SD2PET Review and Tutorial for the Commodore PET Computer
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- This week I am reviewing the awesome SD2PET device for Commodore PET computers - It's like a little hard drive for your PET!
Want to buy one?
www.tfw8b.com
Need cool software for your new SD2PET?
www.zimmers.net
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www.10marc.com
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Thanks for the review. If you want to use the second datasette port for power without splicing the cable, we do have an extension cable: www.thefuturewas8bit.com/extend.html
Huh. Never saw the extension cable before. I would have ordered one of those little guys! Thanks!
@@10MARC There are quite a variety of options, I wrote a blog post with an unnecessary number of pictures. blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk/2020/08/sd2iec-power-options.html
@@HutchCA i regret not getting the USB charger. I can't use it on my lovely SX-64 without some creative cable management, So I usually use my pi1541 on that.
@@DaveCurran how awesome! I pinned your comment to the top, and I will add the info into the description.
I got myself a PET 4032 a week and a half ago :-) It came with the SD2PET (with a power extender, which is what you wanted), though I don't know why we couldn't just use the second cassette port for a tape deck (I haven't tried, so I assume there is a reason you didn't just do that). I've straightened up the screen display slightly, increased the height as it was also a bit squashed, fixed a slight sound problem, and I'll be installing a reset switch tomorrow.
It's a piece of art, and possibly the most iconic computer ever made. I love it.
It's the computer I learn't to program on at school, and it's brilliant to actually have one now. I've wanted one since 1982.
The second cassette port works just fine, but it is device 1, meaning that any software that loads or saves to cassette must be coded to save to device 1 instead of 0. Same inconvenience we have with device 8 & 9 with disk drives.
It amazes me how we are still running these very early Commodore machines. I am sure the guys at Commodore thought they would last 5 or 6 years and then disappear. Thanks for the review Doug, I am more of an Amiga guy, but still interesting.
It is amazing that they are still chugging away after all these years. These PETS were built like tanks, though - all solid metal.
@@10MARC I am sure that's why they are still running. When you compare the modern machines I doubt many of them will survive to 30 or 40 years old. I was watching Branchus Creations do a repair on a mac portable and the ease with which it could be disassembled and re-assembled compared with the current Apple who actively block you from being able to repair their machines show the terrible state we are in today.
You are certainly correct. Some of the modern machines fight against you so much to repair them. It is just silly. I guess it's OK, as few of the modern machines have a soul or personality like our old machines. Scrap them and buy a new one I guess...
I learned computers on A pet in grade 9. our school had them in our computer lab. brings back old memories.
We had a single PET in 1980 or so in our school. They brought it from room to room on a cart and we got some time with it. Good times!
@@10MARC We had about 20 pet computers and 2 pets would share one big double drive. ,8 and ,9 but you had TO MAKE SURE THE OTHER PERSON WAS NOT ACCESSING THE DRIVE AT THE SAME TIME
@@10MARC Wow I played that space invaders game haha very cool
It is amazing how well done that game is, considering it is just a bunch of PETSCII graphics! The sound is pretty good too - and the splash screen of this version shows how you can jury rig audio on old PETS!
Yup, I also had to splice in more wire on my SD2IEC so I could chain it to my other drives for writing images from one to the other. If TFW8B just added like 6 more inches to those units they would be perfect.
Glad to hear I am not alone with the splicing! Hopefully you did a better job than me...
Most people are just using the SD2IEC or SD2PET alone, so the wire is the prefect length. Extend it and there would be a lot of unsightly slack wire most of the time. That is why we have the optional extender cable. (www.thefuturewas8bit.com/extend.html , blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk/2020/08/sd2iec-power-options.html)
@15:08... 389 kilo bytes of memory! Thanks for the review I was wondering about getting one of these... did the s/w come on a supplied SD card or did you assemble that yourself?
If you but the SD card from them, it comes loaded with an OK selection of software. I put Visicalc, Telengard, Wordpro and the CBM4032 software on there myself.
This was insanely useful for me, the Wedge commands are something I need to install in my brain. Thank you!
Glad it helped! I always use the Wedge commands with my PET now.
23:00 Just for science I timed how long it took to load a program of a similar size on an original 1541 on the C64. I had a game that was 121 blocks in size, so it is a little bigger than the example in the video and it took 1 minute and 19 seconds from the moment I issued the Load command until the Ready prompt appeared. With the Epyx Fastloader cartridge installed it only took 16 seconds to load the same program on the same drive. Quite a bit faster, but still not as fast a PET. Just a little comparison on how fast the PET actually was :) Btw I tested on real hardware and not on an emulator :)
SCIENCE! Awesome! Yep, the IEEE-488 interface is quite a lot faster. The Fastloader cart makes a huge difference on the C64, as does JiffyDOS.
At one point there was another version of the SD adapter for the PET that I pre-ordered. I was refunded as they were not sure when it would be released. For some reason I remember wanting the 'high-end' model but can remember the differences. Hope it still comes out!
There are a few others I have seen too. I really like this one though - and it is so fast!
Thanks Doug for the great tutorial video on the PET. Did learn things!
Cool! Now you need to get a PET and have Clicky's Grandad show up.
