I was one that enabled the sensor on my original drive decades ago. It is still in use today and I have had zero problems. Copy protected disks have had no problems, either which was supposedly another reason to leave it off. It is nice getting rid of the head knock. Nice video overview. Subscribed.
Thank you, and welcome! That's certainly a success story, and what Commodore intended in the first place. Others who have done the same have had their drives go willy-nilly and fail track alignment tests. I wonder what the determining factor is. Either way, good to read that your 1541C is still serving faithfully! -- JC
There are more of these C units out there than you may realise. I have one that has the Newtronics mech, newer style board with the r/w hybrid module and it is actually a brown/beige case with the rainbow logo. So it looks like the regular 1541 from 1982 but is actually a C. I also have a creme 1541 that looks like it should be a C but on the inside it's the same common older board from the brown 1541 but the mech is an Alps version. The mech is just the same 1541 older mech and the faceplate is just painted creme. The other side of the faceplate is brown so it was just painted by Commodore. As we all know, Commodore would just fit anything together using whatever parts they had in stock and sell it so it's not surprising there are drives around with various combinations of the parts, creme 1541 drives with Newtronics or Alps mechs and brown 1541C drives with Newtronics or Alps mechs and either type can have the older board or the newer type with the ceramic hybrid head read/write module. The only way to know for sure is to open it up and look inside.
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
There's another comment thread on this video which also indicates that Commodore put some 1541 long boards into the new 1541C cases. It was also suggested that the presence of a newer, shorter board inside a drive might be indicated by metal shielding around the serial ports. In the interests of saving cost, throwing some remaining old parts into newer cases does sound like something Commodore would do! -- JC
I got this in 1987 - it cost a small fortune at the time. Never had an issue with the head-banging. Another way to bypass the save-and-replace bug is to include the unit number in the file name. I did this quite frequently and it always worked.
Your 1987 model may have had the fixed ROM anyhow -- but quite right that always specifying drive 0 will prevent the bug from biting you, where it exists! -- JC
Cool video. I refurbished one of these a while back. Great drive edition. That SAVE on REPLACE bug ruined a school assignment on me once. I still get pissed when I think of it today. Argh!
I seem to remember that the I/O port that the sensor is connected to, is the same 8-bit port that is often used for the parallel cable of floppy speeders. So using the sensor would introduce an incompatibility with such cables.
I do know that there are additional layers of complexity to hacking a parallel port into a 1541C or a 1541-II, versus an original 1541... your recollection could very well be the reason! -- JC
I activated the sensor for track 0 on my 1541C. So the rattling is gone and the read/write head no longer adjusts itself so quickly. I can do without a parallel cable, the 1541 C works well with cartridges (c64- AR 5, AR 6 or FC III). Thank your for this video . :-)
My pleasure, Frank! Thank you for sharing your success story with the sensor. All versions of the 1541 should work exactly the same with any of the major speeder/freezer cartridges, regardless of the ROM tweaks made along the way. A parallel cable is really just for custom solutions that are specifically programmed to take advantage of it; a modern example is high speed burst nibbling with a ZoomFloppy, which I demonstrate (albeit with a 1571) in my video on "Installing a ZOOMFLOPPY in 2022". -- JC
I recently got the 1541C, yellowed but in perfect shape, today i started the retrobrite process and I'm really confident this drive was never opened before I disassembled it, it has so called middle board Assy 250442. The same one i have in original 1541 but the difference is that all the chips are soldered to the board.
Interesting! If you check out Marco Warga's comment on this video, he also mentions finding an original 1541 board in his 220V European model: so at least one factory was still putting whatever old parts remained on-hand into 1541C cases. I'm not sure if any ~117V North American models also have the old internals. Marco suggests in his commentary that the updated "short board" 1541Cs can be identified from the exterior by metal shielding around the DIN sockets. -- JC
Thank you! I found it interesting that the product photo in the Buyer's Guide also showed an ALPS mechanism, even though they're reportedly in the minority of 1541Cs. -- JC
This was the drive I had with the C64c thanks to my parents getting it for me in xmas of 89 (my parents no longer with me now) I was 8 years old then I had no idea about earlier models, my audio fuse would blow several times and I had to be lent out an old black bread keyboard as a kid had No idea why haha.
