The XEP1541 adaptor

Description

The XEP1541 adaptor serves as a pair of an XE1541 extended cable and an XP1541 or XP1571 parallel cable, allowing you to reuse your already existing Commodore serial cable and Commodore parallel cable. It's compatible with PS/2, EPP and ECP parallel ports and with Commodore 1541, 1570 and 1571 drives.

Hardware requirements

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

Software support

The adaptor is fully supported by the following PC software:

For the list of software partially supporting this adaptor, see the page of the XE1541 extended cable and the XP1541 and XP1571 parallel cables.

Important notes

Construction

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

Pictures

The assembled adaptor looks like this: top from PC parallel plug side, top from Commodore serial/parallel port side, bottom circuitry.

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

Usage

Take your already existing Commodore serial cable. Connect one serial plug into the serial port of your Commodore drive and the other serial plug into the serial port of the adaptor. Take your already existing Commodore parallel cable. If you have a parallel port on your Commodore drive then you can connect one end of the cable into it; otherwise the cable is, probably, just hanging out of the drive. Connect the user port plug onto the user port edge of the adaptor, being very careful not to do it upside down, that is, the top side of the user port plug should be leveled with that side of the adaptor with the plugs. Connect the parallel plug of the adaptor 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. Never leave the parallel cable connected alone, only if the serial cable is also connected, otherwise the lack of GND connection may severely damage your equipment.

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

Copyright and license

The XEP1541 adaptor is © by Mr. Axel, 1998. The XE1541 extended cable is © by Nicolas Welte and Wolfgang Moser, 1997. The XP1541 and XP1571 parallel cables are © by Joe Forster/STA, 1997. If you produce and sell cables or adaptors that are compatible with this adaptor or the cables it implements then you must give credits to the respective 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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