@@10MARC Oh we have something more... Fido.netty planned for the old feller. 🐾
I believe there is a way to get a true 40 column display on a 8032 with a mod but I can not remember where I saw it and if it is still available.
I have seen that MOD. I think you have to get a ROM Switcher, too.
The ZX comment.....definitely said to wind us brits up ;)
Yep... I like to poke the bear a bit with that. Just good old schoolyard fun, though...
Good lord, my first job at 17 was electronic technician and we had one of these in the office. I actually taught myself coding (Machine code , and Basic, and even GFA Basic) on this baby in my lunch time and ended up taking this home on the weekend to learn more. Until I got my own Atari ST520 for my 21st Birthday ... lol Now I'm a senior software embedded developer (yes old lol)
Cool story! Glad it brought back some great memories. I was but a wee lad of 8 when they came to my grade school, but I remember thinking the PETS were these really powerful machines back when I got my VIC-20 at 12 years old. I was not wrong... They really were powerful
There is a guy on RUclips who has a house latterly full of Pets his channel is chris537a. I mean he has them everywhere including the Garage and he has other Commodore 8 Bits and parts stored in totes. He is like the Sandford and Son of Commodore 8 Bit. Every time I think I have gone past the point of no return I think of this guy. I think if I was having trouble finding something he would be the one I would reach out to.
Wow! I think Dave Bradley's house looks like that too. Stacked floor to ceiling with the stuff. I will check out that channel. Thanks!
thats one clean unit... Nice Score
It was in beautiful shape - nice and clean. The keyboard needed some TLC, but really just a good cleaning fixed the keys. There was a Black Widow spider web inside, but no sign of the spider... The joys of living in Arizona.
thanks mark for the shoutout its drk = dark and your welcome sad to see classic titles like this disapearing forever
Sorry about getting your name wrong... And thanks for the Telengard link! I will be doing an entire show on Telengard for the PET, Atari and Commodore 64.
Nice video. I have just got a CBM8032. It looked pretty bad and did not work, so I have cleaned and fixed it. Of course, I have ordered an SD2PET :-) So, I will make use of your info, soon. I am really looking forward to use it. I also have a pretty strange drive. It acts like a 8250 on one drive and an 8050 at the other drive. It is not (yet) working. A D9090 harddrive it does not work, either. Oh, and I have found a mystery ROM in the 8032. it seems to provide an interface to the 1541 disk drive. I need to find out.
I have been following your adventures closely - such cool stuff you are doing! I noticed all the ROM slots on my 8032 are filled - but I honestly have no looked at what is in there. I am kind of hoping it is a Visicalc ROM or something.
Hi! I'm the creator of CBM-Command, I would love to know what kind of resistance you ran into.
Well that is just awesome! Let me check it out again when I get back from my trip to China in a week or so
Good timing, was watching a vid on one of those Mini Pets the other day. Tempting.
Those mini-pets are really kind of cool! I bought it as a collectible and a piece of history, but now have a new found respect for the machine.
@@10MARC The 8BitGuy is writing some new software for it. He really loves the machine and always worth keeping an eye on his projects for them.
Yep - That new game of his looks really great! I am looking forward to that one.
What wedge are you using? Where did you find it?
That is the standard Commodore Wedge. I think Zimmer's(dot)net probably has it. If not, I can get it to you. I think it may have shipped with most Commodore drives for the pet
@@10MARC hmmm the only one I saw on Zimmers was called "universal edge.prg" (univdemo.d64.gz). When I issue the @cd: command (such as @cd:catchall) I just get no response and I remain in the root directory. I have noticed that your .D64 files show "PRG" on the far tight column of the directory listing where on my SD card (a PETDisk Max from Bitfixer) they appear with "D64" on the far right. The SD2IEC I have shows them as "PRG" (as in your video) so I am thinking that perhaps the way the PETDisk Max handles .D64's is somehow different than SD2IEC and SD2PET.
@@jeffschaap this is certainly possible that some magic is in the SD2PET. I know the underlying theory is to emulate a CMD hard drive, and that did add some additional commands to support better use of directories.
Why do people on RUclips always say they'll put a link in the description to things (usually other channels) and then don't?
What did I miss? I thought I got The Future Was 8 bit in the description. Did I miss something else?
And often the reason is we create the description hours or days after the video is shot, and just plain forget! 😂😂
@@10MARC A perfectly reasonable and forgivable reason. At about the 3 minute mark you made reference to a video describing storage solutions and said there would be a link in the description. I think that link might have slipped through the cracks. Thanks for the excellent videos.
It was my IEEE Disk Drive episode that Doug said he would link to and didn't! Of course I have never made the same mistake. This week. I think.
But yeah, it's easy for us to forget to actually add the link by the time we're writing up the description. As much as I'm tired of hearing myself by the time I'm done editing a video, I do try to watch through it again as I make the index/chapter list and make notes of any links I should be adding in the description. But I still forget or miss something.
One "Zee-X Rainbow" fan has watched this video.
Just doing my job as a 'Murican.
Did I hear that right? 15:05 The wedge uses 389K of RAM on a 32K PET. That's impressive ;-)
Yes. I have the 32 Gigabyte memory expansion on my PET. That connects right up to the i9 CPU in there. Ok... 389 bytes ...