I got one of these used at Xmas in 1987 together with a used C64C. To this day the distinct sounds of this drive always remember me of the time when I was the happiest kid in the world ;-) Not all of the 1541Cs seem to have the short board though. I have two 1541Cs that don't have the short board, and consequently, they don't have the track 0 sensor fitted. If you're living in Europe, I would also suggest to check out the voltage rating on the label. The 1541 transformer can be set to 220V or 240V. The drives I got from ebay seemed to be randomly preset to either voltages from factory (maybe related to the country they were sold in). Make sure you mod the 220V ones to 240V these days, as that makes them run quite a bit cooler. Oh, and you can tell if a 1541C has the short board upfront by looking at the DIN sockets: The short board always seems to have shielded ones and you can spot those shields through the case. There is a track 0 sensor mod for the older boards and I'm going to apply it to my drives. There are rumors that the Mitsumi heads are dying quickly, so I don't want them to do unnecessary headbanging.
Nice! Considering they came out in 1986, "used" in 1987 is practically brand new. I don't know anything about the European models (they wouldn't work on the 120VAC here in Canada anyhow). However, I checked the ports on mine, and per your observation: they certainly do have metal around them. Do you know what ROM was on your "long board" 1541Cs? I wonder if Commodore made a different new PCB for some of the European models, or literally just stuck original 1541 internals in some of the new cases to use up existing parts. -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA All my 1541's have assy 250442 boards, even the older Alps model one. This board doesn't support the track 0 sensor. The respective pins on the board are not connected to anything. One of the Mitsumi mechanisms has the sensor populated nevertheless. All drives had defects and seemed untampered to me when I fixed them. So yes, probably Commodore put together whatever they had in stock. Anyway, for some strange reason I cannot explain I am obsessed with this kind of floppy drive ;-)
That's odd, I have a 1541C (mine is an Alps and not a Mitsumi) and it has one of the long logic boards in it. Not the full length ones like in the early 1540/1541 models, but one of the common long ones used after the color switch from the VIC-20 to the C64 ascetic. I may have to take it apart and look for a track zero sensor, it is possible that the board may have died and was just replaced. The drive mechs look proper since they have the cream and not the brown face plates. I'll check the date code on the chips vs any stickers on the drive itself.
Others have posted similar comments. In true Commodore fashion, it seems that they ALSO mixed 1541 internals into the new 1541C cases -- probably to use up parts onhand. It has been suggested that looking for metal shielding around the serial ports may be a way of telling whether a 1541C case actually has the new board inside of it. -- JC
Hi, you've a Newtronics drive mechanic, and I see it has the sensor. Do you know if that very sensor is present on the ALPS drive mechanic? My 1541c seems to not have that, although I've cut the J3 jumper to not hear the headbanging! Cheers, M
I know that some 1541Cs had the ALPS mechanism (in fact the original product photo has one in it), but unfortunately I've never owned or opened one of those. -- JC
I suspect the issues people reported after enabling the track zero sensor indicate their sensor is out of alignment. When I aligned floppy drives (with the proper kit, Dysan disk exerciser, oscilloscope and the specially recorded floppies) part of the job was to seek to track zero and adjust the sensor.
That's an interesting theory, Clint! I'm not sure what tests Commodore was running that led to them ditching the use of the sensor in the first place, but once they made that decision, it seems logical that they wouldn't care about what state of alignment it was in when shipping the drives. :-) -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA No idea what made Commodore ditch the use of the sensor, I've never really thought about it. Aligning a floppy drive correctly these days must be akin to magic, the analogue alignment disks you'd need to do it properly are insanely rare.
