RCA CDP18S711 manual Cassette Recording Guidelines, Memory Test Program

32 RCA COSMAC VIP Instruction Manual

Cassette Recording Guidelines

1.Use high quality tape (Maxell UD or equivalent).

2.Use shortest tapes possible. You can shorten tapes to several minutes in length if you enjoy splicing.

3.Keep heads and pinch rollers clean.

4.Keep heads aligned for tape interchangeability.

5.Avoid recording too close to beginning of tape.

6.Make sure cassette is properly seated in recorder.

7If you have trouble with a cassette try others. You can have a had spot on tape or a warped cassette.

8.Highest setting of tone control is usually best.

9.Set recorder volume control so that TAPE light glows steadily on playback. This setting should be lower than highest-volume setting. Excessive TAPE light flickering indicates a bad tape or misaligned heads.

10.A dirty recorder volume control can cause tape dropouts.

11.Make sure cassette connection plugs make good contact.

12.Rewind cassettes before removing them from recorder.

13.Store cassettes in dust-proof containers.

14.Avoid exposing cassettes to heat or magnetic fields.

15.Before recording, wind cassette to one end and fully rewind.

16.Cassette recorders will give you problems once in a while (they don't like certain cassettes, etc.). If one gives you problems most of the time replace it.

17.Make sure that MIKE plug is connected before recording. You will hear a tone even if MIKE plug is out. On most recorders the TAPE light will glow while recording.

18.When recording give the page key a short tap to start.

19.Use the last byte of a tape block as a program identification and check code. It will appear on the display screen after the tape is loaded.

20.When loading a cassette into memory, the tape must contain as many pages as you specify to be loaded. If you try to load 8 pages from a 7-page tape the loading operation won't terminate properly.

21.You may have to record with the EAR plug out for some tape recorders.

22.Always use AC adaptor with recorder for best results.

Memory Test Program

This machine language program should be loaded into 0000-007F. It checks RAM locations 0000-07FF (UI8 and U19) for proper data storage. Flip RUN up to start test. Beeps sound during test. Entire 1024 byte section of RAM being tested is shown on screen. Program stops with tone on if a bad RAM bit is found. Error byte is at 007F. This byte should be 00 or FF for no error. For example, if byte is 01 or FE then bit 0 was bad. The error byte is also shown on the screen.

Set location 0020=00 and location 0023=80 to test RAM locations 0080-03FF (U16 and U17).

0000 90 B1 B2 B3 F8 17 A3 D3

0008 42 70 22 78 22 52 C4 C4

0010 C4 94 80 91 AO 30 08 F8

0018 0A Al F8 7F A2 E2 69 F8

0020 04 B4 F8 00 A4 94 B7 84

0028 A7 7A E2 F8 00 A5 F8 FF

0030 A6 85 57 94 BA 84 AA 8A

0038 52 87 F3 3A 45 9A 52 97

0040 F3 3A 45 30 47 86 5A 1A

0048 9A 52 94 FC 04 F3 3A 37

0050 07 52 85 F3 3A 6C F8 FF

0058 A5 93 A6 31 60 7B 30 31

0060 17 97 52 94 FC 04 F3 3A

0068 29 7A 30 6A 7B 30 6D 00

0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

0078 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00