Monday 13 February 2017

PET MicroSD

This is an old post, preserved for reference.
The products and services mentioned within are no longer available.

This post has been left for historic information. The PET microSD is no longer in production. The replacement SD2PET is available now, more information on the pre-order page.

The PET microSD is an SD card disk drive for the Commodore PET. I have been making these for a while, but they have been out of stock recently as I have been preoccupied bringing some new products to market (namely the VIC20 Penultimate Cartridge, the Minstrel ZX80 Clone and the DivMMC Future).
I've decided the best thing to do is to setup a preorder for the PET microSD, to gauge demand for the different types and get some more boards ordered and some more units built up. There are three types of PET microSD boards. I was hoping to simplify this list, but for the moment, I'll leave them as they are.

PET microSD Horizontal

This is the original build. It sticks out of the back of a PET and is powered from the datasette port. This is suitable for any PET with IEEE-488 and datasette edge connectors (so not the 8032-SK). Note the power connector no longer sticks out as much as the version shown here.

PET microSD Vertical

This also fits on the back of the PET, but is low profile, so does not stick out as much as the Horizontal. Again suitable for most PETs except the 8032-SK.
It is powered by a 9V DC tap from inside the PET, normally by plugging into the expansion power connector (J11).
If J11 is not present, or in use for something else, it can be powered by a clip onto a diode near the power connector. The 2001 does not have J11, and the 8096, 8096-SK and things like the Super PET use J11 for expansion boards, so these would need the power clip. The rest can use J11 for power.

PET microSD Internal

This version fits almost totally inside the PET. These is a small loopback board which plugs into the back and passes the signal back inside. This is also powered via the 9V tap as above.
This is suitable most PETs, and these is a version with an edge connector suitable for the 8032-SK, this will allow the rear IEEE-488 port of the 8032-SK to still be used.

Pre-Order

This is a pre-order for the next batch of PET microSD boards. All are supplied with a microSD card preloaded with some example software to get you started.
UPDATE:  the final batch are now all accounted for, and I have no plans at the moment to build any more, so please consider these discontinued. I am working on a replacement product, more information to follow.

Notes
  • When I say PET, I mean PET and CBM and CBM-II
  • When I say 8032-SK, I mean 8032-SK and 8096-SK machines with rounded cases and separate keyboards
  • When I say 2001, I mean 2001 series PETs with chicklet keyboards and built in datasettes
  • When I say 2001N, I mean 2001-8N/-16N/-32N and other 2001N machines, which were also called the 3000 series and 4000 series. All with 9" screens, and full size keyboards.
  • PETs with BASIC version 1 will need to be upgraded to BASIC 2 or BASIC 4 (why not use a PET ROM/RAM board)
  • Click here for a full list of which PETs support which version of PET microSD
2022 Update: I have since designed a much nicer SD drive for a PET. The SD2PET is available from  The Future Was 8 bit