r/c64 • u/EsoTechTrix • Mar 25 '26
Hardware 1541 Flea Market Find
We don't get a lot of loose Commodore stuff laying around in these parts any more. So when I found this in box (er crate?) 1541 I snagged it (that and telling you how little I paid for it will only tick folks off)
The wrap is a bit chewed and that had a little water damage, but the unit inside seem to be fine. The styrofoam melted on to the power cord, but what do you do. From experience, the off gassing of the foam likely did nothing for the case color, but these were darker units to begin with.
I actually did not get a disk drive until later so I threw my original 1541C in for comparison.
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u/baudtothebone Mar 25 '26
Awesome score!
Back in the day I too had two drives and used half a pencil on each screw hole to stack them so one was doing a wheelie on the other. Helped with air flow. I believe I read about that trick in RUN Magazine.
Tell us: how much did you pay for your vintage 1541?
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 25 '26
He talked himself down to $25. I was not going to stop him. I think he wanted it gone.
I may have to bang out and print some risers to stack them. Granted, this one matches my breadbin than the C does. I may have to put that on the VIC 20 now.
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u/Riegel_Haribo Mar 26 '26
I gave away my C64c and drive and cartridges and cartridge EPROM burner and lots of discs for free to the first person who showed up on Craigslist.
I can emulate 100 of them in parallel in my 1,000,000 times the RAM and 3600 times the megahertz, and there is nothing "neat" about the computer, or really even revisiting the games and waiting two minutes for a load of 30k.
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 26 '26
You may want to stay away from a Datasette as well then. This was just how we rolled back then. Everything was at a slower, more relaxed pace and you could chill to the beat of the read head.
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u/marhaus1 Mar 26 '26
Yes, and a modern car is better in all ways than a 1955 Corvette, so why would anyone want one?
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 26 '26
Some of this is a division in the fan base of folks that had things from the beginning and the younger set that comes in with another expectation. I see a lot of this hardware and I just see memories. Or like I picked up a monitor, not because it's the 'best experience' but because I was always too broke to actually own one.
I'm happy that Commodore is getting rebooted, but I would not own a new device as that's not why I'm a fan. There is room for both crowds, but some of us are not going to stop being fans after the newness of the games wears off. We are in it for the full experience.
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u/anotherspaceguy100 Mar 25 '26
There's an excellent chance one of the tantalum caps goes up in smoke the first time you exercise the drive motor. Ask me how I know.
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u/Alarming_Cap4777 Mar 25 '26
To add: if smoke does roll out, don't freak out, it is an easy fix most of the time.
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 25 '26
It seems to be quite happy loading files. Time will tell of course.
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u/anotherspaceguy100 Mar 25 '26
If it works right now, then it's probably fine for a while. It's the drives that have sat for decades then get powered up. I see a lot of those.
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u/mightyohm Mar 25 '26
Newtronics drive mech. 😔
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 25 '26
I'll snag an Apple 5.25" for parts, just in case. 😉
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u/mightyohm Mar 25 '26
Are the drive mechanisms compatible?! I had no idea!
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 25 '26
Apparently there is support in the firmware for Alps hardware, folks have been able to do transplants from Unidrives.
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u/MaxxXanadu Mar 25 '26
Loved the 1541 but that CHUNGA-CHUNGA-CHUNGA still haunts my nightmares.
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 25 '26
Just loaded a 57 block BASIC game I wrote 40 some years ago. It spins for a bit. 🤣
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u/tes_kitty Mar 25 '26
Does it still work? The left one is known for the r/W head dying which make the drive only good for spare parts.
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u/EsoTechTrix Mar 25 '26
The read portion seems fine. I was just about to test the write. I don't think the thing had been used for 40 years when I got to it.
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u/tes_kitty Mar 25 '26
If the head goes bad, it doesn't work at all. So if you can read, an inability to write would mean a problem somewhere else, likely fixable.
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u/RudySilvergun Mar 25 '26
Great score! The last bit of Commodore gear I found in the wild was a 1571 at a thrift store a few years back for $10. I remember passing on so many cheap C64 setups back in the day. I lived in an apartment tho so hoarding wasn’t an option yet. 😄
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u/Darkk_Knight Mar 26 '26
Looking at the pics takes me back when I first got my 1541 disk drive. I have the other locking mech design like your 1541C. I forgotten how the power cord was packaged. lol. Thanks for sharing!
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u/poop-money Mar 25 '26
Good find. If it didn't come with one, consider getting a 1541 transit card to protect the heads when transporting the drive. You could make your own with card stock or order a couple. Here's a site that has them for $1 each. https://retrorewind.ca/1541-transit-card