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From: Julian.Wright@comp.vuw.ac.nz (John Julian Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: BBC Microcomputer
Summary: BBC B Cassette, Disc drive and Serial port.
Message-ID: <1991May17.073513.8396@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Date: 17 May 91 07:35:13 GMT
References: <2784@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU>
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In article <2784@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> cccph@jessica.cs.ucla.edu (Charles Hobbs) writes:

>1. How does one connect a cassette drive to it?

Look at the back of the machine. You will see three round sockets. The right
hand one in labled "Cassette", and you can plug a standard 5 pin din plug
into it (the other end of which is connected to your tape recorder). The two
outermost pins are the "motor control" pins and the "cassette" LED on the
front of the machine is illuminated when these two pins are shorted by the
internal relay. Motor control is not mandatory though.

Make sure you are in the tape filing system (enter "*Tape" at the '>' prompt)
and you can the use the LOAD and SAVE commands:
>LOAD"MyProgram"
  (at which point you start up the tape recorder and wait)
  or
>SAVE"MyProgram"
  (at which point you wind the tape to a blank spot, start it recording,
   and hit RETURN)

>2. Is there a disk drive capability?

If your machine has a disc drive interface then the start up message will
include the line "Acorn DFS" or similar. If not you will need to get a disc
interface kit from somewhere. The disc drive plugs into the 34 pin IDC plug
that can be found underneath the BBC, alongside the printer port, user port,
1MHz bus and Tube. Also you can power the disc drive from the power socket
underneath the power supply. (I don't have my manuals here so I can't give
you the pinouts sorry :-().

Once the disc drive and interface is installed, make sure you are in the disc
filing system (enter "*Disc" at the '>' prompt) and you can use the load and
save commands as above, except disc filenames can be only 7 characters in
length rather than 10 for tape, and you don't need to hit RETURN after the
SAVE command.

>3. How about a modem port?

There is an RS423 (RS232 compatable) port on the round socket next to the
cassette port.

Hope this helps somewhat! Give me a yell if you want the pinouts and I'll dig
around later for my user guide... :-)

    Cheers, Julian.
-- 
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; I would if I could but I can't so I won't but I might if I find I can later ;
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jwright@comp.vuw.ac.nz                                julian@sideways.gen.ac.nz