Heiko's DAT Page Here are some DAT-related links - primarily gathered from the DAT-Heads mailing list: DAT-Heads home page The Sony TCD-D7 / TCD-D8 Resource Guide (by Victor Yiu)

And this is the stuff I've written or collected myself: The D7 7-pin connector and S/P-DIF digial I/O SCMS - Serial Copy Management System DAT error rate counter SIRCS - serial infrared (IR) remote control IR remote control - more general info ... Microchip PIC16Cxx microcontroller Literature

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The D7 7-pin connector and S/P-DIF digial I/O

I've collected several postings to the DAT-Heads mailing list concerning the Sony TCD-D7 7-pin connector and put together some "do it yourself" projects providing digital I/O for the D7. The TCD-D3 and TCD-D8 have the same 7-pin connector as the TCD-D7, so the info here applies to them also ...

• The D7 7-pin connector description
• D7 7-pin connector postings
• D7->D7 dubbing cable
• DIY 7pin plug (by Francisco Salgado Cerredelo)
• Improved S/P-DIF receiver/transmitter circuit
• Toshiba TORX173 / TOTX173 pinout (optical receiver/transmitter modules used for S/P-DIF)
  Toshiba TOSliNK Overview
• Further details on building an S/P-DIF receiver/transmitter circuit (a.k.a. "active 7-pin cable") - very nice page!!! (by David Sanders, added 09-Jan-2002)

Lindsay Pearson has recently deciphered the "status return codes" the D7 is transmitting on pin 3 of the 7-pin connector - nice job!

I've heard that the S/P-DIF transmitter/receiver circuits described above can be used to add digital I/O to an "Epoch SoundPro HT-1869V+ Card" ... but please don't ask me about this. Some information about this "hack" might be available here or there.

SCMS - Serial Copy Management System

Here is some basic information about the SCMS copy protection scheme.

Some SCMS copy processor projects:

• Digital Signal Dissector - a well documented DIY project!
• SCMS copy processor ... unfortunately just the PCB
• SCMS mod for some Sony DATs
• SCMS Copybit Killer Kit (Elektor/Stippler)

DAT error rate counter

Some information about measuring DAT error rates:

• The DAT-Recorder's Error Counter Page

Another project adding an "error rate output" to the Sony 55ES / 57ES will be available here at some time in the future. It uses a GAL 16V8 connected to the DAT's internal CN333 connector and requires an external "universal counter"

SIRCS - serial infrared (IR) remote control

If you are interested in a "do it yourself" remote control for a Sony TCD-D7 or always wanted to know how "SIRCS" (serial infrared remote control system) works, you should have a look at the following program:

• Info about sircs4.exe and the Sony SIRCS message format
  (Updated 970401: PC IR-port supported)
• sircs4.zip (contains: sircs4.pas, sircs4.exe)
• old versions: sircs3.pas sircs3.exe sircs2.pas sircs2.exe sircs.pas sircs.exe

SIRCS message files for sircs4.exe:

• Sony DAT/CD/Cassette
• tcdd8.sny (Sony D7/D8 by Ulrich Hornstein, good!!!)
• tcdd7.sny (Sony D7, complete but inconvenient)
• cdpcx200.sny (Sony CDP-CX200 by Maciej Jesmanowicz)
• tv, amp, laserdisc, vcr (RM-687, RM-850, RM-857, RM-P351, RM-S160, RMT-M22, RMT-V115, RMT-V164)
  (by Guy Lambert)

Some other external contributions:

• posting by Ulrich Hornstein about SIRCS (including an opto coupler interface circuit I like very much)
• sircsd8.bat (for fake.com)
• fake.zip

I've added two further SIRCS messages to tcdd7.sny on 14-mar-96. Thanks to Steven K. Roberts.

Thanks to Ulrich Hornstein for his opto coupler circuit and for "promoting" SIRCS on DAT-Heads.

Guy Lambert has also added support for 15 and 20 bit SIRCS messages to sircs4. Further information about his new version sircsall and some further SIRCS messages he collected are available on his SIRCS page.

Colby Boles has designed a little box (Slink-e)to be connected to the RS232 port that permit to control SONY A/V stuff via the S-Link interface and IR.

Lindsay Pearson has also written a little assembler program to generate some SIRCS code for a D7 with a PIC16C54 microcontroller.

IR remote control - more general info ...

Use your HP 48 as remote control (including a large collection of IR codes):

• rem34bg.zip (by Bjorn Gahm)
• ftp://nada.kth.se/home/d89-bga/hp/files/posted/rem34bg.zip
• http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d89-bga/hp48/index.html


BTW: If you have an HP48 and a Linux/UNIX computer, you really must check out "x48", an HP48 emulator for X11:

• http://www.linux.netline.be/x48.html
• http://homepage.cistron.nl/~wouters/hp48/hp48.html

Some general information about IR remote control:

• IR Remotes Page
• PC IR Remote Control
• A Serial Infrared Remote Controller

Some information about IRDA for PCs:

• The IRDA Zone
• Infrared Data Association

If you have an "One-For-All" universal remote control, the following might help you to get the error rate displayed on a Sony Professional DAT:

• Initial posting by John Marvin (error rate on Sony PCM-R500 DAT recorder)
• My less successful experiments with SIRCS and a DTC-57ES
• http://www.oneforall.com
• http://www.tiac.net/users/wasser/OFA/

Microchip PIC16Cxx microcontroller

Having used these microcontrollers for audio and other projects, I really like them very much ...

• Microchip (Datasheets etc.)
• SiStudio (serial programmer software for PIC16C84)
• serial PIC16C84 programmer (appropriate DIY hardware) by Jens Madsen

Literature

Some very good books and articles about digital audio, DAT and electronics:

• "The art of digital audio", John Watkinson. 2. ed.
  Oxford : Focal Press, 1994. - XIV, 685 p.
  ISBN 0-240-51320-7
• "RDAT" [Rotary head digital audio tape (RDAT)], John Watkinson.
  Oxford : Focal Press, 1991. - xi, 244 p.
  ISBN 0-240-51306-1
• "The art of electronics", Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill. 2. ed., reprint.
  Cambbridge : Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1990. - XXIII, 1125 p.
  ISBN 0-521-37095-7
• "An Understanding and Implementation of the SCMS Serial Copy Management System for Digital Audio Transmission", Clifton W. Sanchez
  94th AES Convetion, Berlin, March 1993, Preprint #3518
  (reprinted in "Crystal Semiconductor Audio Databook 1994")
• Crystal Semiconductor Data Sheets (online as PDF!):
  Consumer/Professional Audio (Audio ADCs & DACs, Digital Audio Interface TX & RX)
  (see also: "Crystal Semiconductor Audio Databook 1994")