Mike's PCjr Page

I've done some searching for info on the Jr Cassette Recorder, and wanted to know if IBM ever released a "JR" Cassette deck, I have never seen one.

I am thinking of getting a Commodore Datasette and converting it to work, should be simple enough. I had a TRS-80 with cassette, so I expect no surprizes...

Just wanting to try the interface and say I've done this....
Anyone have any comments on the Commodore Datasette, or if there is a better recorder that is plentiful on ebay..

I started out with a VIC 20 and cassette tape. Very slow and error prone. The Commodore was controlled by the computer. It is my understanding that IBM computers used normal tape recorders and you had to start them manually to play or record.

IBM never sold a cassette deck for the PC or the PCjr. I used a Sony "shoebox" deck back with my Timex Sinclair 1000.

If you really wanted to go deluxe Califone (yes, the same horrible elementary school electronics supplier) is still selling cassette decks new:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... order.html


I'm tempted.

Wow that is a nice unit,,,, may have to consider for sure,
altho I like the looks of the Commodore unit, just has that 'for the computer' look to me!
Has anyone used the Datasette model, curious how reliable they are....

Brutman wrote:IBM never sold a cassette deck for the PC or the PCjr. I used a Sony "shoebox" deck back with my Timex Sinclair 1000.

If you really wanted to go deluxe Califone (yes, the same horrible elementary school electronics supplier) is still selling cassette decks new:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... order.html


I'm tempted.

I am not sure the Califone will work well for this purpose. IBM followed the Tandy interface for cassette deck storage using three "phono" jacks on one end and a DIN-5 on the other. The jacks connected to the Earphone, the Auxillary and the Remote jacks on a recorder like the Tandy CCR-81 or CCR82. The Califone does not have an Auxillary input, only a Microphone input. I believe that recording data to the cassette might therefore prove difficult. I had no end of issues when trying to record data to a cassette using a cassette recorder similar to the Califone for use with my VIC-20.

The technical reference manual says "The cassette adapter allows the attachment of any good quality audio cassette through the earphone output and either the microphone or auxiliary inputs."

I've never owned a shoebox-style cassette recorder that had an aux input. That would have been a fairly high end feature, not something implemented on a device you carried around and powered with batteries.

I must have forgotten that sentence. I was thinking of the cassette interface connector of the IBM PC. That connector used the DIN-5 cable that was used by the TRS-80 computers. The Computer Cassette Recorder decks sold by Tandy Radio Shack such as the CCR-81, 82 & 83, had the aux input. I assumed that IBM would have preferred to use the aux input to the mic input, but now I recall that the IBM PC had a jumper to select between mic and aux input.