Commodore reproduction 1581 disk

[Gamesmonkey]

While trawling through YouTube videos the other day I came across a video about building a Commodore 1581 3.5 disk drive.
Never even knew such a thing existed and are rare as Hens teeth apparently.
Anyway several people are doing the blank reproduction PCBs, so I ordered one and it arrived on Wednesday. Started building it yesterday...

 

[Gamesmonkey]

Some photos of the nearly finished drive.

 

[Darksoft]

You missed the most important thing which is to post a link to where you bought it

 

[PlatynumX]

https://theoasisbbs.com/1581-replica/?amp

 

[Gamesmonkey]

I can't remember where the pcb came from, but there is an open source version on GitHub.
The case I 3D printed and the drive mechanism is just a old standard PC 3.5 floppy drive with a small adapter pcb to get it to work on a C64.

Seeing all these reply's has reminded me I have to put the repro drive badge on the front.!

 

[Blio Seri]

That's great.

Evil is in the details BTW:

If you weren’t around back in 1987 to pick up a 1581 drive off the shelf then you probably know just how hard and expensive it can be to obtain one today. I bought mine at Toys R Us for $230.00, tax included. As I’m writing this I just found one on eBay for $499.95, and it’s not even tested. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have five hundred bucks to throw around for a 42-year-old used floppy

Article is from 2022.