Interfacing with a C64

[jstylen]

I'm new to DBF and I am looking for the cheapest way of loading programs such as demos onto my commodore 64. Currently I am using an xa1541 cable to load things to floppy disks with a 1541 drive via starcommander in DOS. In my opinion this method is really slow and often star commander locks up on me. Loading thing via floppy can also be annoying as my floppies are old and tend to fail randomly. Any input will be much appreciated and thanks in advance.

[ferris]

Unfortunately, that IS the cheapest method By far. I used to do the same but with an XE1541.

This last summer I finally sprung for the 1541UII. Although it isn't by any means cheap, it's AMAZING. Works flawlessly and the included carts are really useful.

Anyways, the option you're using was what I was going to offer when I read the question, hehe. It's unfortunate that there aren't very many practical and cheap methods for doing this.

Anybody besides me know more on the subject?

[jstylen]

Thanks for the reply. I have seen the 1541UII. As much as I would love to have one, I don't want to shell out that much for one right now. Unless I missed something it costs around 130 eruos. I have seen some software called 64HDD. In the past I had trouble getting it to work. Maybe I will take another whack at it. It does not say it is compatible with the xa1541v2 cable but I believe the xa is a sort of crossover that is compatible with the more standard 1541 cables. Can anybody confirm that for me?

[combatking0]

One possibility could be to develop an interface to connect an RS232 (9 pin serial) output from a computer into a serial port on the C64 (if it has a serial port, otherwise you'll need to build a de-multiplexor to convert the serial signal into a parallel signal) and write a program for windows which can directly load the data into the vintage machine.

You'd need to know the voltages of the RS232 standard and the C64 interface, as well as how they both format their data connections.

This would remove the need for floppy disks, but the 1541UII sounds like a tidier option.

[Voltage]

You can look into network (ethernet) cartridges for the c64.  RR-net for example.

I'm not sure how much or where you can get them, but that may be a cheap option.

[energy]

try it with sd!
http://store.go4retro.com/products/uIEC_SD.html

[jstylen]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. Right now I am thinking of building an xe1541 that will be compatible with 64HDD to give that another try. It looks like my XA1541 cable will not work with 64hdd. If that doesn't work, maybe I'll start thinking about dropping the 60 bucks for an SD reader.

[Moroboshisan]

I'm new to DBF and I am looking for the cheapest way of loading programs such as demos onto my commodore 64.

as already stated by Ferris the 1541XA / 1541XM cables are the cheapest way to transfer datas between C64 and PC... "cheapest" means "slowest" as you already experienced.

Actually 1541U-II ***IS*** the best solution to date, no doubts about it, but there are other "paths" to explore: 64HDD gives you ability to use your old PC as a file server but it is not that much faster than 1541XA unless you buy the 64HDD cartridge...

uIEC http://store.go4retro.com/products/uIEC_SD.html is a really nice way to transfer D64 images from whatever computer to C64 with a reasonable price...

You can also consider ZoomFloppy http://store.go4retro.com/zoomfloppy/ aswell.

If you feel comfortable with DIY and have all the necessary components you can take a look at this http://www.djupdal.org/cbm/iecata/.

In the price range between uIEC and 1541U-II you'll find IDE64 http://ide64.org/ide64v41.html an interesting option.

Last words: take a closer look at all the other available options and you'll find out that 1541U-II is not that expensive as it may seem on the first sight:
Consider all the Features:
    Full emulation of a real Commodore 1541 diskdrive.
        -Uses .D64 and .G64 files stored on MicroSD card or USB stick (FAT/FAT32)
        -Supports .G64 files as well (Read/Write)
        -Configurable ID
        -Configurable ROM (1541/1541C/1541II or custom)
    C64 cartridge emulation:
        -Final Cartridge III
        -Action Replay
        -Retro Replay(**)
        -Super Snapshot
        -Epyx Fastloader
        -Custom 8K/16K carts
        -Custom Ocean / System3 carts (up to 512K)
        -EasyFlash carts
    Commodore 1750/1764 REU
        -REU Compatible (selectable from 128K up to 16MB)
        -Can be combined with Retro Replay and SuperSnapshot compatible roms
    Flexible freezer menu
        select, mount, create D64 images, browse disk images
        create new directories, delete files
        Ultra fast DMA load of single file programs (.PRG files on SD/USB, inside .D64 or .T64)
    Configuration screen, with resident settings
    OPTIONAL Tape emulation, through 6-pin header on the bottom of the board
    (**)NO Ethernet hardware available

There is just one complain comparing the old 1541Ultimate(v1) with 1541Ultimate-II: missing ethernet.

[Moroboshisan]

You can look into network (ethernet) cartridges for the c64.  RR-net for example.
I'm not sure how much or where you can get them, but that may be a cheap option.

:-( RR-Net are out-of-stock ... same for the necessary RetroReplay, MMC64 and MMC-Replay (you can't use RR-Net alone) ... so I doubt you'll found a cheap boundle out there.

you can go for 64NIC+ http://www.go4retro.com/products/64nic/

Since early 2010 there is Chameleon64 available but, unfortunately, it isn't cheap AND it's firmware is still in BETA http://www.vesalia.de/e_chameleon.htm.

A new awesome product, RR-Net (v3) http://www.vesalia.de/e_rrnetmk3.htm, is planned for late 2012 or early 2013... this one CAN work as a  standalone product and I'm waiting to see it released!!!!

Recently I saw a couple of projects:
- http://www.retroswitch.com/products/flyer/
- http://www.commodoreserver.com/Products.asp
(well, the fist is actually a newly released project resembling and expandig the older second... Commodore Server seems online by some time now but no one seems to like using it... retroswitch offers a similar service as Commodore Server with it's http://www.commodorelive.com/, but that "thing" does not convince me at all)

[jstylen]

Wow that is a ton of information! Thank you so much I will definitely be looking into theses options. Thanks again!