My follow-up video on how to convert a PC drive for use without an adapter and issues you should consider before purchasing an 'enhanced' replica PCB for your own 1581 build project: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y9N7prCJlairYY0.html

Great job on the build and the video! The 1581 is also my favorite Commodore drive. I've thought about building one of these replicas before, but was afraid I'd spend as much as an original drive. Your price estimates at the end more or less confirm that.

Great job. Like you said, it's amazing what can be done nowadays between 3d printers and small-run PCB manufacturing. And it's funny how "crazy eBay prices" actually seem fairly reasonable when you look at trying to build it yourself, especially when factoring in the shipping costs and all the work.

Thank you for this video! With the shocking prices of 1581 drives on eBay (and prices are only going to continue going up), it's a comfort to know that an existing drive can be refurbished. As long as the needed chips and things are readily available, that is. :)

This video shows many cool things which is great in our modern era: community designed/built electronics, home 3D printing, retro computing still going strong, and talented content creators covering stuff which otherwise would never make into a TV documentary. There's so much bad going on in the world right now, but it would be dumb not to value the good things sometimes. Thanks for this!

As stated already, this is a great time for retro computing. Projects like this are great demonstrations of what can be done with new and re-purposed hardware

KZfaq is actually the place where I learned about the 1581 to begin with. Honestly, I like its looks and how it fits the C64-C/C128-C and how fast it really is when paired with JiffyDOS compared to a stock 1541.

This is why Europe was almost exclusively cassette based for C64 software. In 1987 you could buy a C64 for half the cost of a floppy drive. And even if you found the cash spare to buy one, most stores didn't sell disk versions of games...

That's so cool, Matt! Didn't know this PCB existed... and you really pulled together a lot of collected components plus talents. I was smiling when it worked, first try. :)

I recall buying it back in the day for around 300. I found it worth the price. Now we can get it for an amazing price! What a great time to get back into the hobby.

Great video! I'll be honest, Im unlikely to ever want to build one of these, but I very much enjoyed watching you build one. And well done for leaving the mistakes in, always a sign of a good channel.

I find it hilarious that I pull up this video to find all the resources to build myself a 1581 only to have pull the same Samsung SFD-321B drive out of a box of parts 5 min before hand. Time for some clear PETG to go in the printer, got to make the 1581 match my clean C64C case :P

I’ve been lusting after a 1581 for years. This might be a really fun build! Great vid!

Great details on the build! I’m lucky, I have two 1581’s but cool to know this is an option for replacements.

Fantastic video Matt, thanks for making this video. As mentioned on Twitter this has been on my radar for a while now but I’ve never put the effort in to figure out everything. Great that you’ve done that for all for us. 🙌

A good source of these parts is a dead 1571 as it has almost the same board, just in a different form factor and some additional glue logic. Both use WD1770 floppy controllers which then talk to the 6502-based host. And 1571 drives are very common.

Oh man if I had any need whatsoever then this would be such a fun build project. The cost of the thing though! Since I have literally, no practical use for it .... relegates it to the "cool ideas I will never use" category. But this is super awesome, a real showcase for you as well.

All I can say is that I'm a little jealous. :) VERY NICE BUILT! Greetings, Doc64!

I wish I had this drive back when GEOS was my main OS. That would have rocked. But I was just the son of an enlisted man... Spending $400 for a CBM drive when the computer was practically free was just not an option in the mid 1980's.

Nice work. IPA is fine for removal of rosin-based flux so long as the concentration is 91% or better. The 91% stuff is available in a small spray bottle that is really handy, or in bulk bottles for refilling your sprayer. Shoot it down with the IPA, scrub with your brush, then use an absorbent paper towel or cloth to soak up the mess. I've made the mistake of getting resistor packs in backward, and, yeah it can lead to unpleasant consequences if not detected before power is applied.

You need to clip off the PC floppy's green LED. A better idea for a power connector would be the actual Berg Floppy connector from a junked PC power supply with the molex crimped on the end. The Berg connector is keyed so it would cut down on accidental power reversals, assuming you plug the board side in properly. Nice video! I'm jealous.

Drench an old towel with IPA and lay it over the PCB, use your current brush and brush the towel over the PCB, that should remove most of the flux, I learned that from Noall's Retro Lab.

Just discovered your channel via this and it’s full of everything that encompassed my early days in computing. Subscribed and looking forward to bingeing your previous videos 👍

I've always wanted one of these back in the day and this is pretty cool but other than as a novelty I still can't justify it. The video was very enjoyable to watch and I'm glad there continues to be alternatives to recreate or keep these things going.

Nice to know that the 1581 can fetch so much on Ebay. I still have mine from the 80s. Will hold on to it for a while more though.

