ArduiTape/CASDuino/TZXDuino - The cassette player replacements

  TZXDuino 1.16 In TZXDuino 1.15.3 I added a bug that lowered the volume of some Spectrum TZX files and all ZX80/81 TZX, O, and P files so they didn't work for many people. I fixed this for 1.16. You can download TZXDuino 1.16 from here.   TZXDuino 1.17 The MAXDuino team added ORIC TAP playback functionality to their firmware which I have adapted to TZXDuino. I don't have an Oric Atmos to test it on so I have been recording the playback and loading on Oricutron and everything I have tried has worked. Obviously things may be different on a real machine. Team MAXDuino have also added a speed up function for Oric TAP files which I will add to TZXDuino 1.18 but so far I have been unable to get it to work correctly. You can download TZXDuino 1.17 from here.   And finally there is the updated instruction manual which now tells you how to access Turbo mode for the Electron, ZX80, and ZX81. It also says for Oric but that has not been implemented yet. You can download the pdf of v...

 When Andrew Beer and I came up with this idea the intention was for people to build their own and many people have but once in a while someone comes up with something so amazing it really needs to be shared. JamHamster came up with the idea of fitting a TZXDuino in a cassette. Originally it was powered by USB and had a 3.5mm Ear socket but it looked amazing. Then he added a battery so that it was self powered. Then he added a head from a CD to cassette adapter. Then he added a switch under that head so that when you press play on the Cassette Recorder it plays the file you've selected. And the TZXCassette was born Because he is a great guy he's also uploaded the instructions on how to build one to Github and you can download the instructions and build your own. Now at the moment there is no REM control it may not work as well with a CPC 464 as it does with with a Spectrum +2 but it is a stunning piece of electrical engineering and a work of art in my opinion.

New firmware . TZXDuino 1.15.3 Adapted the MAXDuino ID19 code and TurboMode for ZX80/81. To access Turbo Mode for ZX80/81 and Electron please switch Turbo Mode On in the menu Also added UEF Chunk 117 which allows for differing baudrates in BBC UEFs. Added a Spectrum Font for OLED 1306 users converted by Brendan Alford. Option added to userconfig.h Added File scrolling by holding up or down buttons. By Brendan Alford. Download from here. CASDuino 1.24 Added a Spectrum Font for OLED 1306 users converted by Brendan Alford. Option added to userconfig.h Added File scrolling by holding up or down buttons. By Brendan Alford. Download from here.

Over the past few months I have been helping people via Facebook, either my personal page or through the official Arduitape page, to update their firmware using the Arduino IDE and it became painfully apparent that I needed top update the instructions so that they are relevant to the latests IDE and firmware. Thanks to Covid-19 I have time on my hands and have up[dated the PDF so if you would like to read it and give me feedback I would be most appreciative. The instructions are for Windows and the PDF can be downloaded from here.

Firmware Updates Primarily I have updated the firmwares to include RGB I2C 16x2 LCD screen but there have also been some improvements made to TZXDuino and CASDuino. Arduitape 1.8 can be downloaded from here. CASDuino 1.22.1can be downloaded from here. Changes . Added RGB I2C 16x2 LCD Speed improvements Improved compatibility with TOSEC Dragon CAS files TZXDuino 1.15.1 can be downloaded from here. Changes Added RGB I2C 16x2 LCD Improved UEF support Dragon CAS file information. This is a bit of boring technical information in regards to Dragon CAS files from TOSEC and why they didn't work before. Unlike MSX CAS files Dragon and CoCo CAS files start with a byte hex value of 55. To be recognised as a CAS file by emulators it only needs to have one byte with hex value of 55 at the beginning. To be recognised as a Dragon/CoCo CAS file by CASDuino it requires a minimum of 8 bytes with a hex value of 55 bytes. To be recognised by a real computer it requires aroun...

Update for TZXDuino. Lots of little things changed for this update but the biggest is ID15/Direct Recording has been added. The code has been adapted and fixed from the MAXDuino firmware. On the Amstrad CPC this means that Music Loaders do work as do many other games that use the ID15/Direct Recording Block type however the following Musical Loaders are temperemental but this is due to hardware rather than firmware. Harvey Headbanger Helichopper Rasputin Runestone Spiky Harold Thrust I've also removed DigitalWrite in favour of a quicker process as suggested by Ken Forster and this means that some MSX games work better at higher TSX baudrates. Elite and Aliens will now load at 2400 baudrate. There were two Gremlin Graphics games for the Amstrad CPC that had copy protection that required a reversal of high and low signals. Samurai Trilogy and Footballer Of The Year II. I have added an option to the menu to fix this issue. You can download the new firmware from he...

