[ortek_service]

Well it looks like it should work, if their software is OK - And certainly fairly cheap & low risk to try it.
It's mainly down to the software, as their interface should generally work OK
- Although it appears they've tried to bodge the RPi GPIO Output to CBM Tape Read input a bit with an extra 10k series-resistor from +5V to PNP emitter on this 3.3V to 5V level conversion transistor stage. So I'd do this a bit different, as that doesn't look like it would always work.

It doesn't appear that they've specified any transistor types, but it should work with an small signal ones like BC547 (NPN) & BC557 (PNP) etc.

I'd also be inclined to build it a bit more permanently on a bit of matrix board / veroboard, as parts are all quite low-cost, rather than using prototyping breadboard.


The RPi is a probably a bit overkill for this, and any Arduino using an ATMega328 uC- as used on the Tapuino Datasette Emulator - might have been easier, as most use 5V I/O levels. Although Tapuino is normally used with a small OLED display module + buttons for stand-alone use.
But it all depends on having on Arduino around already - Although it seems you can buy a complete assembled Tapuino board relatively cheap, and it should work on the PET if the tape format is the same as the C64/VIC20


Whereas an RPi (even a small Pi-Zero) should be capable of emulating the Disk Drive, as there are Pi1541 interfaces for the C64/VIC20 (IEEE-Serial lines only) disk drive interface but not sure if one has been done yet for the full PET IEEE Parallel version.
But should be able to do something similar to SD2PET
- Which gets a mention in an article on the PET & Emulating it etc. in the latest (June'21) issue of Linux Format Magazine (also has a Jupiter Ace feature, so quite a retro issue), I received a couple of days ago.