I found a computer at the side of the road containing a drive like this some 20 years ago. I was never able to find any kind of information about it at the time, and I have aske many people over the years without getting any useful information about what this cassette tape drive was for. The construction of the mechanism and the lack of audio connectors made it apparent that it was not for sound recording. Seems like the mystery is finally solved. I’m pretty sure the one I had ran off the floppy controller, but I may have been IDE. It was certainly not SCSI. I never tried to install it in a working computer, and ended up throwing it away as it had heavy water damage from sitting outside for months in the winter.
some mechanical differences. there should be a hole near the end and beginning of the tape. there is no pad for pressing the tape against the head for the data cassette. tape formulation is different. and there should a notch at the top of the cassette shell. I tried modifying an audio tape and it worked in the 50Mb drive
Попали мне в руки две таких кассеты. Смог на них записать музыку. Да, лента отличается от Fe2o3, и это дало некоторую окраску звучания из-за потери некоторых звуковых частот. Звучание получившихся записей похоже на старую ламповую технику, очень красиво звучит классический джаз.
So I have to ask... Is this basically just a Compact Cassette? If you cut an appropriate notch in the casing of a regular casette would it work? (I'm writing this before I've watched the full video so apologies if you already addressed this!) Could you try it out to see if it works?
yes it looks like and audio cassette. some mechanical differences. there should be a hole near the end and beginning of the tape. there is no pad for pressing the tape against the head. tape formulation is different. and there should be the notch. I tried modifying an audio tape and it worked in the 50Mb drive
@@japcast I've always wanted to know if you can do that. Now I'm kicking myself more for snatching that one for free 20 years ago, wonder if it was the 50mb version. Which one should I get for that purpose if I can find it for cheap? I'm also waiting for someone to write an improved standard for writing data easily and more reliably using ordinary decks but that's another story and it's not like there's a lot of insane people like me demanding it!
you mean like burning a cd just with a cassete?? .. there are cassete to usb/aux/bluetooth adapters that are more convenient .. otherwise i don't get what you mean .. no the computer can't play music in your car .. your car's electronic runs on 12 volts, this computer needs 120/220 volts to function and doesn't have a soundcard in it (old computers didn't have onboard audio like todays computers have) .. you could make it work, but there is no point
I found a computer at the side of the road containing a drive like this some 20 years ago. I was never able to find any kind of information about it at the time, and I have aske many people over the years without getting any useful information about what this cassette tape drive was for. The construction of the mechanism and the lack of audio connectors made it apparent that it was not for sound recording. Seems like the mystery is finally solved. I’m pretty sure the one I had ran off the floppy controller, but I may have been IDE. It was certainly not SCSI. I never tried to install it in a working computer, and ended up throwing it away as it had heavy water damage from sitting outside for months in the winter.
interfaces for them were SCSI or QIC2. in my other video you can see my QIC2 drive play digital audio
Wow, I knew about Datasettes and tape drives with DAT and stuff, but I never saw a backup tape that looks so close to compact cassettes!
fascinating, love old tech
How big is the difference between a data tape cassette and a MC? Is it possible to use MC tape?
some mechanical differences. there should be a hole near the end and beginning of the tape. there is no pad for pressing the tape against the head for the data cassette. tape formulation is different. and there should a notch at the top of the cassette shell. I tried modifying an audio tape and it worked in the 50Mb drive
Попали мне в руки две таких кассеты. Смог на них записать музыку. Да, лента отличается от Fe2o3, и это дало некоторую окраску звучания из-за потери некоторых звуковых частот. Звучание получившихся записей похоже на старую ламповую технику, очень красиво звучит классический джаз.
привет. да, лента немного другая. и в кассете с данными отсутствует фетровая прокладка
@@japcast что интересно, в моих экземплярах она есть. При этом, крупнее, чем на обычных кассетах. ORWO DK490 и Data Cassette Type QR1009.
A few years ago, I came across some of those tapes. But I ended up usin' them to record audio.
Somewhere 80's I had a similar TEAC SCSI drive, HP 1,5 K drive was next, had Colorado backup software, present remote HD drive and sticks obsolete !
So I have to ask... Is this basically just a Compact Cassette? If you cut an appropriate notch in the casing of a regular casette would it work? (I'm writing this before I've watched the full video so apologies if you already addressed this!) Could you try it out to see if it works?
yes it looks like and audio cassette. some mechanical differences. there should be a hole near the end and beginning of the tape. there is no pad for pressing the tape against the head. tape formulation is different. and there should be the notch. I tried modifying an audio tape and it worked in the 50Mb drive
@@japcast I've always wanted to know if you can do that. Now I'm kicking myself more for snatching that one for free 20 years ago, wonder if it was the 50mb version. Which one should I get for that purpose if I can find it for cheap?
I'm also waiting for someone to write an improved standard for writing data easily and more reliably using ordinary decks but that's another story and it's not like there's a lot of insane people like me demanding it!
Yes it is very good 💯
obscure old hardware ...my favorite....
Can you play music from the computer in a car?
you mean like burning a cd just with a cassete?? .. there are cassete to usb/aux/bluetooth adapters that are more convenient ..
otherwise i don't get what you mean .. no the computer can't play music in your car .. your car's electronic runs on 12 volts, this computer needs 120/220 volts to function and doesn't have a soundcard in it (old computers didn't have onboard audio like todays computers have) .. you could make it work, but there is no point
Hello. Data cassette tapes and floppies may be magnetically erased with a tape mechanism. Remove the magnetism with an eraser.
Great video. Informative.
wow
From an era when a floppy held 360K (yes kay!) To people today, 600M is nothing.