CPC 464 direct tape signal connection
Jurgen
I would like to load tape files from PC straight into my CPC 464, by
connecting the line out of the PC's sound card 'somewhere' to the CPC.
Now, I found information on how to connect an external tape drive (and
thus also a sound card) to a 664/6128, as these feature a tape
drive connector. This doesn't hold for the 464, but I suppose that it can
be done by connecting the PC's output signal somewhere to the
CPC464's motherboard. Has anyone already done this ?
greetings, tia,
Jurgen
Torque
wrote:
Man, I would REALLY like to know how to do that with my own 464. I thougth
about using a portable cd-player with the games recorded at the highest
speed possible, like some people had made on the Spectrum and the MSX, but
never managed to know where to "plug" the audio cable.
Any ideas?
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ThunderKit
> On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 21:53:51 GMT, Jurgen <annejurge...@pandora.be>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I would like to load tape files from PC straight into my CPC 464, by
>> connecting the line out of the PC's sound card 'somewhere' to the CPC.
>> Now, I found information on how to connect an external tape drive (and
>> thus also a sound card) to a 664/6128, as these feature a tape
>> drive connector. This doesn't hold for the 464, but I suppose that it can
>> be done by connecting the PC's output signal somewhere to the
>> CPC464's motherboard. Has anyone already done this ?
>>
>> greetings, tia,
>>
>> Jurgen
>
>
> Man, I would REALLY like to know how to do that with my own 464. I thougth
> about using a portable cd-player with the games recorded at the highest
> speed possible, like some people had made on the Spectrum and the MSX, but
> never managed to know where to "plug" the audio cable.
>
> Any ideas?
>
How about a car stereo cassette adaptor such as:
The Ross Car Cassette Adaptor
available from www.argos.co.uk with code 534/2488
here's a link: http://tinyurl.co.uk/cj4o
It's a 3.5mm plug to cassette adaptor to fit in the CPC.
Jurgen
> Torque wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 21:53:51 GMT, Jurgen <annejurge...@pandora.be>
>> wrote:
>>
<snip>
>>>
>>> greetings, tia,
>>>
>>> Jurgen
>>
>>
>> Man, I would REALLY like to know how to do that with my own 464. I thougth
>> about using a portable cd-player with the games recorded at the highest
>> speed possible, like some people had made on the Spectrum and the MSX, but
>> never managed to know where to "plug" the audio cable.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>
> How about a car stereo cassette adaptor such as:
> The Ross Car Cassette Adaptor
> available from www.argos.co.uk with code 534/2488
> here's a link: http://tinyurl.co.uk/cj4o
> It's a 3.5mm plug to cassette adaptor to fit in the CPC.
Hi,
thanks for your answer. I also read about someone who used a cassette
adaptor successfully, maybe I'll try that first,
greetings,
J.
Charles da Silva
into your CPC?
I've never seen any image file on the net, still I personaly use my MiniDisc
Player plugged into a cassette adaptor as said before. I first record the
game or program by playing the tape on my HiFi system and recording it on
the MiniDisc.
There's always the cable which is boring but which still allows to use the
adaptor. The result is not as good as I thought, but still MiniDisc are
safer than tape...
Charles
"Jurgen" <jurgen.de.b...@securex.be> a écrit dans le message de
news: pan.2004.02.02....@securex.be...
Jurgen
> Let me try to understand: what you want to do is to use .wav files backup
> into your CPC?
> I've never seen any image file on the net, still I personaly use my MiniDisc
> Player plugged into a cassette adaptor as said before. I first record the
> game or program by playing the tape on my HiFi system and recording it on
> the MiniDisc.
> There's always the cable which is boring but which still allows to use the
> adaptor. The result is not as good as I thought, but still MiniDisc are
> safer than tape...
> Charles
>
Yes, indeed,
What you can also do, is find the 'digitized' tape image (.cdt) of your
application/game, convert it to a soundfile using playtzx, connect the
line out of your sound card to your hifi system (or straight to your
cassette adapter) and record this sound signal on to your minidisc. This
way, there should be less noise involved than by recording from a tape.
You can find a lot of tape images by following the link on
http://cpczone.emuunlim.com/adate/
more specifically
http://andercheran.aiind.upv.es/ftp/pub/cpc/ADATE/tape/
Still , I downloaded a schematic of the cpc464 and will try to find a way
to connect the line out directly, without needing a cassette adapter,
Greetings, thanks to everyone for the hints,
Jurgen
Axel Berger
>but still MiniDisc are safer than tape...
Maybe, but Minidisk is a compressed format like MP3 and such. You may
not hear the difference, but the MODEM circuit will. Therefore I'd
suggest good old CD.
Charles da Silva
"Axel Berger" <Axel_...@b.maus.de> a écrit dans le message de news:
200402031...@b.maus.de...
to handle, they're rewritable also. Plus, you must be talking about NetMD,
but are classical MDs compressed? I thought they were not... Anyway, both
solutions are ok...
