Classic Computer Magazine Archive COMPUTE! ISSUE 53 / OCTOBER 1984 / PAGE 10

Daisychaining

I have just purchased a 1541 disk drive, and I am preparing to buy a printer. I have noticed that a disk drive attaches to the serial port on the back of the 64. How would I hook up a printer if the serial port is already being used by the drive? Would I also have to buy an expansion interface so that I could have more than one thing connected to the serial port at one time?

Jim Eller, Jr.

It is very easy to connect both a printer and a disk drive to the 64 through the serial port. All you have to do is plug the disk drive in the back of the 64 and then plug the printer into the back of the disk drive. There is a serial port on the back of the 1541. This is commonly referred to as daisychaining because you are chaining the printer to the drive and the drive to the computer. Fortunately, expansion interfaces are not needed for this purpose on the 64.