Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hi all,

Again, thanks in advance for your help!

It appears that a program actually exists on tape media as sound. That being said, that sound can be turned into a digital sound file and stored on an SD card potentially.

Is there any reason that I need a old fashioned tape recorder for my TS1000, couldn't I just us any digital recording/playback device to store/load programs?

Or.... maybe it's not so simple....


JR

In theory you could use any MP3 player, but the audio output from the ZX81 is so low you need to amplify it up to signal of today's standards.

In the old days tape recorders accepted a much lower signal.

I have no old tape recorder, and have problems when I save my programs.

Wav files load perfectly in a ZX81.

Well. That explains why I can't get my TS1000 to load from my Digital Olympus recorder.

It saves just fine. I get the old 0/0 after it's all done. Man was I excited when it saved, but boy was I disappointed when it didn't load.

American_Pi wrote:Well. That explains why I can't get my TS1000 to load from my Digital Olympus recorder.

It saves just fine. I get the old 0/0 after it's all done. Man was I excited when it saved, but boy was I disappointed when it didn't load.

Yeah, 0/0 after a SAVE only means the computer has finished outputting the tones to the outside world.

As said above, the output from a ZX81 is designed for the very sensitive Mic input on mono cassette recorders, where the cassette recorder manufacturer expected the user to be using a cheap microphone with low output...

Plus, modern audio devices have volume limited outputs, unlike the old mono cassette recorders (which were designed to use 8 ohm loud speakers and 8 ohm headphones).

But of course, you only normally discover that there is a problem when you try to LOAD it back in...

Mark