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Breaking Baud

Started by ralferoo, 08:55, 20 April 14

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McKlain

This is really touching, man. Thank you  :D

MacDeath


McKlain

#102

pelrun

Congratulations, that image makes my Chrome go into full-on malware lockdown. :)

McKlain


BSC

Quote from: MacDeath on 17:18, 20 May 14
Here was youtube link

;D


80s pop music and videos were amongst the cheesiest yet coolest ever!



** My SID player/tracker AYAY Kaeppttn! on github **  Some CPC music and experiments ** Other music ** More music on scenestream (former nectarine) ** Some shaders ** Some Soundtrakker tunes ** Some tunes in Javascript

My hardware: ** Schneider CPC 464 with colour screen, 64k extension, 3" and 5,25 drives and more ** Amstrad CPC 6128 with M4 board, GreaseWeazle.

MacDeath

#106
Quote80s pop music and videos were amongst the cheesiest yet coolest ever!

you says that because between 30's and 40's... year old (not years of birth) (50's ?) so groowe up in the 80's...  so yeah... cool period.. too groove up with... and first Amstrad generation too.

BSC

Quote from: MacDeath on 01:13, 25 May 14
you says that because between 30's and 40's... year old (not years of birth) (50's ?) so groowe up in the 80's...  so yeah... cool period.. too groove up with... and first Amstrad generation too.

nope.. I say that coz I know it all!
** My SID player/tracker AYAY Kaeppttn! on github **  Some CPC music and experiments ** Other music ** More music on scenestream (former nectarine) ** Some shaders ** Some Soundtrakker tunes ** Some tunes in Javascript

My hardware: ** Schneider CPC 464 with colour screen, 64k extension, 3" and 5,25 drives and more ** Amstrad CPC 6128 with M4 board, GreaseWeazle.

ssg

Awesome concept and execution. Congratulations.

protek

Got it working. Had to set recording level a bit higher. Thanks for a great demo!  :D

CraigsBar

I've found that the 6128plus needs a significantly higher volume recorded tone than the CPC 6128 does. However both load from the MacBook Pro at the exact same volume.


Conclusion, The plus is less tolerant to an unclean or low volume signal, However once a clean signal is provided it seems to work at much lower volume than the CPC 6128.


Breaking Baud itself is well worth the trouble just so say you have run it form a cassette, However having done that I now run it from my MBP (Play direct from the CDT with CDT2WAV) for the sake of reliability.
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protek

Made an interesting observation. If I power my datacorder with an 800 mA PSU, it finds the file but doesn't run the demo. If I power the same datacorder with a 1,7 A PSU, the demo will be run. Does it mean that my datacorder draws more current than 800 mA?

CraigsBar

Quote from: protek on 21:48, 16 June 14
Made an interesting observation. If I power my datacorder with an 800 mA PSU, it finds the file but doesn't run the demo. If I power the same datacorder with a 1,7 A PSU, the demo will be run. Does it mean that my datacorder draws more current than 800 mA?


I was all hopefull of this too. Until I found it does not help me.


I was running my Radio Shack Cassette Voice Recorder with a spare Amstrad CD player 6v 400mA power brick , and wondered if changing the power woudl help. It didn't Using a very large and cumbersome Multi-voltage supply that delivers 6v 3.6A made no difference.


Breaking Baud still loads perfectly on the CPC 6128's and seamingly rndomly on the Plus. I can therefore only assume that the plus is more delicate when it comes to tape volumes than the older CPC 6128 is/was.


Oh well Like I said I can sometimes get it to run on the plus from tape... the rest of the time it works perfectly from the hiss and static free WAV or MP3 played from my macBook Pro.


Craig

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pelrun

Quote from: protek on 21:48, 16 June 14
Made an interesting observation. If I power my datacorder with an 800 mA PSU, it finds the file but doesn't run the demo. If I power the same datacorder with a 1,7 A PSU, the demo will be run. Does it mean that my datacorder draws more current than 800 mA?


Short answer is yes (duh), slightly longer answer is that it may only require the higher current for arbitrarily short periods. My hunch is tape wow, with the spindle being a bit harder to turn at one point in each revolution. If there's not enough current (and hence motor torque) at that point, the playback will slow down momentarily.

CraigsBar

Hardstyle extended version makes a wonderful ringtone on my mobile!
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McKlain

Quote from: CraigsBar on 15:43, 18 June 14
Hardstyle extended version makes a wonderful ringtone on my mobile!


Great!  ;D

Gryzor

Listening to the extended version on the hi-fi right now, I'm sure missus is getting annoyed :D

Bryce

Quote from: Gryzor on 17:17, 22 June 14
Listening to the extended version on the hi-fi right now, I'm sure missus is getting annoyed :D

Because she didn't compose it? :)

Bryce.

