy doing business with them.
Camera is pretty good, very clear. Whole vid, nice work.
+Steve Ulrich Thanks =D
IIRC, the Maverick software has a copy a specific game function and that is where the 8K expansion board comes in. For example, if you chose Bubble Bobble, you need the 8k expansion board because of the V-Max! protection scheme. IIRC, the 8k is used as storage of the entire track so that the particular sector of one of the tracks is changed to random and then can be written back to the new disk (the copy). Otherwise, the way V-Max! works is that an unmodified 1541 will not write randomly in the protected track. It's been a REALLY long time since I've used it, so I may be wrong.... but I am pretty sure that is the use of the ram and how you use it (by selecting a specific game out of a list). It doesn't effect the nibbler or any other copy schemes Maverick uses.
+tarstarkusz Thanks for the info!!! That's awesome, I will have a dig around and see what I can do!
There's a RAM upgrade board on the Atari 8-bit side of things also called the "RAMBO".
Adding RAM to the 1541 ? :) Fantastic ! My two 1541 are different too regarding motor starting when disk inserted. I don't know why one does, and the other doesn't...
+bwack Thanks, that's re-assuring to know! Sounds like there is nothing wrong with the drive, it just behaves differently to my C, possibly due to the ROM. I did look at the apparent difference between the ROMs but I didn't see any reference to the disk change behaviour.
Did you look at the disassembly ? That would be cool to compare, but I've only seen one rom disassembled yet.. Btw it was my shortest board with hybrid package that reacted to disk insert...
+bwack I had a look at the partial disassembly! I guess it should be easy to just take a ROM dump and run it through a standard 6502 disassembler? Might have a go at some point. At some point I wanted to get back into 6502 assembly to see if I can port some NES games to the Atari Lynx - screen resolution and sprite sizes would be a problem, but in theory its possible. Thanks for the info on the short board and reacting to disk insert! Sounds like you've got the 1541C there, because that sounds like the one I have.
15:07 The original Maverick software was like 5 disks. The disk you have is probably just the disk that comes with the 8k upgrade.
+tarstarkusz Thanks, yes - I've also got a full copy of Maverick on the 1541 Ultimate!
Floppy Flashback Nice. But I just stuck with SpinRite hack for now..
What a cool piece of kit.
+9ElevenGamer Thanks! Not bad at £18 shipped either!
Yeah good little deal.
Have heard of "Lovers Knock", but never heard of "Reverse Knock". Interesting! :O :D
Block allocation map, IIRC.
Is this the same 8k upgrade for the 1541 which allows copying V-MAX! copy protected disks? EDIT: 12:38 I posted too soon. I almost certain that it was Maverick who developed this board specifically to get around certain copy protection schemes, the best of which was V-Max!
+tarstarkusz I will see if I can get a V-Max disc to try and copy =D
Very cool
A lot of "erms" in that video =D One of my older ones!
You can buy the diagnostic cart from Shareware Plus for £18 shipped. sharewareplus.blogspot.co.uk/
You can download the ROM for free from blog.worldofjani.com/?p=2180
There are 6 RAMBOard left in stock on eBay at the moment:- www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Found-Commodore-64-1541-RAMBOard-from-Chip-Level-Designs-adds-8K-to-your-1541-/322068527431?hash=item4afcc7b947:g:RHwAAOSwjMJXCNIc
Hey Man!
Love your vids, dude, always interesting to watch.
I have a question - do You have an idea if a test cart for GBA is possible to make?
I suppose , it is pretty easily possible, but have You heared of one existing.
Right now i use Metroid II cart to test buttons on GBA and GBA SP , but i would love to hae a real dedicated test cart...
Best wishes from Ukraine!
Vladimir
+Vladimir Kunnikov Thanks =D There is a test cart (www.limbofunk.com/gba-test-cart-aging.html) but I cannot find a dump of it. Someone must have dumped it?!? I guess its possible to make something similar - I might have a look at the GBA dev kit at some point in future.
GadgetUK164 Hey!
Thanx for Your reply, man. Yeah i saw this item (but kinda forgot about it , lol ). i would love to participate in project , if one occure some time in future.
Vladimir
I don't know if you ever got an answer to the question of whether or not the drive spins up while putting a disk in. You probably have... but just in case? I have two 1541 drives that I think are slightly older. They have two round LEDs instead of one round and one square, and the door mechanism is very different. They don't spin up while inserting a disk either.
