syphus

C64 Datasette – you remember it. The Datasette embodies Commodore cheapskatery from start to finish: it was a cheapo alternative to a proper disk drive, it’s got a crudely thrown-together connector with wires hanging out and it’s even got a skinflint mono drive head apparatus. All expenses spared, so that Jack could keep the costs down!

So it turns out they last pretty well. And in this age of 1541 emulators, MMC64 interfaces and the like, it’s sad to see a Datasette sitting unused and unloved. So I decided to lavish about four quid on mine and turn it into a block-rocking pimp star supreme with:

• an internal speaker
• internal 9v battery power
• an external in (for when I eventually get the recording head to work)
• a line/headphone output
• a switch/knob for power and drive motor speed control (though this doesn’t really work yet)
• an unfeasible amount of mystery line noise, which I’m going to pretend is intentional and adds ‘character’.

As usual, my half-arsed attempts to document the process fell flat since I’ve lost the proprietary charger for my proper camera (damn you, Samsung) but I caught a few snaps on my phone cam and some of them aren’t too dreadful. The whole thing was a couple of hours of cheap fun – I probably got between £4 and £6 worth of stuff from Maplin on the way home for it. Eventually I’ll get some video of absolute junglist techno dub rave spaz horror madness being perpetrated with this tremendous device.

So does it work? Well… Yes. Basically. The speed control isn’t right yet – possibly because Commodore put a regulated motor in that stops dead below a certain input voltage. Although it’s supposed to take 5v and I’m giving it 9ish… and it falls off below 90% of the pot. Oh well.

Some other stuff isn’t spot-on yet, either. I couldn’t be bothered with the LED, but that’s a possibility. Oh, and like I said, the recording isn’t working perfectly.

The final shame? I don’t actually have any audio on tape to test in this! I’ve only got data cassettes, so I’ve been chilling to the blissful binary of Revenge of The Mutant Camels, Arkanoid and Firelord all night. I’m reasonably satisfied that I’m getting what’s on the tape out through the speaker/line, so that’s fine. Oh, and my speaker cut-out for when something’s plugged in isn’t working very well either – probably dodgy soldering on my part. Twill be fixed.

Updates will come…

Update:  so I’ll stick in a different pot today and see how that goes. And probably rewire the record head to within an inch of its life, because being able to record line sources portably on this badboy would be extremely cool.

Up-Update: well I’m always willing to learn…and I’ve learnt two things. Firstly, that I need a Darlington pair (dual transistor circuit) to effectively control the tape speed. This is pretty standard stuff for motor speed control, but I’d never heard of it until my good friend Deltafire specifically detailed it to me. And now I realise what Jamie was suggesting in the first place :)

Secondly, SLC in #c-64 pointed out that the play head also does the writing, and the white head (which I thought was a record head) actually just erases. Well maybe everyone in the world knew this, but I didn’t – now I do! So I need to power that, but on a contact switch (maybe beneath the Record button) so that it doesn’t constantly wipe the magnetic data.

And I STILL think I can keep the entire cost of this mod well under £10. More soon.

Here’s what else I’d like to do:

• Put a mono delay circuit from a cheap-shit Behringer guitar pedal, IF it fits in the case (running out of room fast). It’d be great to make this a gnarly dubbox.
• Experiment with Arduino for motor control and some other cool stuff – after Jamie suggested some stuff in the comments, I discovered that little-scale has coincidentally done this sort of thing over here…
• Make this a very very cheap project that I can distribute a simple how-to for. Arduino boards are wicked, but relatively expensive in view of what the Ghettosette is all about (wow, I’ve already idealogised it). If the total cost is under £7, plus around £5 for the Datasette (although ideally someone will have one lying around already – doesn’t everyone?), I’ll be happy.
• Introduce some common sense: mount all jacks and pots in the lower portion of the case, using double-core wire that’s neatly glued down, fashion some sort of cradle for the battery (even though it sits pretty tight where it is) and ensure that battery replacement is straightforward and everything’s neat.
• Use it to listen to Depeche Mode while flying a spaceship.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 1:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.