MSX Cassette + USB Module Designed for RC2014

Description

Relive the olden days of storing and loading programs onto cassette tapes. Experience the nostalgia of the old medium or perhaps find out what all the fuss was about.

But if that is not enough for you, then use the other side of this kit and bring your MSX RC2014 build into the 90’s with Universal Serial Bus. After updating your ROM images, you will be able to load and store via MSX-BASIC or MSX-DOS (NEXTOR) on:

• USB flash devices
• USB magnetic mechanical hard disks
• USB 3.5″ Floppy drives
• and probably many other USB storage devices.

But that’s not all, you can also:

• use compatible USB hubs to attach multiple devices (supports up to 4 storage devices)
• with the use of a USB to Centronics adapter, connect your old dot matrix printer – (earplugs are also recommended)

There are also plans to update the software to support keyboard, ethernet adapters, and other useful USB devices.

What is it?

As described above this kit has 2 key features.

• A true retro cassette interface to save and load programs on an external regular cassette recorder (or any device capable of recording and playing back audio).
• An only slightly less retro USB 1.1 port which can enable your build to connect and utilise an assortment of USB 1.1/2.0 devices.

The cassette interface uses a conventional MSX design based around the LM311N Voltage Comparator. This little circuit will convert the ‘analogue’ signal from the cassette to a digital TTL signal

The USB interface use the cheap CH376S module. A module that handles the low level 12Mhz signals. The Z80 is still responsible for all the USB protocol encoding/decoding for various USB device classes – such as UFI for floppy and SCSI for Mass storage.

The CH376 does provide a high level interface for connecting to most common mass storage, but is limited and will not work through hubs. The MSX-DOS (NEXTOR) driver written does not use this feature of the chip, and instead uses the lower level USB protocol to implements the specific USB class for the attached storage device and will work though hubs, and support a wider range of devices.

Key features:

• MSX Cassette storage interface (with motor signal LED)
• USB 1.1/2.0 compatible (although certainly not certified)
• Tested with a large assortment of flash drives, HDD, Floppy, printer, and hubs.
• Drivers written in C so a little more accessible than pure Z80 assembly
• Individually programmable LEDs to indicate USB operation

What is the ‘Yellow MSX Series of Boards’?

These are a series of boards developed to achieve MSX+ compatibility.

What’s included in this kit

The full kits includes everything you need (PCB, capacitors, IC sockets, CH376S module, connectors, and the ICs). Also includes a small Flash drive that’s been tested and confirmed to work with the current software revision.

What else do I need to make this work?

• A working MSX system on RC2014 bus
• An updated system ROM for the MSX Memory Board for RC2014

You need a ROM image released on or after 2023-10-21. You can find prebuilt images under the project’s github releases.

The cassette part of the module, as it requires specific MSX signals, will only work in conjunction with the full MSX on RC2014 kits.