Atari 410 Repair

[kb3wmh]

Hi,

 

I just got an 800 system, with some accessories, but the tape drive doesn't work. Occasionally I'll get a vague noise when I press rewind, but even that is infrequent. It won't play when I type "CLOAD" in the prompt.

 

I looked inside it, and the belts aren't broken.

 

I'm thinking that I'll just cannibalize the SIO cable for a SIO2Arduino build--the drive isn't in particularly good shape, and looking on Ebay, SIO cables aren't that much less than a new 410 or even 1010. I also have a disk drive that sounds like it works (I haven't actually got any 5.25 disks yet), so I'd only use the tape drive to download programs from a PC, with the SIO2Arduino would solve.

 

But I'd appreciate any opinions. Thanks.

[+Stephen]

Belts may not be broken, but I bet they have turned to goo by this point. Still, as much as I like preserving old hardware, I wouldn't spend two seconds on a tape drive.

[Brentarian]

If the 410 case is in okay shape you could always use it as an enclosure for your SIO2Arduino.

[kb3wmh]

If the 410 case is in okay shape you could always use it as an enclosure for your SIO2Arduino.

Yeah, maybe I'll do that.

 

Sent from my BLU R1 HD using Tapatalk

[+orpheuswaking]

Belts are likely stretched out, in addition there is a spring that gets stretched causing the issues you describe. It's fixable with the right belts and modifying the spring. But the question becomes is it work the time/expense?

 

I have two tubs full of cassettes so I always try and resurrect tape drives.

[gilsaluki]

I love tapes. It is worth a few bucks to get new belts.

[Tempest]

Tapes are worth it just to hear the loading music or cheesy instructions on those Atari programs. You lose that with disks. I'm also pretty sure there are some tape games that haven't been converted to disk yet.