Commodore.ca: The PET, VIC, 128, 64 & More Forum

NKC Electronics has developed a new SD2IEC flashcard drive for the Commodore. The older version has been sold out for months. Now the new version is out in prototype form.

The new SD2IEC comes in two parts, a mainboard and an optional daughterboard. NKC Electronics' Tony Kim explains, "The idea of having a separate board for the connectors is to be able to install the main board inside a DTV, Commodore console, or 1541 box. Or users can create a 1541 look-alike box with the SD2IEC inside. Having the boards separate helps in creating custom layouts. It was suggested by Shadowolf, the designer of the SD2IEC hardware."

Furthermore, he says, "The boards were tested by Shadowolf with all the JiffyDOS and other turbo loaders as supported by the SD2IEC firmware.... The board fully implements the original Shadowolf SD2IEC v1.2 design. I even added the rest of the unused pins of the atmega644p chip as pads on the PCB, for users to add possible future enhancements. The layout on the PCB was mine, but it was reviewed by Shadowolf (he is way more picky in following good electronics design rules), so the PCB has his name on it, as a sign of 'approval'."

Tony also explains that there is limited availability, which means only 3 working prototypes. However, he said, "...as soon as interest grows, I can produce 100 or more (current PCB design) in days/weeks."

The links to the new SD2IEC pics are

http://www.nkcelectronics.com/sd2iec-boar2.html

http://www.nkcelectronics.com/sd2iec-da ... boar2.html

Tony has been kind to send our club one of the prototypes for testing, and in the upcoming weeks I will report on our findings.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore/Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org/

SCCAN member, Joe M., has been putting the SD2IEC through its paces, and below are some of the problems and triumphs that he has had with the device (edited for clarity) --

From: Joe M.
Date: Thu, February 12, 2009 12:47 am

Robert,

I soldered your daughter board but how does it mate with the main board?

There is a clear pin 1 on the main board, but the daughter board does not have a pinout. Usually circuit board manufacturers will make the via at pin 1 square, or at least label pin one on the header.

So-
Does it go with the IEC's facing the same direction you insert SD card?
Or
Does it go with the IEC's facing out the back?

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Tony Kim of NKCElectronics.com answered and said, "...I need to make it more clear, as a reverse connection can damage the main board. It must be connected like PICTURE 2, with the IEC jacks facing out the back. I will add some pictures to the product page.

You can install it 2 ways, with the main board below / db top or the daughter board below and main board top."

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From: Joe M.
Date: Sun, February 15, 2009 1:44 am

Robert,

The sd2iec is pretty fun to play with!

Took me a while to figure out how to mount a .d64, once I did it was even more fun...

The directions (what exist) are horrible... you may know this but in case you don't, to mount a .d64 in the current directory it would be:

open1,8,15,"CD:nameofd64.d64":close1

The example they gave did not include the colon and assumed the .d64's were in a sub-directory.

Also after looking for some instructions on how to use the sd2iec, I saw that the daughterboard is supposed to come with a 90 degree, 10 pin female plug. That is why when you see it in the picture, it is underneath... yours came with a straight one.

After using it, it is still easy to use this way though.

[snip]

Joe

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From: Joe M.
Date: Sun, February 15, 2009 5:21 pm

One thing I was impressed with was mounting an INFOCOM .d64 image. Infocom games have an unorthodox directory structure and it worked fine with the sd2iec. I remember being with Josh and trying his 1541 Ultimate and it didn't work the first time. As a matter of fact I dont think we got it to work 100%. So it looks like it will be a handy little tool to add to your collection.

I used a Sandisk micro 512meg in a Sandisk micro to sd adapter; it worked perfect out the gate.

Joe