@@M0UAW_IO83 I certainly don't have access to the type of tools you had (and have thankfully never had to do an alignment), but the "1541 Drive Tester" program I use to check motor RPM will also check the alignment of each track... I believe these are the same tools that were adapted into the 1541 Diagnostic Cartridge from World of Jani. Of course, the results are only reliable if your reference disk was written on properly aligned equipment, so I always employ an original Commodore 1541 Test/Demo disk for that purpose. -- JC
I got a 1541C just yesterday with the Alps mechanism, and I was scared still when I powered it on for the first time and heard the knocking sound. However, since it has the older mechanism inside, I don't know if it has the sensor and I'm afraid to take it apart (even for service.)
The shell is standard for both mechanisms. I wouldn't hesitate to take out the bottom screws and pop the top lid off the drive. That will show you what you're dealing with internally, and probably be enough to perform general maintenance such as head cleaning and re-lubricating the rails. -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA I did that yesterday. I cleaned the heads and lubed the rails, but I couldn't find any sensors. I think I'll just live with the knocking and see if there's any way to fix it without replacing the entire mechanism...
@@hyperslime64 I have an old-style ALPS mechanism 1541C inbound, and I was curious to know if you managed to identify it? I thought it was merely a rebadged classic 1541 with the ALPS mechanism just with a different colour case. I have avoided the Mitsumi ones for nostalgic reasons and the rumoured high failure rate of them.
I have a 1541c newtronics short board I picked up last summer in like new condition. It was erratic initially, but reseating the cable connecters to the board seemed to resolve it. It has the mark 1 rom, but I am disinclined to change it as it is not socketed. Also leaving J3 alone. I have other drives I've installed jiffydos. device number switches, as well as a 1541-ii with jiffydos, so I think I'm going to leave the 1541c as factory.
Connectors and socketed chips can "creep" over time; making sure they're all firmly seated is a good initial troubleshooting step. I find it odd that the ROM in your drive isn't socketed (Commodore typically had the foresight to do that), but leaving a "like-new" 1541C in its original condition as a collector's item sounds like a good plan if you have other drives such as the Mark II for practical use. 👍 -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA In fact, none of the ICs are socketed in this one. After watching your video, I took it out of the box for a test run. Still works! Subscribed and looking forward to your next video.
Oh, wow! I just now, thanks to this video, realised that I have one of these. 😮 I just assumed it was an uglier less colourful regular 1541. 😐 Mine have the Alps mechanism.
LOL! Well, both may be true depending upon what colour scheme you prefer. ALPS mechanisms were used in a bunch of 1541C drives -- in fact some of the official product photos of the C64C with monitor & disk drive show that variant, although the 1541C box & manual show Newtronics. -- JC
well, nice - recently I reactivated my old 1541 and for some days it worked fine until it refused working (doesn't react to any command any more). I've also got another 1541 with a similar issue (however it stopped working long time ago). So, I've got a long-boarded and a short-boarded drive now, I wouldn't care about the headers knocking, I just would like to use at least 1 drive again :) Regarding the short-boarded (C1541C, I guess) C6 was shorted and so the 12V regulator was dumped - I replaced it and both supplies (5V and 12V) are working fine again ...however it didn't solve the main-issue :(
I have heard numerous times that 1541's get very hot, but none of mine ever seemed to. I had 5 back in the day and 3 1541's and 1 1541C now, and have always stacked them. How hot do people consider hot, I would guess mine usually get maybe 30C? 35? Gonna check them when I can, I just aligned the head of one of the 1541's.
35C is not the real working temperature. You need to consider ambient temperature on top. Here in summer the temps can get up to 45C so 35C for the drive operating temperature on top would be 80C....
Yes, I've read about the Newtronics heads failing due to being improperly sealed. I suppose in that regard it's the *same* as an original 1541. ;-) -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA Well, the original 1541 is the VIC-1541 which has a ALPS drive in it. Those are much more reliable. The sad thing is that the Newtronics mechanism is found in "clone" drives as well.
There is another significant difference in how the CIA is used and because of this, the common parallel copy cables such as the 21 Second Backup backup cable from VG Data Shack will not work with these drives.
Thank you for filling in that piece of information. I was aware that it's harder to hack a parallel port into the C/II models (for use with NIBTOOLS, for example) than into an original 1541, but never dug into the reason why. It seems like the old 1541s have found a great niche as workhorses for nibbling floppies to PC, while the newer models show their improvements when being used with an actual C64. :-) -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA Modern tinkerers have found a way to hack a slightly differently wired parallel cable that works with these drives and some of the copiers. I’ve seen schematics online but have not tried this version of the cable.
