XE1541 - The Idiot's Guide

So what will I need?

Go down to your local electronic parts/hobby shop and buy the following:

• A soldering iron - A cheap one will do. Preferably one with a narrow tip. It will be touching small surfaces.
• Resin flux solder - Preferably with the smallest diameter wire possible. I use 0.7mm. Remember it must be RESIN FLUX solder. Resin flux is used for electronic soldering.
• Wire - It doesn't matter what type of wire, as long as they're not bare wires and have some plastic shielding. I used copper wire. Try to get different coloured wires so that you can tell them apart.
• Wire stripper - To get the plastic cover off the wire!
• Steel wool - To polish surfaces before soldering.
• Shrink tubing - To keep all the wires together to make the cable. I used a tubing 5.0mm in diameter. The diameter of the shrink tubing will usually depend on the diameter of the wire you're using. You may have to use your good judgment in deciding which ones to get.
• Male 6 pin din plug - This bit goes into your 1541 serial port.
• Male D25 solder plug - This bit goes into your PC's LPT port. It's called a D25 plug in electronic supplies stores. Make sure it's the solder variety. You'll notice it has catchment sockets to collect solder on the other side of the pins.
• Male D25 casing - To cover the D25 plug! I prefer using a plastic casing as opposed to a metal casing
• Sticky tape / Blu tak - to hold things in place while you solder.
• Diodes (1N5819 , BAT 85, or Schottky diodes) - These are the electronic components that have to connect with certain pins. Search for them in electronic parts catalogs by the 1N5819 code.
• A copy of the XE1541 specifications - If you choose to work without one I hope you know what you're doing! You must have a good memory! Joe Forster has the specs on his X1541 page

The difficulty of building the XE1541 cable is a bit harder than the X1541 cable, but not too hard. The new factor is the diodes. They tend to complicate connections inside the D25 part of the pulg.

Firstly, buying the diodes. The diodes may or may not be on display in the electronic parts store of your chioce. If you can't find them, ask a sales assistant because they may well store them in a back room or behind the counter - or be found on a list on their catalog. So it's best to present them with a piece of paper with the diode type number on it (1N5819 - remember?!). Remember that you'll need a minimum of 2 to complete a working XE1541. I have only ever built XE1541 cables with all 4 diodes, but according to the specifications, you can get away with 2. You may like to purchase more diodes in case of soldering accidents, saving you a trip to the store again.

The cathodes of the diodes are found by looking for the white or similar coloured band running around one side of the diode casing. This band signifies that the side it is on is the cathode side. If in doubt, just ask the sales assistant.

Mainly construction is done in the similar fashion to the X1541 cable, so read about the soldering technique back on that page (yes, hit the "BACK" button on the browser). The main thing to remember with building the XE1541 cable is not to let the diode wires connect with anything else. Fortunately the wires are particularly stiff, so this will help you. My XE1541 cable looks as if it has a miniature rollercoaster going around inside it with the diode connections going everywhere! It really helps to plan which diodes will go in first and which ones go in last. Primarily, you should make the shortest diode connections first, and the longest connection (The pin 13 to 1 connection) till last. You don't want to let the connections go everywhere and then find that a diode is blocking the pin you want to solder!

You will have to test the length of the diode wires before you solder them in. They will have to be bent into shape to avoid connecting with any other part inside the cable. I know on the X1541 specs on the Star Commander homepage, it says that the cathode side of the diode must go right in to the pin. With the length of the diode wires and the connections you have to make, this is not always possible, so don't worry. On the pin 13 to pin 1 connection, the diode itself does not sit right inside the pin because it simply can't reach. In the smaller connections, you will be able to put the diodes right into the pins, so take advantage of this. The smaller the distance made between pins, the easier it is to work around the other diode wires! This part requires some manual dexerty, so take your time.

The 6-pin din connection is no different on the XE1541 than the X1541, so you can return to the X1541 main page for tips on that.