Commodore 64 : Tapuino , Relive The 'Tape Times' Long Gone!

Tapuino Interface - Introduction

I had already read about the Tapuino interface for the various old 8 bit systems (C64. MSX, ZX Spectrum), but never thought of doing anything with it.
The interface was originally designed by Peter Edwards .
There are so many different storage adapters that Tape didn't seem very attractive anymore.
Nothing turned out to be less true, there is a real revival going on of the Tape 'violence' of the past, and that including waiting times of minutes leaves many people longing for that feeling of then, the tension that would come when the file was finally ready. with loading.

Tapuino Interface - Building a Prototype

I wanted to experiment with this phenomenon myself and started with an experiment board. The heart of the Tapuino is again an Arduino, the Pro Mini, supplemented with some push buttons, an SD card reader and an OLED Display.
After an evening of tinkering I was actually able to make a working setup and I started designing a PCB, the first revision of that PCB was delivered in an edition of 5 pieces and then I could really put my Prototype to the test. .

Tapuino Interface - Installation

Connecting the Interface is simple, simply plug it back into the Tape connector and you're ready to go.
The Tapuino only supports the *.TAP tape format , others like *.htap and *.T64 are not (yet) supported at the moment.
If you have plugged in a fat 32 formatted Micro SD card with the *.tap files you can use 4 push buttons to browse through directories, select files and directories and possibly cancel a loading instruction.

The Tapuino does not require a charger, a Micro SD with *.TAP files is all you need, but it is wise to build up a good structure because otherwise you will keep clicking up and down indefinitely.

The Tapuino was developed somewhere in the past to what is now the Tapecart, so the Tape experience has been lost, just like loading programs with bootscreens, endscreens and all the other joys of loading Tape.

I'm working on revision 1.01 of the interface and hereby present my first 2 prototypes :
They are fully functional, there was a minor design flaw which I was able to fix easily.

The price of a prototype is 20 euros, you will receive a link with a lot of *.TAP files so that you immediately have a large collection.

The interface in version 1.01 will cost 29.95 euros (without files).