Cassette with digital audio on TEAC MT 2ST

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Playing audio with TEAC MT-2ST/45D data tape streamer. Cassette looks very similar to audio cassettes but is not the same. The streamer has a QIC2 interface which only exists in ISA card format. With the IC PDIUSBD12 I made an interface to a modern computer. The streamer plays a 32kHz mono wave file double buffered in 512kB blocks. The streamer delivers 86kB/s, but some less because it stops between the blocks to sync with the wave. The C function used is waveoutwrite to direct the data to the sound card.

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11 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 10

@MrConsiderateguy 3 месяца назад

This is really interesting, so many questions, are the tapes 60mb capacity? 30 mb each side? How big are the audio files? What format and compression? Would it be possible to fit MP3s or any other similar format on those cassettes? Reminds me a bit of DAT but more inferior?

@japcast 3 месяца назад

hi, yes around 60mb per tape. the tape runs back and forth nine times. each time the heads shift a little. this way nine tracks on the tape. the tape cannot be flipped to the other side. this range of tapestreamers also had drives for 150mb and 600mb capacity. in the video a 32kHz, 16bit mono wave file, no compression but could be also programmed for mp3. the mono wave file is about five times larger than an mp3. DAT supports 32kHz too. way simpler transport than DAT, more like DCC, but without capstan.

@Wok_Agenda 3 года назад

Hi, i found such a drive in an industrial machine , model is MT-25T/N60 I'll go back at the junkyard and try to find the card but if i remember correctly that machine had four pcbs resembling a computer with a motorola 680020 processor and no isa card.

@japcast 3 года назад

It looks like this machine is not PC compatible. The N60 could be SCSI, so then you have a great choice of ISA, PCI etc. cards. I own a N50 (not in the video) that works perfect in windows and PCI fast SCSI 2 card.

@jasonc0 2 года назад

I have one of these SCSI drives that was used with an old 68k Mac with Retrospect software and a box of brand new tapes. When I put in the tape and try to write a backup, it says that the write protect on the tape is enabled. I tried switching the write protect setting on the tape back and forth and tried both ways, but it always says that write protect is enabled. I haven't opened the drive up yet. I am using the original Mac computer, software and cables so that shouldn't be the problem. Do you have any ideas as to what might be causing the problem?

@japcast 2 года назад

Hi, are you sure the computer is communicating with the drive? Drive ID, SCSI termination ok? Does the drive start spinning and does the LED come on when you hit the restore button in the software? The drive should go searching even if the tape is blank. The write protection slider should be towards the edge of the cassette for write enable. There is an optical sensor for this, maybe this is bad. But there could be numerous problems with these drives.

@mac2Net 3 года назад

Hi, I have 2 Maxell tapes (CS-600XD) that were made from a TEAC SCSI backup connected to a Mac. Is there any chance I could borrow/rent your machine with a deposit so I can retrieve the data from the tapes? I live in Den Haag and I already have a Power Mac G4 with a SCSI card running MacOS 9.2.2 with Retrospect setup. I would just need the machine for 1-2 days. Cheers Mike

@japcast 3 года назад

Hi Mike, that could be a challenge. To start, the software you use should be the same as where the backup was made with. I struggled myself with a box full of Mac backup tapes. I made raw imports of the tapes using my own program and then it took some time to puzzle out the file headers on the tape. In the end it was straight forward with a file fork, finder and size info. Almost all tapes stopped streaming after a few MB because of reading errors. The same result with another drive. On the internet you will find some drives. The larger capacity drives like N50 and F50 also support reading the 60MB cassettes. With the right software and working drive, chances are still small to recover those tapes.

@emolatur 3 года назад

"Cassette looks very similar to audio cassettes but is not the same." ... HOW is not the same? Is the tape different? Is the case different? I just want to know if an audio cassette will physically fit, even if it won't work...

@japcast 3 года назад

Hi, yes there are some differences. Some of them: -Different tape formulation -A notch in top of the case -A hole in the tape near the beginning/end -No pad to push head against tape -Slidable erase prevention tap Yes, I was curious too if a normal audio cassette would work. So a filed the notch and made the two holes and it did work. But with more read errors than the intended tapes