Charles
Torque
called ATRAC3 or something like that.
--
Jurgen
Well, I'll go for the cassette adaptor. I found some more info in the
book 'CPC 464 Internals' and the 6128 service manual, and apparently the
output signal of the 464's tape unit has an amplitude of +- 5V (so that
it can be connected straight to a data input pin of the 8255 controller
chip), which is not the same as the line out signal of an average sound
card. The tape interface circuit of the 664/6128 has a sort of on-board
amplifier that does this. I suppose a similar tape interface can be
built into the 464, but for this, my knowledge of electronics is far too
weak, so the cassette adaptor will have to do the trick :-)
Jurgen
Axel Berger
>but are classical MDs compressed?
Yes they are.
That is how they get the same amount of noise onto a smaller disc.
Kevin Thacker
news:pan.2004.02.03....@securex.be...
> Still , I downloaded a schematic of the cpc464 and will try to find a way
> to connect the line out directly, without needing a cassette adapter,
Why not modify the cpc464, to fit two 3.5mm jack (one for line in, one for
line out) and a 2.5mm jack for cassette remote, and connect these to where
the internal cassette player is connected?
Regards,
Kev
Pentagon / Noob Inc
problems with MP3 in 160Kbit, 44khz, Mono and Lame Codec.
Sorcery Flashloader works also in MP3 Codec. No read errors and everything
works fine. I am using winamp for playing the Tape Files and i have soldered
a cable from PC Soundblaster to CPC6128 input.
Reg.
Pentagon / Noob Inc.
Torque
wrote:
We only need to find the points to soldier the jacks ;)
The idea behind using a cd player or the computer with the 464/6128 is
that you could record the programs at VERY high speeds and you'll never
have any read errors. That's what people are doing on the MSX and the
Spectrum.
Jurgen
Hi Kevin,
Thanks, but I already tried this. I studied the circuit diagram a bit and
tried to connect the line out from my PC's sound card to some of the pins.
Unfortunately I blew my tape drive. Anyways, if somebody with a good
knowledge of electronics is interested, I'll put a scan of the circuit
diagram online. Maybe someone else is more lucky than I am :-)
The output of the tape drive has an amplitude of 5v; the connector is very
easy to locate (you 'll have to disconnect it from the main board to fully
open up the cpc :-). But you can't connect the line out here as its signal
is too weak.
Anyway, I'll try and find a 664/6128 somewhere, and replace the 3" disk
drive by a 3.5", this should make data transfer between the PC and the CPC
very easy.
greetings,
Jurgen
Kevin Thacker
"Torque" <baaz...@terra.es> wrote in message
news:opr23aoh...@news.terra.es...
> The idea behind using a cd player or the computer with the 464/6128 is
> that you could record the programs at VERY high speeds and you'll never
> have any read errors. That's what people are doing on the MSX and the
> Spectrum.
Hi 'Torque',
It is not possible to record *every* program at a high speed, because some
loader systems expect a fixed speed. But, if you record using the standard
Amstrad block loader, then you may be able to go as high as 6000 baud.
Regards,
Kev
--
Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource
http://andercheran.aiind.upv.es/~amstrad/
Arnold emulator
http://arnold.emuunlim.com/
Kevin Thacker
> > Why not modify the cpc464, to fit two 3.5mm jack (one for line in, one
for
> > line out) and a 2.5mm jack for cassette remote, and connect these to
where
> > the internal cassette player is connected?
> tried to connect the line out from my PC's sound card to some of the pins.
> Unfortunately I blew my tape drive. Anyways, if somebody with a good
> knowledge of electronics is interested, I'll put a scan of the circuit
> diagram online. Maybe someone else is more lucky than I am :-)
> The output of the tape drive has an amplitude of 5v; the connector is very
> easy to locate (you 'll have to disconnect it from the main board to fully
> open up the cpc :-). But you can't connect the line out here as its signal
> is too weak.
to the PC.
I found that the sound output was too quiet, an amplifier is required :(
> Anyway, I'll try and find a 664/6128 somewhere, and replace the 3" disk
> drive by a 3.5", this should make data transfer between the PC and the CPC
> very easy.
Yes, much much easier :)
Regards,
Kev
Torque
That was the idea that I had in mind (the standard block loader). I think
that a lot of the unprotected disc games could be transfered to "tape"
that way.
I remember too a few games that had a "different" structure. They used the
standard block loader but had only 2 or three blocks, being the second
block a lot longer than usual, and the third block containing the rest of
the data. A game with that structure would load a lot faster if recorder
at 6000 bauds (not having the headers and the pauses between blocks).
I used a copy program for that kind of games, I think that it's name was
copytape.
On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:03:53 -0000, Kevin Thacker <ams...@aiind.upv.es>
wrote:
>
--