1541 / 1571 RAM Expansion Project

[airship]

Has anyone built this RAM & Flash expander for the 1541 or 1571? Seems like a  pretty sophisticated design, and the same board will apparently work with the PET, VIC-20, or just about any pure 6502-based system:



http://freenet-homepage.de/x1541/hardware/petram.html

This board makes it possible to use 32K RAM and 128K of Flash ROM in a 1541/71 drive. He's even got a Flash image for DolphinDOS (you can download and flash a JiffyDOS image, too). If you don't want to use Flash, you can substitute a 256k or 512k EPROM (if you've got an EPROM burner). The added RAM is Maverick-compatible.

If I'm reading it right, you can even use the board to flash new BASIC or Kernal ROMs for your C64 or C128.

Nice thing is, he's got custom software for flashing the converted drives that's C128-specific. Gotta love that!

Unfortunately, his order page is apparently long gone, so you'd have to burn your own boards.

Of course, there IS a place that will burn an order of three double-sided boards (up to 2.5"x3.8" or so) for a flat fee of $51 for all three. Anyone interested, either for this project or any others? Board designs are available online for the RAMBoard for both 1541 and 1571 models, for the CLD 64K RAM expander, and many more small C128-oriented projects.

This one looks like it would cost about $17 ea. for the boards, plus about $30 for the parts. Add in shipping, and that's around $50. Sounds like a deal to me. I'd be willing to do a little more hard research on accurate costs, then order the parts and put together complete kits for two other people who want them if there's any interest.

[bacon]

I bought one pre-built from Nicolas a few years ago and put it in my VIC 20. Works great! Haven't tried installing it in a disk drive though, and I have an EPROM/FLASH ROM burner so I don't need it for flashing C128/C64 ROMs.

[airship]

So do you have 32K in your VIC-20, then? Are you using the ROM/Flash sockets for anything?

[swordfish1030]

not quite sure i understand, is the drive going to pick up on the expanded ROM and thus allow faster saves/loads? or will you have to run a program to do this? ( sorry to ask a dumb question, it's been a few years and I am rusty )

[bacon]

So do you have 32K in your VIC-20, then? Are you using the ROM/Flash sockets for anything?

Yep, at the moment the FLASH ROM holds four different KERNALs (slightly modified in different ways that I don't recall right now) and a few cartridges: VICMon, BASIC V4, and a some games.

[swordfish1030]

Does the drive automatically detect the extra RAM? or do you need a program like Maverick..

I don't thing I understood.. you can thus have 256K or 512K RAM in the drive?? That would be great for
saving files and Copying!!

[zeke1312]

Looking at the schematic and pin outs, the PCB project could be "breadboarded" thus eliminating the need for screen printing a board. It would not look near as clean  but cost would be low and  parts are readily available.