Get ready for the USB 8-track tape deck

SparkFun Electronics confirmed that it is on its way.  The Olimex PIC-USB-STK.  A USB development/starter kit board with audio input and output.  I have downloaded the tools, but haven’t installed them yet.

Ten years ago, when I was working on specifications for the 1394 Trade Association’s Audio/Video Working Group, as a joke, I created a specification for device control for 8-track tape decks.  But, a joke like this is incomplete without a working prototype, so I bought an old Sony TC-8W 8-track tape deck with the intention of stuffing something like the Pavo Papaya IEEE-1394 audio reference platform into it.  However, the Papaya was too expensive and there were not any other IEEE-1394 option, so I shelved the project.

Since then, the 8-track deck has been sitting in my office unused.  I tried to sell it on eBay and Craigslist a few months ago, but had no takers.

Because I couldn’t sell the 8-track deck, having seen the USB turntables for playing albums, I figured that I would try searching for USB development kits that could do audio and found the Olimex board mentioned above.  Not only does it do USB Audio, but it is inexpensive.

It will be here by the end of the week.

Does the world really need another blog?

Does it?  Probably not.

But no one in my immediate vicinity really wants to hear anymore about my Triumph TR7 rally project or how I can’t find a Burroughs B1965 mainframe to add to my computer collection.  Most people could care less about the details of putting on stage rallies or the latest thing that I broke on my bicycle or the latest software side project that I start and then don’t have time to finish.

And with the billions of people out there on the Internet, maybe there is someone who does …