Forget the audio tape. By the time you get around to getting it interfaced and getting appropriate hardware and software made that can even come close to working you will have invested time that is at least 4 -> 5 times what it would take to get a compact flash card to work. I connected a compact flash card up and it took about 1 day to get the software working to the level that I could read and write 512 byte blocks to from and to the flash card. It is also extremely easy to connect the CF card to the 8051 either via the external bus or by connection to port pins.

The app note below shows how easy it was done on an AVR in Bascom.

Click here to download the AN123 from mcselec web site.

I used the above information as the spring board to make my connection to a compact flash card. If you connect it via external bus and use C for programming I can even share the code I made.

Compact flash cards such as the ones used in the ever so common digital cameras are now getting to be very cheap for the smallest sized cards. Nobody wants a 16MB card anymore because now you can get 256 MB, 512 MB and even 1GB flash cards. Anybody that bought a digital camera where a 16 MB card came in the camera package would probably give you the card for free if they bought a larger one to use with the camera.

Compact flash cards are also rugged, fast, and can be recorded MANY times.

Michael Karas