C64 Support Real Tape Datasette

[maliniak]

Hello everyone!!

I am the owner of MISTER since 2019 and I also have MIST FPGA since 2015.

in the MIST FPGA project, there is support for a real tape datasette and you can load games and programs from it.
https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-bina ... res/fpga64
Features:
Load from real tape using the UART RX pin

The TX pin is used to control the motor.

I've been using this for about a year now and it works well.

Can you support real tape datasette on USER_IO pin 0 (RS232 RX) and control the motor on USER_IO pin 1 (RS232 TX) ?

Below I attach the datasette connection diagram to the MIST project, I see no problem for it to also work with the MISTER project.

I also use MISTER with the real drive floppy 1541-II and 1581. So it would be great to use a real tape datasette.

Thanks.

[kathleen]

Hello @maliniak,

Wow thank you for this information, I've been looking for this kind of add-on since a while.
It would be nice to see this implemented on the Mister, and not only for the C64 but also for the COCO2/3 core well I'd say for all cores capable to read real tapes.

Question:
Is the 5V coming from an external power supply ?
Here "only" the read is wired, is a write doable as well ?

I've a ST-Mini also in addition to my MisterFPGA (this is a clone of the MistFPGA), I'm wondering if this is applicable as well.
EDIT : no it won't be as there is no UART on this board

[NML32]

This would be a very welcomed addition to the Commodore cores.

[maliniak]

5V is connected to the USB plug on MIST.

in the MISTER project, there is also a voltage of 5V and 3.3V on the USER_IO connector, typically USB 3.0. So everything you need is on this USER_IO connector.

The schematics only reads the tape. I think that recording on tape would also be possible, but the TX pin is used to control the motor.
The TX pin could write data by connecting it level shifter voltage 3.3V/5V to the WRITE connector on the datassete, and connect the motor to 5V.. The tape would not stop when reading the header. I haven't tested it.

Components 74LVC14, 6N138, etc. are on the MidiAddon board in MIST.
I just plug two DIN5 plugs into the MIDI port and connect it to the datassete 1530.

I have a request to the developers of the c64 core to add support for the real true 1530 datasette on a digital level, not using the audio jack cable and volume control. If you add support, I will test for hardware.

Thanks.

[Beaps]

This is fantastic, I’ve looking to use a tape cassette with C64 for the longest on the Mister but it’s so hot/miss. To be able to use a real C64 cassette deck would be brilliant

[turnerja]

Would there be any chance of getting this to work for the Mister implementation of the PET 2001? At the moment there's no way to save to d64 or (virtual) tape at all, so it would be a real bonus to have some way to load and save programs here. I have a feeling that the PET is set up slightly differently to the VIC 20 and C64 cores, so I suspect not much will be able to be done for the old PET, but I live in hope!

[Armakuni]

This would be a nice addition especially due to the motor control