Having recently become obsessed with the Cpc having bought my Schneider from eBay a pal has offered me a stand alone Amstrad Cpc 464 that has a dead cassette deck for a very small fee. I have- as some of you are aware- the technical proficiency of a snail 😉 and I'm pretty sure any attempt to repair it will only end in tears! However I was wondering if despite the tape mech not turning if the play button clicks down could I still use the car cassette adapter with it to load games through tap dancer like I do with my (fully functioning) cassette decked Schneider? Is it worth the gamble or should I politely decline his offer?
If the Speccy +2 is anything to go by, the mechanism shouldn't be required, just as long as the signal from the tape deck is sent to the CPC, it should be enough. I could press play and pause on the speccy and still load wav/mp3 from the iPod.
Ask your mate if you can test it first before money changes hands and try it. It won't damage either the adapter or the tape recorder any worse than it already is, and if he's a proper mate, he won't object. It can't hurt.
Cheers Shaun, so essentially the motor isn't necessary as long as the play button is pressed and contact is made? Could I press the pause a well as play on my Cpc while using the car cassette adaptor? Does that put any extra strain on the motor/drive belt? So many questions, so little time! Thanks as always mate.
Quote from: Sidney on 16:17, 17 July 17
Cheers Shaun, so essentially the motor isn't necessary as long as the play button is pressed and contact is made? Could I press the pause a well as play on my Cpc while using the car cassette adaptor? Does that put any extra strain on the motor/drive belt? So many questions, so little time! Thanks as always mate.
On a 464, after you get the "Press PLAY then any key" message, if you press a key even without a tape in the drive, you'll hear a click. That's the signal being sent to the tape motor. I can't answer in terms of strain, but I imagine it's considerably less strain when paused than it would be trying to pull a stuck motor.