Re: IIe tape drive

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Linards Ticmanis replied:



>Anonymous Coward wrote:
>> i've never used a cassette recorder with my Apple IIe, but i'm interested.
>> what do i need to know about saving to audio tapes instead of floppies?
>> (e.g., how to do it!)
>> 
>> 
>
>Get an old-style tape recorder that has as little as possible "sound
>quality improvement" circuitry. If there is an equalizer, turn treble
>all the way up and bass all the way down. Hook tape out to microphone
>socket and tape in to tape recorder's line out. Make sure the internal
>mic of the recorder (if any) is disabled.

Actually, the Apple connects to the Mic In and the _Speaker Out_ of the
tape recorder.  The line output, if any, will be too high an impedance.

>Type SAVE then press "Record" on the recorder within 5 seconds. Wait -
>saving longer programs takes a while. You can only save BASIC programs
>this way, BTW.
>To load, type LOAD (not pressing RETURN yet), start the tape, and as
>soon as the lead-in sound is audible, press RETURN.
>
>Never did it myself, but that's my understanding of how it is done.

That'll do it.  You will need to play a bit with the volume control on the
tape recorder to get it to work reliably.  Find the high and low points
where it stops working and set it midway between.  A lot of people
never did this calibration step, and gave cassette storage a bad rap.

I used cassettes for program development for over two years, and it
works quite reliably with a medium-quality recorder (not too cheap,
not too expensive!).  By keeping a record of the tape counter reading,
you can store many programs, or many versions of the same program,
on one tape.  It's a natural for keeping a complete record of all your
programs evolutionary development, and makes "backing up" easy if
you do something catastrophic.

-michael

 Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
 Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/