Gryzor

Quote from: Bryce on 08:47, 24 June 14
Because she didn't compose it? :)

Bryce.


Yeah, she was that jealous!

CraigsBar

I now have my 464plus, It is as wonderfully un-yellow as the pictures show :)


I have tested the tape and Fantasy World Dizzy (Which was included) loads perfectly, I have also bought a Tape Adaptor and I have loaded relentless CDT from TapDancer using my Nexus 7, which also loaded perfectly.


However I cannot get Breaking Baud to load on the 464+ at all. The initial loader is fine, however the turbo data section does not load. Unlike the 6128plus tape drive mod I did, the border bars stay the correct colours and not the read error shades.


The same happens on both a real cassette and using tapDancer. Although the real cassette is confirmed as working on the 6128plus and CPC's


I just wondered if the loader for Breaking Baud is 128k only or if something else is kaput on this 464 plus??


Craig

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ralferoo

Quote from: CraigsBar on 16:02, 03 July 14
I now have my 464plus, It is as wonderfully un-yellow as the pictures show :)


I have tested the tape and Fantasy World Dizzy (Which was included) loads perfectly, I have also bought a Tape Adaptor and I have loaded relentless CDT from TapDancer using my Nexus 7, which also loaded perfectly.


However I cannot get Breaking Baud to load on the 464+ at all. The initial loader is fine, however the turbo data section does not load. Unlike the 6128plus tape drive mod I did, the border bars stay the correct colours and not the read error shades.


The same happens on both a real cassette and using tapDancer. Although the real cassette is confirmed as working on the 6128plus and CPC's


I just wondered if the loader for Breaking Baud is 128k only or if something else is kaput on this 464 plus??


Craig
It should work on a 464+ but I haven't actually tested it since the demo was finished. A very early version was running on 464+ from tape though.

Regarding "the border bars stay the correct colours and not the read error shades", there are actually 3 sets of colours and the transitions between them aren't perfect... There's "yellow/blue" for no errors detected, "green/green" whilst looking for a pilot tone, "green/black" for found a block that has already been loaded and "green/red" for found a block that's later in the tape than the current block. However, it transitions on error / success, so it might be confusing as if the pilot tone is never detected at all, then it won't report an error.

It's almost certainly a volume issue. If you use tap dancer and increase or decrease the volume, you might see it transition from green/green to green/red at which point it's read the pilot tone and realised the tape is too far ahead. At that point you should be good to rewind and try again.

I need to figure out why volume is such a problem with this demo... as one of my design goals when making the loader was to be as tolerant of volume as possible and it clearly went wrong at some point between my prototype (which seemed more reliable than the normal loader) and the final demo which has stricter requirements on the timing of each pulse (and so volume).

CraigsBar

Quote from: ralferoo on 17:35, 03 July 14
It should work on a 464+ but I haven't actually tested it since the demo was finished. A very early version was running on 464+ from tape though.

Regarding "the border bars stay the correct colours and not the read error shades", there are actually 3 sets of colours and the transitions between them aren't perfect... There's "yellow/blue" for no errors detected, "green/green" whilst looking for a pilot tone, "green/black" for found a block that has already been loaded and "green/red" for found a block that's later in the tape than the current block. However, it transitions on error / success, so it might be confusing as if the pilot tone is never detected at all, then it won't report an error.

It's almost certainly a volume issue. If you use tap dancer and increase or decrease the volume, you might see it transition from green/green to green/red at which point it's read the pilot tone and realised the tape is too far ahead. At that point you should be good to rewind and try again.

I need to figure out why volume is such a problem with this demo... as one of my design goals when making the loader was to be as tolerant of volume as possible and it clearly went wrong at some point between my prototype (which seemed more reliable than the normal loader) and the final demo which has stricter requirements on the timing of each pulse (and so volume).

Thanks for that clarification. I'll fiddle when I get it home and let you know.

Craig.
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Bryce

Quote from: ralferoo on 17:35, 03 July 14
there are actually 3 sets of colours and the transitions between them aren't perfect...

There's "yellow/blue", "green/green", "green/black" and "green/red"

Ehhhh, isn't that 4? :D

Bryce.

MaV

Quote from: Bryce on 08:19, 04 July 14
Ehhhh, isn't that 4? :D

Bryce.
He's used to zero-indexing. :P
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CraigsBar

OK. I have found out that I can load and run breaking baud perfectly every time on my 6128plus as follows....

1. TapDancer and CDT on nexus 7 (volume 7)
2. CD tape adaptor from n7 headphone socket to mono voice recorder
3. Voice recorder volume at 100%
4. Tape cable with remote to tape mod din socket.

Oddly when the n7 is connected directly to the din socket then not even the initial loader loads. And the n7 is not loud enough even on volume 15 to load anything but the initial loader on the 464plus with the car tape adaptor.

Craig.
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