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avatar_Gryzor

A TZXDuino inside a cassette!

Started by Gryzor, 09:37, 10 August 20

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Gryzor


Bryce

Very cool. The kind of idiotic idea that I'd usually do :D

Bryce.

Gryzor

Please do, it'll go well with my silly money :)

VintageAdvantage

#3
Nicely engineered and completely redundant - this is how I like my hacks! Amazing!  8)
I guess a Bluetooth-based cassette adapter with your cellphone will be a bit more practical and much cheaper though  8)

Gryzor

Yes, but a TAPE WITH A SCREEN ON IT!!!!

Imagine being given one of this 30+ years ago... :D

Bryce

The creator has just tied together the individual PCBs, it would be much nicer if he had created a single PCB device with a custom tape-shaped PCB. It would also be possible to detect the start/stop of the tape drive then for multiload games.

Bryce.

Gryzor

Apparently he's considering a Kickstarter with a proper PCB which would also lower the cost...

VintageAdvantage

#7
Sorry, I am already backing the Gotek built into a 3" floppy disk with display, I am out  :laugh:

Gryzor


VintageAdvantage

Quote from: Gryzor on 16:50, 10 August 20
Is it double sided? 😃
No, it has the TZXDuino cassette version on the other side  :-\

Gryzor

Oh like those AA tapes that had a program to copy themselves to disk then?

Bryce

Quote from: VintageAdvantage on 16:41, 10 August 20
Sorry, I am already backing the Gotek built into a 3" floppy disk with display, I am out  :laugh:

The quality of your Photoshopping makes it so much funnier. Get that on Kickstart or Indinogo and you'll make a fortune.

Bryce.

protek

#12
I was just thinking about the same kind of setup as in the first link yesterday, when I was trying to copy a wav over to tape and get it to load on my CPC464.


So, it's basically an Arduino, an OLED display and a small battery shoehorned into one of those cassette adapters that you use with your CD player? Is there an Arduino based thing that can play back .cdt files?


EDIT: I thought I'd give this thing a try: [size=78%]https://www.ebay.com/itm/223521700677[/size]


You need to to convert the tape images into wave or possibly mp3 format, but it should be pretty handy to use with the remote.

Gryzor

"Car USB Charger Kit Stereo Cassette Audio Tape MMC Mp3 Player Adapter Headphone"

My head is spinning 😀

protek

I got my SD card to cassette adapter.


It does support wav files, so there's no need to convert it to mp3. It has a remote that enables you to operate the adapter while it's inside the CPC datasette. The playback logic is a bit problematic, though as it's just not a matter of pressing play and enjoying the ride. You have to variate between play and replay buttons to get the wav to actually play.


On the CPC464, it actually does find the program and based on the stripe colors, it is actually getting data it but the signal isn't good enough still, at least with Breaking Baud. Maybe I should try some other program.

protek

#15
After some further testing, I found out that if you press replay after powering the adapter up, it'll start playing the first audio file.

Also, I think my Sony TCM-939 isn't very well suited for data cassettes. It can't even find the program like the 464 datasette can.

protek

Some progress, I was able to load Barbarian using the adapter.


I wonder if some capacitor in the 464 is in need of a change, as it sometimes boots to Basic when the tape motor relay clicks during loading? I noticed this when loading Barbarian and R-Type.


The usability of the adapter is not very good when you have multiple wav files on the SD card. You can't be certain which file starts playing when you press the next and previous buttons on the remote. The adapter would need a display for that.

Bryce

If the CPC is rebooting when the relay clicks, your PSU may be a bit on the weak side?

Bryce.

protek

That would be the CTM640 PSU. Maybe the power jack contact needs more cleaning.

protek

Some contact cleaner seemed to help with the rebooting issues.


To conclude, if you don't mind an unintuitive user interface, I suppose the adapter gets the job done. At least with some files. Even after several attempts, I couldn't get the Breaking Baud demo to run properly, even though it appears to load. I probably should reassemble my Philips Datasette and see, if it'll load with the 6128.

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