1530 Dataset

After getting the 1541 sorted, I thought "What C64 setup would be complete without a dataset?"  They are dirt cheap on eBay and I managed to pick one up with its original box no less for little more than the cost of postage.  The seller even confirmed before sending it that he had connected it up to his C64 and loaded a tape and it had worked first go.  It turned up pretty quickly too:

While looking around to see what common faults these guys had prior to it arriving I was surprised to see that it was mainly just the rubber belts (if anything) that fail, with the head, capstan and pinch rollers needing cleaning as well.  There's one belt for the main drive, and one for the little counter on the front.  I ordered one of each as part of another order and waited for them to arrive.  Once they did, it was time to crack this guy open and have a look:

These things are super simple - and thus quite easy to take apart.  Four screws on the bottom and the unit splits in half, a few more screws and the drive assembly can be removed from the upper half of the plastic case:

This unit was actually pretty clean inside with minimal dust and bits to remove.  I gave the head and rollers a good clean with isopropyl alcohol.  I then switched out the two belts.  The counter belt is on the "top", and the main drive belt is on the "bottom":

I also applied a small amount of lube to all the moving parts just to make sure everything was good to go - taking care not to use too much, and not to get any on the belts.  I then put it all back together and plugged it in ready for a test:

I got two original tapes off eBay - The Untouchables and Rampage.  I fired the C64 up, typed "load" and hit enter.  It asked me to hit play on the tape drive, which I did.  It then found the name of the program on the tape, I hit the Commodore key and it loaded the game.

Boy did I forget how long it takes to load something from tape...  Using the 1541, even without the fastload is still fun.  I enjoy it.  It's part of the nostalgia.  Loading things from tape - not so much.  And just to rub it in - the first load of Untouchables crashed as soon as the actual gameplay started!  (It worked fine on the second load - after rewinding and starting again).

Rampage loaded first go - it's as fun as I remember.  I'm not sure how much I will be using the dataset, but for the price/few minutes fixing it up, I'm still glad I got it.

1541 Disk Drive

So what have I been doing since the last post - playing some solid C64 that's what.  It hasn't skipped a beat since I put it back together at the end of the last post.  I've been playing some games, writing some BASIC and just generally getting reacquainted with the C64.  I haven't stopped on the hardware side of things though.  Like I mentioned previously I've bought a few accessories, and now the system is running it's time to work through them.  The first being this guy:

It's a beast of a thing!  Just like the C64 itself, instead of paying top dollar for something in mint condition I took a punt on something that was listed as "found in storage - sold as is".  The unit looked like it had been sitting on a shelf in a garage for a long time.  Instead of firing it up - I opened it up to have a look before plugging it in:

It was dirty - but actually in pretty good condition.  I kept pulling it apart so I could give it all a good clean and a closer inspection:

All parts got a good clean, all dust removed and a rub with isopropyl alcohol where needed.  One of the other key things I picked up watching a bunch of repair videos on YouTube, was to make sure you put some lubricant on any of the mechanical parts that move.  So I did that too.  I also gave the head a very good clean with isopropyl alcohol:

It was at this point that I had to wait again - this time for a replacement belt to arrive.  While the one that was on there didn't seem terrible, it was also only a couple of dollars for a replacement.  So I placed my order and waited (and played some games while I waited).  Then it arrived:

That's the new belt inside the old one...  Fitted the replacement and put it all back together:

It was at this point I plugged it in.  First without the C64 connected, and as expected the drive powered up and ran for a second or two.  So far so good.  So I turned it off and  connected it up to the C64.  Turned the drive on again, then turned on the C64 - drive light on for a second or two like it should be.  By this stage I had also received the set of 25 random used disks I purchased for next to nothing off eBay.  I inserted on of the disks, and typed:

LOAD "$",8

Once that finished I typed:

LIST

And low and behold I got a directory listing that matched the notes scribbled on the label of the disk.  It was at this point it was time to test the drive a little more using this guy:

It's a 1541 test cart - info is here.  I ran through various tests from the cart menu - all passed:

At this point I turned off the C64, pulled out the test cart and tried a few more disks.  All gave me directory listings without issue - but some failed to run, looking at the titles I think some of them may actually beApple II software which is why they won't load.

There was only one thing left to complete this bit of work - setup up my new (old stock) disk box:

I also got a box of new (old stock) disks cheap to play around with as well.  Done!