The board is nice and compact compared to the 1st 1541. You can also replace the internal coil with a modern supply and then dump the heat sink and 2 transistors.
Yes! There are several UA-cam videos (not mine) on replacing the transformer with a switching power supply. For a less aggressive modification that also results in a cooler-running drive, I've also seen switch-mode voltage regulators being made as drop-in replacements for the linear ones on the heatsink. -- JC
The 1541C looks "okay" beside a 64C due to the updated cream colour, but I agree it doesn't match the aesthetic in the same way as the 1541-II (which I far prefer). This drive came to me in a lot with a few other Commodore items. From what I can tell, their relative rarity hasn't made them particularly expensive compared to other 1541s. -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA My favourite design/look is the VIC-1541, probably rarer and more expensive than the VIC-1540. The 1541-II has a drive ID selector switch and the PSU is separate which is nice and handy. It's weird, I only knew this drive existed 2 days ago when I found a mint condition manual whilst doing an unboxing video. Find it impossible to get hold of 5 1/4 disk head cleaning units. I have 4 SX-64s alone I need to open up and clean the heads on (my fav C= 8bit)
I was one that enabled the sensor on my original drive decades ago. It is still in use today and I have had zero problems. Copy protected disks have had no problems, either which was supposedly another reason to leave it off. It is nice getting rid of the head knock. Nice video overview. Subscribed.
Thank you, and welcome! That's certainly a success story, and what Commodore intended in the first place. Others who have done the same have had their drives go willy-nilly and fail track alignment tests. I wonder what the determining factor is. Either way, good to read that your 1541C is still serving faithfully! -- JC
There are more of these C units out there than you may realise. I have one that has the Newtronics mech, newer style board with the r/w hybrid module and it is actually a brown/beige case with the rainbow logo. So it looks like the regular 1541 from 1982 but is actually a C. I also have a creme 1541 that looks like it should be a C but on the inside it's the same common older board from the brown 1541 but the mech is an Alps version. The mech is just the same 1541 older mech and the faceplate is just painted creme. The other side of the faceplate is brown so it was just painted by Commodore. As we all know, Commodore would just fit anything together using whatever parts they had in stock and sell it so it's not surprising there are drives around with various combinations of the parts, creme 1541 drives with Newtronics or Alps mechs and brown 1541C drives with Newtronics or Alps mechs and either type can have the older board or the newer type with the ceramic hybrid head read/write module. The only way to know for sure is to open it up and look inside.
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
I'm a proud owner of a 1541C since the beginnings... Very nice and interesting channel: keep it up with good work! 👍🏻
Hopefully it's still serving you well. Thank you for the kind compliments; I shall endeavour to continue! 😎 -- JC
Can I add a picture? I opened my supposedly 1541C and found a large board on top 😢
There's another comment thread on this video which also indicates that Commodore put some 1541 long boards into the new 1541C cases. It was also suggested that the presence of a newer, shorter board inside a drive might be indicated by metal shielding around the serial ports. In the interests of saving cost, throwing some remaining old parts into newer cases does sound like something Commodore would do! -- JC
I got this in 1987 - it cost a small fortune at the time. Never had an issue with the head-banging.
Another way to bypass the save-and-replace bug is to include the unit number in the file name. I did this quite frequently and it always worked.
Your 1987 model may have had the fixed ROM anyhow -- but quite right that always specifying drive 0 will prevent the bug from biting you, where it exists! -- JC
Cool video. I refurbished one of these a while back. Great drive edition. That SAVE on REPLACE bug ruined a school assignment on me once. I still get pissed when I think of it today. Argh!
I seem to remember that the I/O port that the sensor is connected to, is the same 8-bit port that is often used for the parallel cable of floppy speeders. So using the sensor would introduce an incompatibility with such cables.
