(c)1990 Golden Triangle, Inc. (c)1990 Wilson Van Alst All rights reserved. Fm: Dorian Grey To: SYSOP (X) I have had a 200 Laptop for some years but only recently tumbled to the fact that there is a lot more that can be done with this machine than Tandy/Radio Shack indicates. I have a PC and am fairly conversant with DOS but I know nothing about programming. My 200 is stock (only one bank) and I have a Tape "drive" which I have used (I only seem to get back about half of what I save. I use the 200 primarily for WP and telecommunications so I would like to be able to off load files to my cassette but be assured of getting them back later (Since I don't have a null modem cable I transfer my data to my PC by modem.) - 0 - Fm: Tony Anderson To: Dorian Grey Well, to begin with, with only one bank of RAM available, you need a reliable external storage device. A cassette machine won't cut it. Cassettes have always been unreliable, and particularly slow. You can get a used disk drive for between $75 and $125, depending on model, or a new one by mail order for about $165, or at your local Radio Shack for $229 more or less, depending on whether they're on sale this week. Second, you should fill up the machine with the other two banks of RAM for extra storage space, as well as being able to increase your operating convenience. There are currently only two companies, aside from Radio Shack, who are advertising RAM expansions; American Cryptronics (714) 540-1174, and Purple Computing (800) 732-5012. If you don't want to spring for a disk drive or RAM banks at this time, the very least you should do is get an RS-232 cable and null modem, so you can transfer your files to the PC for storage. There are several programs here which make saving stuff to the PC effortless. A cable and adapter should be less than $25. - 0 - Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: Dorian Grey One of the first files you should get is FLTIBM in Lib 2. It's a program for the PC that lets you exchange files with the laptop at 9,600 Baud -- much better than using the modem. Don't know about your problems with tape storage. Cassettes are slow, but most people have found them better than 50-50 when it comes to reliability. In my own experience, I've found the two most significant factors to be record/playback volume, and cassette quality. On volume, you want to 'record low, play high' (kinda like the stock market) -meaning you don't want to saturate the tape during recording, if you have any way to control record volume, and you should hit the computer pretty hard on playback. Regarding cassettes, it's not the frequency response of the tape that counts, but the smoothness of the cassette's feed mechanism -- because, above all, the computer wants consistent speed as the tape passes the record/playback head(s). For the same reason, short tapes are better than long ones, especially on "medium quality" tape decks, because they present less drag for the motor to handle. A couple of other hints. On one particular recorder, I had problems with hum when operating both the computer and the tape deck from AC supplies. Switching one, or the other, or both, to batteries fixed things. However, if you're using batteries on the recorder, make sure they're reasonably fresh; bad batts will make the tape play sloooowwwwly, irritating the computer's fine ear for binary music. Low batteries are even worse if you're recording, of course, because you'd produce a tape that will play back accurately only if you can approximate that same slow speed condition. Also, on marginal tapes you may have better luck if you issue the SOUND OFF command before playback. Finally, you should get a copy of James Yi's CASUTL program for the T200. It adds some nice date/time information to files as you record them (without changing the file itself), and it lets you recover partial data from text files that, for whatever reason, won't load properly in toto. - 0 - Fm: Dorian Grey To: Wilson Van Alst Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply to my questions. What you had to say about volume was most intersting. I've always kept it at "5" for both recording and playback as that is what the Tandy instruction book said to do. As for my recorder it is a RADIO SHACK cassette player that is "supposedly" specifically for recording from/to the Tandy Laptops. Although, with the exception of the nomenclature stamped on the case, the thing looks just like a regular RS cassette recorder. It would be just like those guys to do something like this: TANDY GUY ONE Say, nobody's buying those mono cassette players anymore! Everybody wants stereo and we got thousands of the mono units; whatrwe gonna do? TANDY GUY TWO I know! We'll put new cases on 'em that say "Computer Cassette Recorder" and sell 'em to those people that bought 102's and 200's. Their gonna need something to store their data on anyway. BTW, I've had a few other people suggest using CASUTL to get my lost files back but one thing that's not clear fromn the DOC on that is, will it help recover files from cassette that *were not* saved with CASUTL? Also, what do you mean by using the SOUND OFF command? Where and how is that implemented? - 0 - Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: Dorian Grey Dorian, You may be right about the Tandy decks. One of the =least= reliable recorders I ever used was a fresh-from-the-box CCR-81 "Computer Cassette Recorder." Unfortunately, I didn't pin my problems to the machine until after the warranty had expired -- so that deck is now a doorstop. On the other hand, I've had very good luck with a CCR-82 that I bought used as part of a M100 package deal. The '82 is smaller, and has features that make you think it really =was= designed for computer data. So who knows? Aside from the semi-technical stuff I talked about last time, the key to sucess is a little experimentation -- which is pretty simple because there are only a limited number of variables involved. Use this little program to write a bunch of short files all on one side of a single cassette: 10 n=n+1 20 print@90,"File #"n; 30 open"cas:test"foroutputas1 40 print#1,string$(40,48+(nmod10)) 50 close 60 goto10 Since most small tape decks use auto-level circuitry that won't let you change recording levels manually, you won't be making any adjustments during the record process. After you've got several minutes' worth of files, bail out of the above program by holding down the keys continuously until BASIC gives you its "Ok" prompt. Now you can experiment with playback levels using this program: 10 open"cas:test"forinputas1 20 ifeof(1)thenrun 30 lineinput#1,a$ 40 printa$; 50 goto20 As your recorded files skip past, they'll produce a series of printed lines on the screen. Each line is made of a single digit, from 1 to 0, repeated 40 times: 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111 2222222222222222222222222222222222222222 ...etc. Now start messing with the playback volume. If the program produces an "?IO Error," just press to get it running again and continue the experimentation. You'll find a cut-off point on the low end of the volume range where you stop getting input. You may find a similar point at the high end, where input either stops completely or gets squirrely. I'd suggest a "standard" playback setting 2/3 of the way towards the high end of the usable range. If you can't find =any= setting that produces reliable playback, you've probably got a rotten recorder -although there could be problems with the cable (try the wiggle test) or even in the computer circuits that modify the tape's audio signal into digital waveform. Almost forgot: you turn the computer's 'squawker' off by entering BASIC and typing "SOUND OFF" (without the quotes), followed by the key. Again, this may have a marginal effect on reliability. And, re. CASUTL, yes, it will read files, or partial files, that were recorded in "standard" format. - 0 - Fm: Gene Nestro To: Wilson Van Alst This is not a joke...try turning the recorder upside down! Myself and many others found this to work. - 0 - Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: Gene Nestro Terrific idea. Now I have an upside-down doorstop. I don't mean to belittle this solution (if it works, it works!), but if I had taken the recorder back under warranty -- and the Tandy folks had said, "Nope. It's fine. Just turn it upside down." -- I would have gone ballistic. If the turn-over trick helps someone recover a lost file, though, that's neat. - 0 - Starting message #: 188626 Starting date: 11-Oct-89 18:28:19 Participants: Dorian Grey 70032,1513 Tony Anderson 76703,4062 Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735