It's been a while since ~I've added anything new to the blog I have been still working on the project. TZXDuino 1.13 I've updated the TZXDuino firmware to include HQ.UEF support which was programmed by Rafael Molina Chesserot of the MAXDuino Team. Most unzipped UEFs will now work with the TZXDuino on both Electron and BBC. The only exceptions I've found so far are Uridium and Starquake on the BBC. Because the TZXDuino is now working on so many other models of computer and not just the Sinclairs I've added a Pause at Start option to the Menu. With this on, when you select a file and press play the file will be automatically paused unless you have typed in your load command on your computer and pressed enter and the motor control is plugged in. It's exactly the same way a cassette player with motor control would work. You can download the firmware from here. New Software Speaking of UEFs Ricky El-Qasem has made a UEF extraction tool that makes it so much more ...

Thanks to the work of Kernel Crash we have added uncompressed UEF playback to TZXDuino. This means that Acorn machines can be added to the list of computers that can use TZXDuino. There is standard mode and a Turbo mode that can be switched on in the menu. The turbo mode loads at 1500 baud and does improve the loading time on an Acorn Electron. There is also a 1550 and 1600 option in the TZXDuino.h file but not all Electrons can handle the faster speed. You can read Kernel Crash's blog here. You can download the TZXDuino 1.11 from here.

The more I build and try to improve on the various firmwares I've realised that it's not entirely friendly for new users to edit their firmware for their version of device. In an aim to correct that I have added userconfig.h to the various firmwares. This is just a little settings file that users can change without fear of harming the main programme. It allows you to set which screen you are using and in future which startup logo for some screens and maybe other settings. How to use. At the moment the userconfig.h looks like this ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /*                                                             */ /*    ...

For the last few months I've been talking about how to add the PCD8544 (also known as the Nokia) screen to the devices. Unfortunately this has not been as easy as I'd first hoped largely due to differences in the screens. Some work well with the standard 5v of the Arduino Nano, others need the voltage in to be 3.3v. Some need resistors others don't. Finally however I can start to write things up properly though. The software has been written and is fully functioning for a while and whilst there are no improvements in what the ArduiTape/CASDuino/TZXDuino can do, it does use less memory than the other screens and looks a little nicer, in my opinion. CASDuino Turns Two. I have been reminded by my Facebook posts that today I completed my first CASDuino specific PP9 build two years ago today. I used the PP9N Evatron case as I was inspired by one of the TAPuino builds and it's a nice case to work with. Certain small things have changed since then, button caps, reset s...

Thanks to the help of Rafael Molina Chasserot some new features have been added to the TZXDuino and CASDuino firmwares which has freed up some memory as well, which may lead to more features being added in the future. A percentage counter and a timer counter have been added to all screens so that you know how much is left of a file to play and how long it has taken to load. The OLED1306 and PCD8544 use completely new routines for the firmwares saving a lot of memory. Folder navigation is now different. Rather than using the Menu button on TZXDuino or the Stop button on CASDuino to return to the ROOT directory, if you press the stop button when no file is playing you will go up one folder only making it easier to navigate. TZXDuino The TZXDuino has had a menu added so that MSX users can set the Baud rate of TSX files so that they can load faster than normal. A few more emulator only IDs have been fixed so that they are skipped by TZXDuino. CASDuino CASduino has had a Baud Rate of 3...

You can go to my Etsy shop and buy my builds of TZXDuino, CASDuino, and ArduiTape with the standard 1602 LCD and coming soon you will also be able to buy the new version with the PCD8544 LCD screen.

It's been a while since I've updated CASDuino but I've been trying to bring the firmware in line with TZXDuino and ArduiTape to make possible integration of the three firmwares at some future date. The major problem had being getting it to work with the OLED 1306 screen which has now been solved. Included in this firmware update is a 3rd screen option which is for the PCD8544 which I have also been working on and am now almost ready to share instructions on. What's New:- OLED1306 Support PCD8544 Support Improved Dragon compatibility Improved CoCo compatibility (auto run on CoCo games has not been fixed yet but we are working on it.) You can download the firmware from here. There are also reports of improved compatibility with the Phillips VG 8020 MSX however as far as I know any incompatibilities were due to a difference in the hardware chipset so how this has happened is a complete mystery but a win I will take.

