Re: JoyLoader

Den Fri, 18 Jan 2019 09:15:29 +0200 skrev Marko Mäkelä
<msmakela@gmail.com>:
> On Thu, Jan 17, 2019 at 05:01:28PM -0600, Jim Brain wrote:
> >I think he was thinking people would type in the program.
> 
> I think that the least amount of typing you will get by using the 
> cassette port.
> 
> The minimal size of a loader program from the cassette port is 192+2 
> bytes. That is what the auto-starting loader of my c2nload is using: 
> load the program as part of the compulsory 192-byte tape header, and 
> then load 2 bytes that cause a jump to the tape buffer.
> 
> Maybe the C2N232 could be replaced with something dumber, using the 
> audio output of a computer, tablet or smartphone. It could be
> somewhat of a challenge to implement bidirectional transfer. If the
> interface were to play nice (and emulate the loading of tapes), then
> it would have to connect not only CASS READ but also CASS SENSE and
> CASS MOTOR. With that you would already have exhausted the 2 outputs
> and 1 input that are available in a TRRS connector (stereo headphones
> and microphone). Something magical would be needed to additionally
> connect CASS WRITE.

With a smart phone, you could actually do bidirectional using the video
output of the Commodore machine and the camera on the smart phone.

Especially signaling ACK/NACK would probably work rather well by just
flashing the border/background color. Might even work if the camera
isn't pointed towards the screen, as the reflections in the room might
be enough to detect the signal.

Re replacing C2N232 with something: IMHO for most not totally unskilled
users it might be best to replace it with some Arduino. I may be biased
as Arduinos are available in a bunch of shops spread around here in
Sweden (100 shops in a country with a population of about 10M is imho
really good for that kind of stuff. Sure, there are more than one shop
in some of the more densely populated areas but still).

Btw, what is the reason for C2N232 not being available nowdays? Too few
customers or too much work to produce them at a reasonable price? If
it's a matter of too much work then an Arduino solution might be good.

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