I only had a 1541 (still better than datasette) but i always wanted a 1581. Guess I won't need it today but hell yes do i love the sound of working floppy drives. For real, i still have a external 3.5" floppy drive with an usb adapter for my gaming pc just for shits and giggles :D

I built one of these boards and I use a regular USB charger as a power supply as my floppy drive (Sony MPF920) only require 5V. So I just soldered a DIN4 male connector to the other end of the USB cable. Cheap and simple!

What a time to be a retro geek. Such an entertaining video. Building or owning one of these drives is definitely on my bucket list.

This is very neat. Thanks for posting!

I feel so lucky that I found a original 1581 drive. I use it on my VIC-20 all the way up to my C128D. Cool stuff!

This is a quality video, hope you continue the channel.

What a great project!!

Great build and great video. Thanks! Really thinking about building one myself.

I always order a few more parts than I need. Guess why… P.S.: Great videos, I enjoy them.

Great video; I am very glad to have found your channel!

Yeah, I like that. I never had a 1581 in my C64 time but I owned one 1540 and one 1541. I sold everything in 2001 and I never played again even on emulator. However I'm still amazed by you guys maintaining those old great machines alive

just stunning !

great video! your contents are always very interestintg and very fun! thank you

Great video! When you install those chips, better use an anti-static mat and wristband , if these are CMOS-chips, they may get damaged from electrostatic discharges ;)

Great video, good work👍

Another recommendation (based on experience) on floppy power connectors: don't offset them. The two centre pins are ground and probably linked internally in the drive (I couldn't see any reason why drive designers wouldn't). That means if you get the connector offset by one pin, you're shorting either your 5 or 12 V supply to GND and that can let the magic smoke out. In my case I was lucky that the smoke came from the connector or wires and the AT power supply was robust enough not to care. Both the drive and power supply still worked perfectly fine after the mishap.

Amazing work... All that's left is to sand down the 3D printed button so it matches the rest of the case in smoothness! ;-) Now go ahead and try the 1581 version of Colour Spectrum on your shiny new 1581 hooked up to your C128!

Cool video! I was lucky enough to have one of these for my BBS in the late 80s. Sad it ended up in a landfill with all the rest of my c64 stuff after I abandoned it at my parents in the mid 90s.

That was really cool!

This was a very fun video to watch, thank you!!!

Very nice build, going to give this a try myself. 1581 would by an awesome drive to have...

thank you

I wanted a 1581 so bad!

To clean up the flux, use a lot of IPA and scrub with the nylon brush like before, then take a clean cloth (like from an old t-shirt) or one of those blue Scott's Shop papertowels and lay it over the back and then rub the nylon brush over the paper towel, this should absorb most of the flux/IPA waste without issue and leave very little in the way of tearing since you are just using the brush to make contact with the board to absorb the liquid and not running it over the legs on the underside.

Great video. I wish I saved all my Commodore items back in the day. I ended up selling it all. I remember having a 1541 and 1581 as well as the ram expansion.

A very generous amount of IPA and a cheap toothbrush, then brush. Next, lay a sheet of paper towel damp with IPA over the PCB and run the toothbrush around soldered areas, this will help pick up that sticky/tacky feeling on the PCB surface.

I'm not into Commodore systems, but I find this very neat.

Thanks very kind.

Definitely a nice cool project🙏👍

Awesome job. I like how new project like this give live again to old computers

Nice work.

That clamp is sweet, thanks for providing the Amazon link!

Excellent!

It's really amazing..... just really amazing...

Fantastic device and great video 👍🙂. Seems to be a nice addition to my atx64. Thanks for showing it 👍👍really interesting project 🙂

This is cool. I bought a 1581 when it came out, or a few years later, who knows anymore, but I also got a 1351 and 1764. I feel this combination added some new life to the 64 in the waning years.

Just found your channel, good stuff! I used to do component level board repair and rework. On cleaning your flux you want to flood the board with IPA. Don't spare it like its precious holy water, use it. Then scrub with a brush and flood again. Then use compressed air to blow it dry. You will be happy with the results. Also for a more professional look you can reflow the solder joints after trimming the leads to give a nice little clean peak.

Very cool

haha disk drive loading sound brought me back to my young days instantly! oeff :D

❤️ Brilliantly Done! 👍 👍 👍

That’s an cool little project! I never had seen your channel before! Happy it popped up now. Aye you bend a pin... oh right you tell it now :)

Great video, specially the price comparison table at the end; it's easy for most people to think they are paying overpriced items on ebay and amazon, but when you really dissect the components in retroitems like these, you can see some prices are about the same you'll spend on your own building from separate components ($300 to $350 seems about right if you don't have any parts available to salvage from old equipment); you know that having the top of the line floppy drive from the 80s nowadays is not going to be cheap...

very good

Awsome!

In your video, you suggested that were living in the golden of retro computing? Do you honestly feel this to be true? If so, then that is the happiest thing I heard in a long, long time.

