ArduiTape/CASDuino/TZXDuino - The cassette player replacements

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 ...

Following from yesterdays CASDuino update I've now added the same function to Arduitape. Rather than needing a file called ROOT to get to the root of your SD card just press Stop when nothing is being played. Everything else stays the same. You can download the update from here.

A minor update to the CASDuino firmware negating the need for a ROOT file in every folder. Now if you press the stop button when nothing is playing it will go to the root directory. You can download the latest firmware from here. Work on Dragon compatibility is still ongoing but due to work pressures it may take a while. Sorry.

One of the things we've wanted from this project is for people to go out and build their own versions and show us pictures. Well Piotr Bugaj not only has built his own but 3D printed his own case and designed a Shield for the Nano.    SMD version.    Non SMD version   Pi otr has also released the schematic, pcb, and gerber files. They can be downloaded from here.

Andrew has made a huge leap forward with this update with almost every TZX I've tried working (one fail out of 100s) on the Spectrum and reports of similar compatibility with Amstrad files too. TAP files are also working with no fails too. With over 5,000 TZX games for Spectrum it's still a beta release but probably the last beta for a while before a final release. TZXDuino v0.8b3

The Arduino IDE has updated several of it's Library files but I haven't posted the latest updates of the on here for a long time so unrar this file and put it in the c://Users/[Name]/Documents/Arduino/Libraries/ folder.

A Giant Leap For Nerd Kind. I'm not usually one for silliness but Andrew Beer has been working hard in the background trying to programme the Arduino to play ZX Spectrum .TZX files without the need to convert to a .WAV. Today he has managed to do that with some .TZX files but also with .TAP files as well. The code is still very much in the early stages so the compatibility with.TZX files is still relatively low but in theory all .TAP files should work. I only have 5,246 to test. What's even better is that the code will work on both the Arduitape and the CASDuino hardware by just uploading the programme to the Nano. Simply download this file, unzip and load in the Arduino IDE.

Just a minor update. Andrew and I are working on a TZX version of Casduino. Much more complex than loading .cas files but if it works it will open up more possibilities. We have also added Dragon/Tandy .cas files to the Casduino but without one of the computers ourselves it's very much at an alpha stage and may well require the volume control mod to the amp. Also there is now a Facebook page where you can read latest development, ask questions, and even order a prebuilt PP9 version. The Facebook page can be found here.

How to use the Arduitape with the ZX Spectrum. Sorry I've been a little quiet recently but I've managed to get my grubby little mitts on a ZX Spectrum + 48k and have been testing it with the Arduitape. Unlike the MSX and other 8-bits the only limitations on frequency of the .WAV files is no higher than 22050 Hz due to the limitations of the software used. I was expecting to have all the difficulties of the MSX but I've tested lots of files at different frequencies and they all work fine. I've been using TZX2WAV to do the conversions. Open a command window. Type  tzx2wav -f [desired frequency] [filename].tzx [filename].wav   and that's it. I have been trying to experiment with a programme called OTLA which can output various formats of Spectrum, ZX81, Amstrad, and MSX files that playback at a higher rate and essentially turn a 5 minute loading game in to a 30 second loading game however it outputs at either 44100Hz or 48000Hz which is too high for the Ardui...

Audio Filter Redesign After building the more compact Casduino design I started thinking about building an Arduitape in a PP9 case as well which meant adding an extra GND pin to the main Casduino board but most importantly a smaller Audio filter to fit snuggly within the case. I managed to get the design down to 25mm by 15mm so there should be more than enough room. The components are exactly the same as the previous filter. Here is what the build looks like. 5p for scale. More MSX .CAS Files Going through the TOSEC MSX .CAS files I noticed a few more games that were not available in English were on eBay so I quickly bought them and converted them .CAS files for everyone to enjoy. In the .ZIP files are the instructions, box art, etc as well. Football Manager - World Cup Edition. Punch And Judy Next Plans My next plans are to build an Arduitape in a PP9 box and hopefully do a full write up on how to build it with all the components and instructions downloadabl...

Building The Casduino The main board for the Casduino is very similar to the MarkII board but as I had a specific project case in mind the dimensions needed to be changed. I had used an Evatron PPN Case in another project and wanted to use one for this to make a more compact and stylish product however the internal dimensions would make things a little more tricky. Although the actual board design in mine is slightly different I feel that the following one should give the best fit.   The only difference I would make to the design is add right angled pins for the GND and VCC connectors on the right of the board. Also I soldered the Arduino Nano directly to the board as adding a DIL socket would just make it more difficult to fit in the Case Rather than the usual buttons I ordered  some with different coloured caps, again to give a more polished look. Here is a template of how to cut out the hole for the LCD (Thanks to spcbm from Amibay for his t emplate for the Tapui...