Thanks for the info! Very interesting - it seems some drives to spin up and others don't.
Hook up your scope and make sure your getting the right frequency for IR.you might have to tune it. should be 38khz.
+Amy Marie In this instance there's no frequency! It's just on or off! You're thinking of things like VCR / TV / Satellite remotes etc!
Naw its got to send a pulsed wave Length from one of the IC's to Detect whether the Tab is covered or not. you said the voltage goes up and down.thats the pulse coming from the inverter if i remember correctly. its like this
Its a Handshake method. the programming asks to check if the tab is covered or not, and if its not you'll get the high value with the circuit open, but if you close it the value goes down. scope it just for the fun of it. you'd be surprised. PS i don't know if the Chips that you use are TTL or Cmos.
No, it doesn't work that way on the 1541 - it really is just a switch. It's either on or off and the LED is just powered all the time, not pulsed at a frequency. I will get the scope onto it next time I take it to bits (which will be soon, as I've got another 1541 on the way), but I am sure it's not pulsed - there's no reason to, its the sensor side is either high or low, there's no reason to modulate etc.
Amy Marie I will show you in a future video! I might try and do a capture of the IR data from a remote as well to show the difference!
I bought this cartridge over 2 years ago. I do like it, but, I wish they would of put more info about all the test results.. To me, that is lacking.
I've never used a Ramboard...I presume it's for GEOS or can it do anything else?
The RAMboard is primarily used to copy some original games - it can be used to copy whole tracks at once (I think), so some of the protection schemes can be replicated. At least that's what I think its used for?!?
dont ask me, i aint gotta clue on this one :) thanks anyhow :)
could you mod a disk drive to have a clear window so you can view what's going on with disk?
+GadgetUK164 could use and old cd case, that should work.
I have a question about the alignement test. Do you know what half tracks should be? On my drive full tracks are all 100 and green but half tracks are all 100- including track 35 and red. I see your half tracks are all 100+ and red except track 35 which is 0 and green so i think all half tracks should be 0 for a perfect aligned drive?
I wouldn't worry about half track alignment - that software is inaccurate anyway imo, because the alignment is based on whatever disk you put in and the alignment of the drive originally used to format it. If whole tracks are 100 and green that's all you really need to worry about I think. Try testing with some games that make use of half tracks and you will probably find it works OK.
Thanks for reply. I think this alignment test should be only made with an original commodore test disc. Have you ever seen everything green (100 full track and 0 half track i think). As i have a very bad drive which i have to align i'll trying to test it out if i can get full green on everything.
where do you get your heatsinks from?
eBay - just search for "Copper RAM heat sinks". They normally work out around £5 for 8 or something.
ok thanks Mr.G :)
Their website says down for maintenance. :/
I checked yesterday and it was back up!
I used the CRT image of this cart to fix a drive mechanism that I cobbled together from two dead drive mechs. Discussion here: www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62711
I think I may buy the actual cartridge, too cool.
Thanks, very interesting and thanks for sharing =D
Hi bud, I just bought the C64 diag cart. Same guy.
I plugged it into my black screen C64 and only once out of many switch ons did it say "U21 bad" - I've had a black screen since.
I tried the cart in my second C64 that works fine only to test the cart and that displays "U9 & U11 bad" - sometimes it says "U9, U11 right up to U21" weird... I wondered if you could drop me a message on hangouts and help us. Cheers.
+Ant - oobumblebeeoo That sounds like a RAM fault. Maybe your PSU is causing that! If the PSU connection is dirty, or the switch is dirty, or the C64 needs the main smoothing caps replacing, you can get random RAM errors like that reported by the diagnostics cart.
+GadgetUK164 I may just send them both to you for a fee
+Anthony Jordan I cannot do repairs for other people at the moment due to health and full time job! It's a challenge and a half just doing my own stuff lol
Umm..on how much V does it work ,my transformer died
I cannot remember off the top of my head. You would need to look at the service manual for your model. The mains input will be 110v or 240v depending on which region the drive is from, and the output is probably 2 AC voltages - something like 16v AC for the 12v regulator, and 9 or 10v AC for the 5v regulator. Those AC supplies are rectified and fed to regulators I think. Current wise I would suspect up to an amp on each one, but it might need more.