Canon X07 - Trip in the past

Hi, today we'll speak about an old beast : the Canon X-07... (1983)

I could get one two weeks ago, since I had short nights ;)

I started to hack the casette port (because I didn't know how many time the batteries will hang & there is no backup battery !!!)

I first try to store .WAV then play back to the X-07 to backup my programs.

After a while, I found good settings to record, then process wav to be downloadable then re-uploadable.

Since it worked I try to decode / recode the source files.

I made a Java API for that, I'll put it on the Web later... Now, I can easily write programs on my desktop computer then upload those to the X-07 ;)

I just had to make a special cable for the casette interface as the port is a miniDIN, I customized an old PS/2 cable to do the trick, plugged 2 sterero 3.5 jacks to MIC / EAR of my sound card (all port pinouts can be found here)

Note that these 2 pictures come from the great informative page : http://gtello.pagesperso-orange.fr/cx07_f.htm

Then I tried to read the parallel port w/ an arduino (ouch !, I had to change my pinout just after soldering... but it works), here's the diagram. (I used interrupt pin 2 else I could not synchronize the MCU and the Canon)

It reads the centronic signals then output to TX.

here I had the cut the proprietary printer cable to solder it to a female DB25.

To be more fun, I retrieve my old Arduino VGAX test breadboard that can make VGA 120x60 4 colors (VGAX is a common Arduino library that can be found on the web)

Then I connected the // port reader to the VGAX display, here are some results (as the X-07 as a SCREEN(X,Y) function that gives the ON-SCREEN displayed character, I could even make a 'mirror' program that writes on the VGA the text that is printed on the builtin LCD)

Here is the VGAX wiring diagram.

Note that the Arduino has a picture stored in its RAM, all text comes from X-07.

the builtin LCD is 120x30 pixels (just VGA res. / 2).

Here U can see some results (@ right : the 'mirror' code run)

( Details about my VGA Board#1 => )

( Details about my SERIAL & uSDCard Board => )