As the title suggests these are two new games that have as far as I know never before been archived on cassette for the MSX. Each file contains pdf instructions and box scans. Cluedo Scrabble

Some new, different, patched, and now working game for the MSX. I've recently been building a smaller version of the CasDuino and have now finished it but I've also been able to buy a few games on cassette that are either not working or downloads are not in English (using the last TOSEC MSX_MSX_TOSEC_2012_04_23 download). I've converted these to .CAS files and am making them available to download. Football Manager was only previously available as a disk file Les Flics was listed to use BLOAD"CAS:",R as the load command but to get it to work you actually should type BLOAD"pss",r Uchi Mata previously only worked if you pressed CTRL+STOP once the .CAS file stopped loading. This has now been fixed Vampire This was not in the last TOSEC download and I have two slightly different versions. The game is still the same but the loading is different. Xenon was a game only available in Spanish and had a terrible bug where you couldn't use a joystick. This...

Yet another MSX CasDuino software update The joy of projects is they are never quite finished. This update fixes an issue I found with class 4 and above SDHC cards, a strange problem with Vampire by Codemasters, and now has a indicator for folders. Download here. Library Files required for CasDuino Update on testing I have been continually testing .cas files to make sure that they work on the CasDuino and so far the only games that I've had difficulty with have either been at 3600 baud but are fixed by lowering the baud speed or are faulty .cas files that don't even work on emulators. e.g. Uchi Mata. This week I've been using a programme called caslink2 to convert up to 32k .rom images to .wav files and then castools to convert them to .cas files and then testing them. CasDuino has been able to load every game I've tried so far so I'm very pleased indeed.

Andrew Beer has been working hard on updating the software for the original Arduitape and the MSX specific Casduino. Software update for Arduitape. Here is an update for the Arduitape software. It is now compatible with the latest Arduino IDE and supports Long File Names. The quality of play back has also improved. Download here. Software update for Casduino the MSX specific version of Arduitape. This software update now includes the ability to change the playback baudrate between 1200/2400/3600. 1200 and 2400 baudrate works perfectly on a Nano based machine and an Uno based machine. 3600 is somewhat experimental and works on about 95% of games on both machines with a standard 2GB sd card, 100% on an Uno based with a class 4 SDHC card and 98% on Nano based machines with a class 4 SDHC card. Also with Long File Name support. Download Here.

Here is the latest software release for Casduino (The MSX CAS file playing version). What used to be the Motor Control On/Off button now selects 1200 or 2400 baud speed for faster loading. We have tried 3600 baudrate but it's too much for the software. There is some scrolling of filenames but it is buggy. If there are any programmers please feel free to improve on the code and let us know. Let me know of any problems with link.

Thanks to my very good friend and partner in this project, Andrew Beer, there is some exciting news. It's still in it's early stages and everything isn't quite functioning properly yet but we have an Arduitape playing .CAS files without conversion. More testing is needed and it's at 1200 baud so the loading is slow but it's most definitely a start. It also has LFN support too so hopefully if we get the scrolling working, it will be even more functional.

The Bad News In the last blog I said I was trying some new hardware. It was a nice cheap MP3 player SDcard combo that would've taken the need for some of the libraries out of the Ardui code and freed up memory for conversion on the board. Unfortunately the MP3 player could not recognise filenames and would not be able to display them on the screen making it difficult to choose what games you wanted to play and making that board a dead end.  The Good News Whilst playing with the MP3 player we realised that some games didn't convert properly with cas2wav at any frequency so whereas we thought it may have been a frequency issue it was actually a conversion issue when using players. By adding a couple of seconds silence at the end of each WAV all loading issues have been solved even at higher baud rates so now the only games with issues are bad archives. The new version of CasTools for MSX games can be found at the following link. Arduitape CasTools The Ugly The Ugly isn'...

It's been a while but a new version of the Arduitape is in the process of being designed and built. We have found new (for us) hardware that contains the audio jack, SD card, and also a MP3/Wav decoder that should make the building easier and free up memory in the Nano so that the conversion to Wav is built in. It will mean a software rewrite as well as the hardware changes so it may take some time, however please watch this space.

Hardware Tweak My partner in crime, Andrew Beer, has come up with a slight modification to the Amp board to improve the audio output quality. It does nothing to improve how the computer "hears" the files but it is a lot nicer to the human ears. It's nice and simple. Just remove the Capacitor C1 off the board. (Circled in the picture) Plea To Arduino Programmers. O.k. I have to admit defeat here with improving the programming. I need help from anyone who can either add or tell me how to add LFN support and maybe a basic loading animation and possibly even some sort of display of a countdown as to what's left to play of a file. Later on I will also need your help to see in onboard conversion to wav is possible. Big ask I know but it would be nice to get the project moving forward again.