[Coco] Cassete reading

[Rogelio Perea]

On Tue Dec 11 2012, Gustavo Ranaur Schoenaker wrote:

The tapes are very, very old. And maybe are damaged by the time.
>
> Should I do some treatment with them before reading? Maybe rewind/FF a
> couple of times before using them?
>

Not too long ago I had to transfer all the programs I had saved on tape for
my MC-10, the tape sat unattended to for almost 10 years. Before proceeding
I checked on the cassette and spinning it manually (the old BIC pen tool) I
saw that the tape was in seemingly good condition with no oxide dropouts,
but the mechanics supporting the tape had gone bad, mainly the pressure pad
that sits underneath the center opening for the playback/record head; the
glue of the pad had dried out so the pad fell out of place - instead of
trying to fix the pad/suspension on that I just transferred the tape reels
to a spare housing I had - all programs were readable (rather amazing
considering the age of the tape) and transferred to a new one.

So one thing to check is the integrity of that pad, it is usually attached
to a small metal "spring" suspension. If the thing is bad you probably can
get away with just placing a small cotton ball underneath the tape in place
of the pad/spring, the cotton should provide for enough support on the tape
to properly come in contact with the playback/record head of the tape
player.


-- RP