I have a feeling this channel is going to REALLY blow up soon.

Great video. Building an entire 6502 computer for a floppy drive is awesome.

Nice build. Purchase yourself a hot air rework tool for components that are stubborn to remove.

On the topic of "gooey mess". I had used a very same looking brush with IPA to try to clean boards. It may have worked before (don't remember) but it certainly became gooey whenever it came into contact with IPA. Instead of cleaning, it made things worse. It *may* have been because I used it for other things in between, I don't remember. But it was really horrible. You could try just spraying IPA on the brush, waiting a few seconds and then touch it to see if it sticks. I started using a normal toothbrush and thrown the other brush away. (toothbrush may not be antistatic, use at own risk).

Back in 1992 I designed and built a 32kB RAM expansion with a 32kB ROM Emulator for the 1581. Good ole times.

Oh yeah. Now this is what I had in mind.

Looks great dude. Staggered it worked first time! I don't know a thing about 3D printing but can you sand and polish the button you printed? The surface and the witness marks look pretty gnarly.

Cool project…

I like brake cleaner for flux cleanup. Nonchlorinated if you use it indoors.

fkn awesome dude

"I am beyond nervous at this point." he said cool as a cucumber and showed his audience that he indeed has the right stuff. 👍 Awesome job dude!

Pretty cool kit! But I'll never understand why people use jumper pads. It's pennies for a full blown jumper that makes it so much easier.

Do you have the pin spacer 3D part URL? That thing is awesome!

always mount ic sockets and resistor packs first, its just easier

14:25 So you FIRST connected the power and THEN checked for shorts? I would recommend checking for shorts between power and ground before you connect this, since you could either fry the power supply or damage the board, you would not want that.

Wish I still had mine as this board would bring it back from the dead.

22:34 Nice setup, I don't hate it.

Nice, sub earned. Great video.

I've been looking for a 1581 ever since I realised they existed but never had the opportunity to buy one cheaply. So this option is a good one for me. The only problem is that the only parts I have myself right now is the PC drive (a few HD drives which are old enough that they should work fine as DD drives) and the PSU from a 1541-II which I however would like to keep using on my 1541-II. So now the question is: used 1581 or this kit? At least there are options. :) Great video and thanks for bringing this to our attention.

15:15 My body physically tensed up.

It'd be fun to own a 1581 again, shame the casings are hard to come by now. It'd be neat if it could be modified to use HD capacity though I'd guess the reproduction logic isn't fast enough for that

Sometimes the KZfaq algorithm has got it right. Subbed!

Very nice done :) How did you do the speed comparisons?

I have always wanted a 1581 but not sure the investment is worth it considering the disks are becoming hard to come buy and will never be manufactured again. It is good to know it is possible to build one though.

Wow! That is awesome. I knew about the cases being available way back when but had no idea people had recreated everything else. I am glad I kept my original 1581 bought from Toys R Us back when it came out. Like you, it was a purchase for BBS use only in my case it was Color64. Thanks for sharing your build. You have provided a ton of great content. Keep up the good work PS: About that flux removal. I hate it and is my least favorite part of any build. LOL. I used to do the same method as you and it seemed like no matter how much IPA you used the end result was a sticky mess. I learned a great tip from Jim Drew when I was building the ICS64S motherboard he sells. I used the same IPA and brush but then I used a microfiber cloth with another spray of IPA. I did it after every component/component group was soldered. It is amazing how well it works and the board came out with almost zero residue. Of course, the microfiber can catch on the pins too but if you blot it and then dry it after it works wonders. The downside is it takes longer to do it this way. I have tried the dedicated flux removers and a few other chemicals and they all left me feeling meh as they weren't great. Hopefully this helps.

Really nice thing. Very cool that it's mostly new parts. But as always with these videos I feel like there's always a delayed hit where it sounds like it's gonna be all new parts, and then oh it turns out you need a CIA chip which has to be new old stock or sourced from another thing. Also would be cool if you could use a modern power supply without needing an original one?

it's really fast too!

Commodore 1581 was my favourite 3.5" disk drive... So much storage space compared to C-1541 or C-1571... How'd you get 80 columns to display on that Sony monitor? I wish I didnt sell my C-1902 monitor back in the days when I was a kid.. alas, it seems too complicated to get 80 column cable/adaptor for my C-128 to hook up to modern day monitors...

That's really cool, but I can't help but think that this entire board could be emulated using a raspberry pi or similar board. There is already the Pi1541 project, but it would be cool if there were a Pi1581 type project that used a real floppy disk drive instead of just reading from a file. It's less original than what this project is aiming for, but a lot cheaper and more practical.

It would be awsome if some one made a "1591" that reads and writes 1.44/1.76MB HD floppies. Maybe a replica of the CMD FD2000 or FD4000 instead. Only way to make this better.