I do know that there are additional layers of complexity to hacking a parallel port into a 1541C or a 1541-II, versus an original 1541... your recollection could very well be the reason! -- JC
I activated the sensor for track 0 on my 1541C. So the rattling is gone and the read/write head no longer adjusts itself so quickly. I can do without a parallel cable, the 1541 C works well with cartridges (c64- AR 5, AR 6 or FC III). Thank your for this video . :-)
My pleasure, Frank! Thank you for sharing your success story with the sensor. All versions of the 1541 should work exactly the same with any of the major speeder/freezer cartridges, regardless of the ROM tweaks made along the way. A parallel cable is really just for custom solutions that are specifically programmed to take advantage of it; a modern example is high speed burst nibbling with a ZoomFloppy, which I demonstrate (albeit with a 1571) in my video on "Installing a ZOOMFLOPPY in 2022". -- JC
I got bit by the SAVE@ bug by a 1541C long before I knew such a bug existed. But that 1541C was an Alps (circa 1987).
I recently got the 1541C, yellowed but in perfect shape, today i started the retrobrite process and I'm really confident this drive was never opened before I disassembled it, it has so called middle board Assy 250442. The same one i have in original 1541 but the difference is that all the chips are soldered to the board.
Interesting! If you check out Marco Warga's comment on this video, he also mentions finding an original 1541 board in his 220V European model: so at least one factory was still putting whatever old parts remained on-hand into 1541C cases. I'm not sure if any ~117V North American models also have the old internals. Marco suggests in his commentary that the updated "short board" 1541Cs can be identified from the exterior by metal shielding around the DIN sockets. -- JC
I did the mod on my drive when I got it years ago. Working well to this day.
Good info and summary. Also, guess what, I've got a 1541C with an ALPS mechanism. :)
Thank you! I found it interesting that the product photo in the Buyer's Guide also showed an ALPS mechanism, even though they're reportedly in the minority of 1541Cs. -- JC
This was the drive I had with the C64c thanks to my parents getting it for me in xmas of 89 (my parents no longer with me now) I was 8 years old then I had no idea about earlier models, my audio fuse would blow several times and I had to be lent out an old black bread keyboard as a kid had No idea why haha.
I got one of these used at Xmas in 1987 together with a used C64C. To this day the distinct sounds of this drive always remember me of the time when I was the happiest kid in the world ;-) Not all of the 1541Cs seem to have the short board though. I have two 1541Cs that don't have the short board, and consequently, they don't have the track 0 sensor fitted. If you're living in Europe, I would also suggest to check out the voltage rating on the label. The 1541 transformer can be set to 220V or 240V. The drives I got from ebay seemed to be randomly preset to either voltages from factory (maybe related to the country they were sold in). Make sure you mod the 220V ones to 240V these days, as that makes them run quite a bit cooler. Oh, and you can tell if a 1541C has the short board upfront by looking at the DIN sockets: The short board always seems to have shielded ones and you can spot those shields through the case. There is a track 0 sensor mod for the older boards and I'm going to apply it to my drives. There are rumors that the Mitsumi heads are dying quickly, so I don't want them to do unnecessary headbanging.
Nice! Considering they came out in 1986, "used" in 1987 is practically brand new. I don't know anything about the European models (they wouldn't work on the 120VAC here in Canada anyhow). However, I checked the ports on mine, and per your observation: they certainly do have metal around them. Do you know what ROM was on your "long board" 1541Cs? I wonder if Commodore made a different new PCB for some of the European models, or literally just stuck original 1541 internals in some of the new cases to use up existing parts. -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA All my 1541's have assy 250442 boards, even the older Alps model one. This board doesn't support the track 0 sensor. The respective pins on the board are not connected to anything. One of the Mitsumi mechanisms has the sensor populated nevertheless. All drives had defects and seemed untampered to me when I fixed them. So yes, probably Commodore put together whatever they had in stock. Anyway, for some strange reason I cannot explain I am obsessed with this kind of floppy drive ;-)
That's odd, I have a 1541C (mine is an Alps and not a Mitsumi) and it has one of the long logic boards in it. Not the full length ones like in the early 1540/1541 models, but one of the common long ones used after the color switch from the VIC-20 to the C64 ascetic. I may have to take it apart and look for a track zero sensor, it is possible that the board may have died and was just replaced. The drive mechs look proper since they have the cream and not the brown face plates. I'll check the date code on the chips vs any stickers on the drive itself.
