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TRS-80 PC-2 (Sharp PC-1500) - Help loading "casette" programs (WAV files)

E

EddieDX4

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Aug 15, 2006
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Puget Sound region, WA, USA
Does anyone own or have worked with a PC-2/PC-1500 before that might be able to help me? I have been trying to unsuccessfully load a BASIC program from a WAV file via my laptop's sound output port connected to the devices EAR port (the device has EAR/MIC ports, but they signify what does ports go to on the casette interface, so it's not really OUT/IN, is actually IN/OUT...according to the manual).

The problem I'm running into is that when I invoke the CLOAD command and its corresponding parameters, the PC-2 displays (BUSY) on the upper-left corner and when I start the WAV file you can hear the various sound modulations/beeps or whatever you want to call them very faintly on the PC-2 itself. After the WAV is done playing back, the device remains in that BUSY mode and I have to perform a command break to stop it. Nothing gets loaded into memory (I can do a LIST and there's nothing to list).

I've tried this several ways, even swapped the cables around just in case, no go. Also adjusted the laptop's sound volume up/down (at the start of each test, not during), no luck.

Any help/advice would be appreciated!
 
round the other way

round the other way

Try it round the other way first.
Type in a short program on the PC2, save it to cassette (i.e. your computers mic or line in jack). You might have to play with levels a bit. A trace of the signal shouldn't look distorted, you can use a freeware audio tool to look at this.
When you're sure the levels record with out distortion, then try playing the .wav back into your PC2, see if this works.
patscc
 
patscc said:
Try it round the other way first.
Type in a short program on the PC2, save it to cassette (i.e. your computers mic or line in jack). You might have to play with levels a bit. A trace of the signal shouldn't look distorted, you can use a freeware audio tool to look at this.
When you're sure the levels record with out distortion, then try playing the .wav back into your PC2, see if this works.
patscc
Click to expand...

I'll try that when I get home tonight. The .wav files I was trying to load were downloaded from pc1500.com. Not sure if they were converted and untested or what.

It almost seems as if the PC-2 is not able to "find" the expected program specified in the CLOAD statement. I tried CLOAD without paremeters so it would just load without waiting for the program name string data, but no go either.

Anyway, I'll try CSAVE'ing first and seeing if I can CLOAD what I saved, play with the levels, etc...

Thanks for the suggestions! :cool:
 
patscc's suggestions are good ones.

Cassette sound levels for computers can be VERY VERY fussy. You might have to experiment with the volume quite a bit. Certainly best to save a small program onto the PC as a Wav, then see if you can read it back. It's important to get this working first, so you know at least it can be done, before trying files obtained from elsewhere.

Tez
 
You also have to ensure the audio is clean of hiss and other noises. Turn off your Windows sounds. If you have email come in or ANYTHING else that causes a noise it'll cause the downloads to fail.

RJ
 
heh - I just recently found a PC-2 RS-232 Serial adapter in my garage - the whole connect-on thing, in original box, original manual, ac adapter/charger (although I'm sure the NiCD batteries need swapping)

The junk we accrue...

i don't even OWN a PC-2! :)

T
 
I found a nice, old-school looking tape recorder at Radio Shack today with the remote jack and all. I CSAVE'd a test program and then cleared the program from memory. I then CLOAD'ed it and it worked like a charm....

I recorded 2 different programs from WAV to the tape. The volume is about the same level as what the PC-2 recorded the test program at. I tried loading both programs but no go.

Definitely an issue with the way they were recorded (or converted). I guess there's some utility out there that grabs a standard BASIC text file and converts it to what the audio output would be like, and that's how a lot of these programs are being distributed as WAV files.

Oh well... I guess I'll have to type the couple hundred lines of BASIC in manually. :rolleyes:

Thanks for all the suggestions to everyone. I was meaning to obtain one of these recorders anyway, as it will also work with my TI-99/4A. :D
 
I just wanted to post an update to this issue...

I was able to transfer a couple of programs via WAV playback to the PC-2... With all volume maxed out. I use a MacBook Pro, so I was initially using iTunes for playback, but I also run VMware Fusion with XP Pro x64 so I tried using Windows Media Player... After turning off all audio enhancements (to make sure there was no sound wave clipping, etc.) and maxing out the volume, things started working...somewhat.

The weird thing is, sometimes very long programs would fail at a random point (I made sure nothing was running in the background on both XP and Mac OS to prevent any random sounds, so that wasn't it)... I came to the conclusion that some times would would be very faint sudden "crackles" in the audio, which were the culprit of the failures.

Ironically, the same method (playing back via WMP) works 100% perfectly with my TI-99/4A. I guess the modulation used for the TI cassette programs is more forgiving than that of the TRS-80 PC-2.
 
Research the frequencies used! If they are the typical 1200 hz or that range, use the equalizer in WMP to chop as much of the high end as you can get away with....

Or..

Don't research the frequencies and do the high end equalizer chop anyway (chuckle).
 
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