TZXDuino 1.7 This fixes issues with pause lengths that we never noticed before. It should fix games like Top Gun and Street Hawk for the Spectrum and make CDT files behave as they should for the Amstrad CPC. Changes. *Maximum pause length of 8.3 seconds due to the TimerOne library has been worked around. *ID20 Pause Block fixed. *Temporary fix for pause after motor control removed. https://mega.nz/#!aEt1VJKZ!ZFw-fP3bkNTtiPlbG_IllmR94Xni3KvIGUn6Jggfof8

After mentioning that I had gotten a CPC and attached a DIN to it so that I could connect it to the TZXDuino I have had a few requests on how to do it so I thought I'd try a guide. You will need to purchase 180 degree 5 pin female din that is chassis mountable. This is the type that I purchased except mine also had a mounting plate too. The standard 6128 cassette connector is wired like this. Each pin is numbered on the back so that you know which one you are connecting it too so don't worry if the pins are in different positions as it depends on whether you are looking from the connection side or the soldering side. I would use different coloured wiring for each type of connection. I used the following Ground - Black Data Input - White Data Output - Pink Remote Control - Brown At this point I added 4 male pins to the end of my wiring so that I could build a connector so that I could easily disconnect the DIN should I need to work on the cassette drive. N...

Now that I have my CPC464 all set I've been testing .CDT files and have noticed a few issues. The first is that when I altered the code that sped up things for the Spectrum I messed things up for the CPC so that has been rolled back. The second is that with the CPC the motor control and pause after blocks is very important and TZXDuino isn't calculating a long enough pause for some games which causes them to fail. This seems to be a limit to the TimerOne library of 8,191 milliseconds (1F FF). This obviously is a big issue that needs more investigation. Changes: *Fixed the garbled text bug (thanks to Rafael Malins Chesserot for that one) *Rolled back an update that made files load faster on the Spectrum but broke files on the CPC. *Added a 2.25 second delay on playback after a motor control pause to fix issues with compacted multiload games from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/cpc_lzx.htm ToDo * There is a discrepancy between length of time of pause after block and what the ...

I've finally managed to get hold of a CPC464 so I can see what compatibility is like with TZXDuino. One of the first things I did was add a DIN so that I could connect the TZXDuino to it. Rather than the normal 5-pin DIN that the CPC664/6128 use I decided that as I already have the cable for the MSX I would add an 8 pin DIN. After some testing I found the best places to solder the connections and now it is up and running with full motor control. As there are no TOSEC like downloads for CDT files I have been using both CPCRulez and CPCPower for the downloads. TZXDuino compatibility is quite good with CDT files although there are a few that use the ID15 block which currently is not compatible but I did notice some issues. Some games seemed to have insufficient pause blocks and whilst they worked on emulators they did not with either TZXDuino or WinTZX playback. These were quite easily fixed by adding a pause block to the CDT file (Aliens, Ghouls and Ghosts, Turbo Outrun). Others howe...

TZXDuino user and Luca Forattini has added the ability to load AY files with Spec AY on any Spectrum with an AY chip to TZX. First you load LOADER.TAP from SpecAY . Once that is loaded just select the .AY file you want to load and away you go. You can download version 1.5 of the firmware from Here. You can download Luca's original version of the firmware which is for an Arduino Mega with LCD and buttons shield from Here. Interestingly Luca has added a filesize counter with his firmware so that you can see how large the file currently selected is. You can watch a video of Luca's TZXDuino at work here.

It's been a while since I've published anything on my progress on converting things to the Maple Mini so I thought I'd keep you up to date. I have converted TZXDuino to the Maple Mini and it is working but not properly. For some reason, even though it is using the same values as the Nano the frequency of the output is higher. So much so that fastloaders cannot be recognised and TAP and simple TZX cannot all register with the Spectrum. Oddly this would indicate that a microsecond for the Maple Mini is different to the microsecond for the Arduino Nano, yet the files play for a similar length of time. It's all highly confusing and I've put the project on the back burner for a while so I can concentrate on working any errors out of the CAS/TZXDuino Shield PCB. The good news being that when I was trying to figure out what was going wrong I noticed that TZX2WAV which we had been using as a benchmark to test our coding actually has a typo in it a decodes slower than the TZ...

Tales of Popolon is a new MSX homebrew game that is still under development but a ROM has been released so people can play. I've used CASLink3 to convert it to a CAS file and tested it on my Toshiba HX-10 with CASDuino and it works beautifully. Here is a link to the games Github page. Here is the CAS file to download. Enjoy!!