How do you replace the belt on an XC12 cassette deck?

[hatman72]

Hi, I bought an XC12 cassette deck for my 65XE and I can’t get it to load anything. So I thought I’d get a new belt to see if that improves things. Having opened it up I’m not sure how to get the old belt out or the new one in. Does anyone have any instructions as I haven’t been able to find any? 
 

Thanks!

[+scorpio_ny]

Hi @hatman72,

 

In this YouTube repair video, he does not remove the belt, but there are some tips in servicing the tape drive. I hope this helps out;

 

XC12 Tape Drive Repair

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hatman72]

Thanks @scorpio_ny, I had seen that video. My plan was to replace the belts (because I assumed that would be easy) and if that had no effect I would look at the board, but I can’t see an obvious way to get at the belt - it actually weaves its way through some of the metal frame. 

[xrbrevin]

yes, i recall having to remove the metal frame - clearances are too tight and access is v.limited. it then becomes a bit of an unstable mass but as long as you get the belt through to where it needs to be, you can get it onto the pulley after refitting the metal frame.

 

[hatman72]

I finally had some time to look at this again and was able to take the frame apart enough to get the new belt on.  The old belt seemed to be in very good condition so it came as no surprise that there is no difference to the XC12's ability to load tapes.

One thing I have noticed is that the sound I hear when loading is sometimes quite audible (loud) and at other time very, very quiet, and I can't figure out why this would be - does anyone have any ideas?

[+kheller2]

are your tapes damaged?  how do they sound in a normal audio deck?

[hatman72]

On 9/26/2022 at 7:04 PM, kheller2 said:

are your tapes damaged?  how do they sound in a normal audio deck?

The tapes may be a problem.   I don't have another deck handy at the moment, but I will try to find one. 

 

I thought I would try loading some WAV files through a cassette adaptor.  This seems to work ok for about 30 seconds, then the motor stops and nothing happens, no error, no ready prompt.  This has happened with a number of WAVs I found on youtube.  Does anyone know why this is happening?

 

[baktra]

3 hours ago, hatman72 said:

The tapes may be a problem.   I don't have another deck handy at the moment, but I will try to find one. 

 

I thought I would try loading some WAV files through a cassette adaptor.  This seems to work ok for about 30 seconds, then the motor stops and nothing happens, no error, no ready prompt.  This has happened with a number of WAVs I found on youtube.  Does anyone know why this is happening?

 

I am curious. How did you find .WAV files with Atari Software at YouTube?

 

If you can and will, try the following .wave file with your cassette adaptor.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1daxd8fosDtLMh0SiOoQ5BU_XcD3inENy/view?usp=sharing

 

To load the file, after hooking up the cassette adapter, do the following:

1. Switch the Atari computer off

2. Remove all cartridges

3. Hold START+OPTION

4. Switch the computer on, wait for beep, release START+OPTION

5. Press a key on Atari

6. Play your wave file.

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by baktra

[hatman72]

Hi @baktra - there is a topic on Youtube called 'Atari wav files' which has a few games that play back.  

As it turns out the problem I have with the motor stopping is related to the computer, not the cassette deck!  I changed to another XE65 and was able to successfully load a couple of games from this source through my XC12.  I swapped back to my original XE65 and for whatever reason it is sending a stop to the cassette deck after a few blocks of data have loaded.  I have literally no idea why it would do this and it makes no difference whether I turn on with Start or Start+Option held down.

[baktra]

Thanks for the explanation.