Hi Dennis, nice to run into the same people on different forums! As I understand it, a linear PCM recorder should be perfectly adequate, and won't suffer from the wow and flutter of the cheap, portable cassette decks that early home computers (and Casio programmable calculators!) were often paired with. You might have to fiddle with the recording and playback levels because a lot of home computers and calculator tape interfaces are very finnicky about that sort of thing. But once you have a set of levels that work for a particular device, you shouldn't need to change them. An MP3 recorder might not work so well because its "psycho-acoustic" compression techniques might mess with the signal too much for the poor little calculator. (But at the end of the day, the signal only has two fundamental frequencies, so you might get away with it.)
The FX-502P was my first programmable calculator, which I bought in my sixth form years (in the deluxe package that included the FA-1 tape interface - I had a Saturday job to pay for such luxuries). Those were the days - I loved programming that thing, and also used it through my university years. I can't say it was my first programmable device; that would be the Science of Cambridge MK-14, but that couldn't do much. Eventually, it stopped working after lingering in a drawer for a while, and like an idiot I threw it away along with the FA-1 when flat moving. I've since learned that it would probably have been a fairly easy fix to get it working again. No matter, I have since acquired another one (and lots of other calculators!) via eBay.
P.S. You might recognise the object in the background of my avatar picture!
Edited by ijabbott63, 11 September 2021 - 08:05 AM.
