lotto@midas.harvard.edu (Gerald I. Lotto) (01/17/90)
I have been asked by a TI 99/4A owner to help with a stolen "drive". From the description, this drive sounds like a cassette player. The cable is gone as well. He has no documentation and I have not seen the machine. My questions are... Can I make an adapter cable for any cassette player that will enable him to read his tapes? What kind of connector does the machine have and what are the pinouts? Respond via e-mail if possible... lhasa is not a uucp or BitNet site, but mail to lotto@husc6 (both uucp and BitNet) will work as well. Thanks. -- Gerald Lotto <lotto@lhasa.harvard.edu> "Have you hugged the curves today?" Chemistry Dept., Harvard Univ. AMA #520019
young@pur-ee.UUCP (Mike Young) (01/18/90)
Yes, just about any cassette player will work. If all you want is to read the tapes, you need a plug to fit the player's earphone jack. Many players also have a motor-control jack (frequently a submini phone jack); this can be used IF its polarity is correct. If not, no problem; it's optional. The connection to the 99/4A is a 9-pin "D" connector on its backside. Don't confuse it with the 9-pin D on the side - that's for the joysticks. Pin Function ___ ________ 1 motor control, cassette 1 center conductor 2 " " " " shield 3 microphone connector ground return (shield) 4 N/C 5 mike connector center conductor 6 motor control, cassette 2 center conductor 7 " " " " shield 8 earphone connector center conductor 9 " " shield The microphone connection is only used for recording data onto the tape. In the stock TI cable, Cassette 1 gets earphone, mike, and motor control conn- ections; Cassette 2 only gets motor control and mike. The TI Basic cassette routine also forbids you to read from cassette 2. I recommend using a battery-operated recorder to avoid possible AC line interactions, and avoid AC hum as well. Hope this helps. Mike Young Purdue University EE Dept. W. Lafayette, IN 47907 young@ecn.purdue.edu ...!pur-ee!young