Others have posted similar comments. In true Commodore fashion, it seems that they ALSO mixed 1541 internals into the new 1541C cases -- probably to use up parts onhand. It has been suggested that looking for metal shielding around the serial ports may be a way of telling whether a 1541C case actually has the new board inside of it. -- JC
Hi, you've a Newtronics drive mechanic, and I see it has the sensor. Do you know if that very sensor is present on the ALPS drive mechanic? My 1541c seems to not have that, although I've cut the J3 jumper to not hear the headbanging! Cheers, M
I know that some 1541Cs had the ALPS mechanism (in fact the original product photo has one in it), but unfortunately I've never owned or opened one of those. -- JC
I suspect the issues people reported after enabling the track zero sensor indicate their sensor is out of alignment. When I aligned floppy drives (with the proper kit, Dysan disk exerciser, oscilloscope and the specially recorded floppies) part of the job was to seek to track zero and adjust the sensor.
That's an interesting theory, Clint! I'm not sure what tests Commodore was running that led to them ditching the use of the sensor in the first place, but once they made that decision, it seems logical that they wouldn't care about what state of alignment it was in when shipping the drives. :-) -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA No idea what made Commodore ditch the use of the sensor, I've never really thought about it. Aligning a floppy drive correctly these days must be akin to magic, the analogue alignment disks you'd need to do it properly are insanely rare.
@@M0UAW_IO83 I certainly don't have access to the type of tools you had (and have thankfully never had to do an alignment), but the "1541 Drive Tester" program I use to check motor RPM will also check the alignment of each track... I believe these are the same tools that were adapted into the 1541 Diagnostic Cartridge from World of Jani. Of course, the results are only reliable if your reference disk was written on properly aligned equipment, so I always employ an original Commodore 1541 Test/Demo disk for that purpose. -- JC
Good video
I once had to scavenge a track zero sensor from a 1541C to fix a 1571 with a bad sensor.
Given that those drives contain different mechanisms, I was not aware that the sensors were compatible. Interesting! -- JC
I got a 1541C just yesterday with the Alps mechanism, and I was scared still when I powered it on for the first time and heard the knocking sound. However, since it has the older mechanism inside, I don't know if it has the sensor and I'm afraid to take it apart (even for service.)
The shell is standard for both mechanisms. I wouldn't hesitate to take out the bottom screws and pop the top lid off the drive. That will show you what you're dealing with internally, and probably be enough to perform general maintenance such as head cleaning and re-lubricating the rails. -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA I did that yesterday. I cleaned the heads and lubed the rails, but I couldn't find any sensors. I think I'll just live with the knocking and see if there's any way to fix it without replacing the entire mechanism...
@@hyperslime64 I have an old-style ALPS mechanism 1541C inbound, and I was curious to know if you managed to identify it? I thought it was merely a rebadged classic 1541 with the ALPS mechanism just with a different colour case. I have avoided the Mitsumi ones for nostalgic reasons and the rumoured high failure rate of them.
No mention of the most important difference that is the infamous Mitsumi head prone to failure compare to the early more reliable Alps
I have a 1541c newtronics short board I picked up last summer in like new condition. It was erratic initially, but reseating the cable connecters to the board seemed to resolve it. It has the mark 1 rom, but I am disinclined to change it as it is not socketed. Also leaving J3 alone. I have other drives I've installed jiffydos. device number switches, as well as a 1541-ii with jiffydos, so I think I'm going to leave the 1541c as factory.
Connectors and socketed chips can "creep" over time; making sure they're all firmly seated is a good initial troubleshooting step. I find it odd that the ROM in your drive isn't socketed (Commodore typically had the foresight to do that), but leaving a "like-new" 1541C in its original condition as a collector's item sounds like a good plan if you have other drives such as the Mark II for practical use. 👍 -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA In fact, none of the ICs are socketed in this one. After watching your video, I took it out of the box for a test run. Still works! Subscribed and looking forward to your next video.
