The XM1541 multitask cable

Description

The XM1541 multitask cable is a serial cable that connects Commodore machines or drives to the PC parallel port. It's a substitute for the X1541 cable and has been designed to work in all modes of all parallel ports on all PC motherboards but read the important notes for exceptions. It's compatible with all parallel ports and with all Commodore machines and drives and clones that have the usual serial bus port. It differs from the XE1541 extended cable only in a pair of wires swapped.

Hardware requirements

You need the following hardware to make use of this cable:

Software support

The cable is supported by the following PC software:

Important notes

Construction

You can find the details on how to build this cable at the construction page.

If you already have an X1541 cable then you can find the details on how to transform it at the construction page.

If you already have an XE1541 extended cable then you can find the details on how to transform it at the construction page.

Pictures

The assembled cable looks like this: complete cable, parallel plug at PC end, DIN plug at Commodore end.

These pictures should give you an overall idea on how the cable looks like and how it should be properly assembled. However, when building a cable yourself, you should not rely on the pictures only; see the construction guides instead.

Usage

Connect the serial plug into the serial port of your Commodore drive. Connect the parallel plug into the parallel port of your PC.

Important! Do not plug or unplug cables while your equipment is switched on. Make sure that all components of your equipment are connected to the same, properly grounded power outlet. Put your equipment far away from monitors, TV sets and other devices with strong emission, otherwise cables may pick up interference and you may experience data loss or corruption.

If you have problems with your cable then you can test it with XCTest and XCDetect.

Copyright and license

The XM1541 multitask cable is © by Michael Klein and Nicolas Welte, 2000. If you produce and sell cables or adaptors that are compatible with this cable then you must give credits to the copyright owners. If your adaptors are built onto printed circuit boards then you must also make the complete layout available in a format and resolution that is suitable for high quality reproduction.

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