Sharp MZ

Does anybody know a car-AUX adapter ( for a sharp mz80k ) which also supports recording ?
I am looking for a good way to backup all my discs ...

So I recently got an MZ-721. Very happy with this computer - love it's limitations which tends to bring out the best in your imagination and creativity.

Anyway, I can't get this computer to read from the external tape connector though the Internal cassette unit is no problem (but I have to use cassettes, or the cassette converter but I don't have one yet).

So here is what I've done/tried:

• Converted MZF image of S-BASIC and converted it to a .WAV file. ie. mzf2wav.exe -i 0 -t 0 -c -b 44100 s-basic.mzf s-basic.wav

• Connected my self-made mono audio cable (about 80cm long) going from PC output to the read jack of the MZ.

• Removed the built-in MZ tape unit

• Jumper pins 1->7 and 2->8 so that ext-read goes to read and ext-write goes to write.

• Use my PC's audio player to "play" the WAV file.

• Adjust volume to various settings. Try again.

• Ensure no graphic equaliser options are set. Try again.

Nothing seems to load. I've tried other MZF files too. Tried different options with mzf2wav.exe.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I don't know about mzf2wav as I only use MZFStudio, but I think inside the MZ-700 there is something to switch the polarity for the tape output. Might be worth looking for that.

"mzf2wav.exe -i 0 -t 0 -c -b 44100 s-basic.mzf s-basic.wav". Add -p (polarity switch) and try it again.

And you must connect SENSE pin to GND pin too.

re: SENSE
Right otherwise it's left floating

I'm pretty sure I added the bitrate 44100 as well in my attempts as I read that the hardware was fussy about the waveform and 22050 wasn't sufficient.
But I didn't try reversing polarity on the motherboard or in the mzf2wav software. I'll give it a try.

Are you the same hlide that wad developing for various handhelds including GP2X?

Well reporting back as I couldn't wait to try this.... it works!
The missing bit was connect SENSE -> GND.

So to read a WAV from the external read connector:

PIN 2 (Ext Read) -> PIN 8 (Read)
PIN 5 (Sense) -> PIN 9 (Ground)

If you want to record as well:
PIN 1 (Ext Write) -> PIN 7 (Write).

I didn't need to reverse polarity with mzf2wav or the hardware switch.

Woot! Thanks for the help!

Well I have a donated GP2X from that time to help Zoddt about porting some emulators on it. Since your question is a little vague, I cannot ascertain I'm the one but that nickname hlide being not common at all, you're probably talking about me.

Why you need to connect SENSE to GND. With the internal tape deck, you'll get a display prompt asking for you to press [PLAY] because the monitor is waiting for SENSE being 0 which is set to 0 when you press [PLAY],[REWIND] or [FORWARD]. With an external tape system, you haven't that line SENSE so you need to set it to 0 permanently to avoid the display prompt which blocks you. SENSE = 0 is needed as well for recording.

Thanks for your help and I hope all this info helps someone else in a similar position.

Just curious - what would MZ-711 users do to use external tape drives? By default they have no built-in cassette unit, so I'm thinking there *must* be a dongle of some sort over the tape connector by default?
Similarly, if MZ-721 users want to use the external connectors, what were the expected to do? Basically what I did? It seems like a strange process to get those external connectors to work as expected.
Pity there isn't a switch on the back that can do all this without having to do the jumping of pins and removal of internal cassette unit.