@@jasongins The other ICs being soldered directly to the board doesn't surprise me at all, but the ROM somewhat does. Thank you for subscribing! -- JC
Oh, wow! I just now, thanks to this video, realised that I have one of these. 😮 I just assumed it was an uglier less colourful regular 1541. 😐 Mine have the Alps mechanism.
LOL! Well, both may be true depending upon what colour scheme you prefer. ALPS mechanisms were used in a bunch of 1541C drives -- in fact some of the official product photos of the C64C with monitor & disk drive show that variant, although the 1541C box & manual show Newtronics. -- JC
well, nice - recently I reactivated my old 1541 and for some days it worked fine until it refused working (doesn't react to any command any more). I've also got another 1541 with a similar issue (however it stopped working long time ago). So, I've got a long-boarded and a short-boarded drive now, I wouldn't care about the headers knocking, I just would like to use at least 1 drive again :) Regarding the short-boarded (C1541C, I guess) C6 was shorted and so the 12V regulator was dumped - I replaced it and both supplies (5V and 12V) are working fine again ...however it didn't solve the main-issue :(
I have heard numerous times that 1541's get very hot, but none of mine ever seemed to. I had 5 back in the day and 3 1541's and 1 1541C now, and have always stacked them.
How hot do people consider hot, I would guess mine usually get maybe 30C? 35?
Gonna check them when I can, I just aligned the head of one of the 1541's.
35C is not the real working temperature. You need to consider ambient temperature on top. Here in summer the temps can get up to 45C so 35C for the drive operating temperature on top would be 80C....
I thought i was watching "this old tony" for a second
Still has the dreaded Newtronics mechanism whose head has a high chance of failing all by itself.
Yes, I've read about the Newtronics heads failing due to being improperly sealed. I suppose in that regard it's the *same* as an original 1541. ;-) -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA Well, the original 1541 is the VIC-1541 which has a ALPS drive in it. Those are much more reliable. The sad thing is that the Newtronics mechanism is found in "clone" drives as well.
There is another significant difference in how the CIA is used and because of this, the common parallel copy cables such as the 21 Second Backup backup cable from VG Data Shack will not work with these drives.
Thank you for filling in that piece of information. I was aware that it's harder to hack a parallel port into the C/II models (for use with NIBTOOLS, for example) than into an original 1541, but never dug into the reason why. It seems like the old 1541s have found a great niche as workhorses for nibbling floppies to PC, while the newer models show their improvements when being used with an actual C64. :-) -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA Modern tinkerers have found a way to hack a slightly differently wired parallel cable that works with these drives and some of the copiers. I’ve seen schematics online but have not tried this version of the cable.
The board is nice and compact compared to the 1st 1541. You can also replace the internal coil with a modern supply and then dump the heat sink and 2 transistors.
Yes! There are several UA-cam videos (not mine) on replacing the transformer with a switching power supply. For a less aggressive modification that also results in a cooler-running drive, I've also seen switch-mode voltage regulators being made as drop-in replacements for the linear ones on the heatsink. -- JC
I had a brown 1541 with the same main board and drive but it was dead.
The 1541C is interesting but doesn't match the looks of the 64C or 128. If they are expensive I wouldn't hunt one down.
The 1541C looks "okay" beside a 64C due to the updated cream colour, but I agree it doesn't match the aesthetic in the same way as the 1541-II (which I far prefer). This drive came to me in a lot with a few other Commodore items. From what I can tell, their relative rarity hasn't made them particularly expensive compared to other 1541s. -- JC
@@BasicBitesCA My favourite design/look is the VIC-1541, probably rarer and more expensive than the VIC-1540. The 1541-II has a drive ID selector switch and the PSU is separate which is nice and handy. It's weird, I only knew this drive existed 2 days ago when I found a mint condition manual whilst doing an unboxing video. Find it impossible to get hold of 5 1/4 disk head cleaning units. I have 4 SX-64s alone I need to open up and clean the heads on (my fav C= 8bit)