Finding tape mechanisms

[osterchrisi]

Hello Forum!

I'm new to here because I'm in the search of tape mechanisms and I found that this place would be a good start ;)
Basically I'm looking for tape mechanisms where you can insert the tape vertically (I mean 'standing') and without any kind of drawer. Like those that they used in car radios a lot but then vertically. Is there still any company producing them? Like Philips, Grundig or so maybe... I would only need the mechanism itself, preferably with tape heads and motor already mounted as I really don't want to get into mechanic engineering. I later then would try to program an ATmega microcontroller to control various functions on the mechanism (motor speed, start/stop recording, ...) and tape head as to turn it into some kind of tape delay/echo/looper. Thanks for your thoughts!

Any help greatly appreciated!!

[ironbut]

Welcome to the forum (btw, we use our real names here as outlined in the "Forum Rules"),

I would think that a tape cartridge such as the ones that were used in "mag tape" back up systems for the early office computers (someone like Northern Telecom etc.) or the type of cart machines that were used in radio stations (Sony/Otari) might be what could be adapted for the application you're considering.
I would tend to avoid tape systems that use narrow tape widths and slower speeds (ie. audio cassettes) since the recording on the tape would degrade much more quickly and the sound wouldn't be as good.
Having the tape in an "endless loop" might also be a feature that could be useful since it would also help in "seeking" operations.

If you haven't already, you should check to see what the commercial units used. Everything from Mellotrons to "stomp boxes" which musicians use on stage for tape delay/echo (there are still some made today) used proprietary tape transports. If you're looking to build something with similar features, you might just buy a stomp box and use the tape drive from it.

[osterchrisi]

Hey Steve,

thanks for your kind answer. I put my real name into my signature as I saw that most forum members deal with that rule that way, hope that's ok...

The thing is, I want to produce 100 units of that thing so it shouldn't be some scavenged tape mechanism out of another machine. I built one of those units kind of successfully already and now I want it to be reproducable. I'm only looking for audio cassette tape mechanisms, 'normal' tape quality is completely ok for us. And yes, we're planning to use endless tapes inside there, I actually want to try to write digital codes at the beginning and ending of loops then as to be able to find the loops with a microcontroller.

Thanks for your thoughts on that.