REPLICA 1TE Down Under with ACI

[PaulB]

Thought I would attach and post a couple of pics of my newly completed R1TE project in Australia.

I have fitted the APPLE CASSETTE INTERFACE card from Mike Willegal and although I expected some trouble, it works great.
Mike supplies Improved components along with the originals in the kit and these go a long way towards improving the reliability.
I tried to make the case look a bit weathered and home made, "or that’s just my excuse for being lousy at woodwork" and the ASCll Keyboard is a Keytronics and although it works O.K, it is a bit touchy, so I have seated it down flush on the console to allow a PS2 to sit directly on top for more reliable use when programming. The monitor is made from an old B/W 12V TV and is powered by the ATX.
The ACI requires an ATX supply to run it and I used the Panasonic RQ2102 Recorder as recommended by APPLE and unbelievably they are still available today. I have found the best volume setting on the recorder to be 2-3 and i am getting around 8 out of 10 Write/Reads of my programs working fine, although programs on the larger side do tend to require some experimentation with the volume to improve reliability. Anyway I am very happy with the card. I am creating a software library on Cassette for my R1, which along with the wooden case and ASCll Keyboard gives a nice authentic feel when operating the machine.

All the best for now.
Paul.

[vbriel]

I'm getting a RQ2102 in the mail today and will start work on my modified version of the ACI that uses different PROM. Hopefully Mike's mod plus the RQ2102 will make everything work correctly.

Vince

[PaulB]

Sounds good Vince, Although Mikes version is better than the original it would still be nice to have an even more reliable ACI card.
Some programs just wont write to tape properly no matter what I try. Whilst others like Chess and Bowling hardly ever fail to write to or read from tape perfectly. It’s a bit strange, but that’s how it is.
I have recently been experimenting with an old Sony Reel to Reel recorder. Its something different and its been a bit of fun, they look pretty cool too. I had some trouble getting it to work with the Replica so I built a small 0.5W Amplifier kit and placed it inline from the recorders headphone output to the Replica’s ACI card and it seems to be working just as well as the RQ2102. One benefit of the R to R recorder is the VU meters. When the programes leader tone starts to play the needles on the VU meters max out and that’s when I know to hit return on the Replica.
This helps because I have noticed alot of read errors occur before the leader tone plays and are caused by background noise like motor hum and static recording onto tape. Hitting return when the leader tone starts to play seems to improve reliability dramatically. I have also installed the I/O card and Speakjet and having a bit of fun with that.

Looking forward to hearing how you go with your mods on the ACI card.

Paul.

REPLICA 1 WITH REEL TO REEL DATA STORAGE

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