Meet Flatulentia's American Friend
Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:06 pm
Hi guys,
I've recently taken delivery of this US version ZX81 from a UK eBay seller for £25 delivered. Bear in mind that I'm based in the UK, so this was quite an exciting find for me.
It was listed as "for parts or not working", but all ICs are socketed, so there may be some hope of resurrecting it if it actually has croaked.
The case is in salvageable condition with almost perfect paintwork on the ZX81 logo and only one missing foot due to leprosy. It just has the usual "ch2 ch3" switch on the bottom, so I didn't bother taking a photo of that.
Even the keyboard tails haven't aged too badly on this one, so it looks as though the keyboard may be fully (re)usable.
And here's the PCB
I haven't tested it yet beyond a quick check of the 7805 regulator that shows a 'hot' 5.37V, so I won't power it up again before swapping that out for a switch-mode jobby I have in my spares box.
The internal photos are just to check if anyone else can see any unusual ICs in there. They all look standard enough to me, but there are far more knowledegable people here on historic variants than I, so it seemed best to share photos before doing anything drastic with it.
I've recently taken delivery of this US version ZX81 from a UK eBay seller for £25 delivered. Bear in mind that I'm based in the UK, so this was quite an exciting find for me.
It was listed as "for parts or not working", but all ICs are socketed, so there may be some hope of resurrecting it if it actually has croaked.
The case is in salvageable condition with almost perfect paintwork on the ZX81 logo and only one missing foot due to leprosy. It just has the usual "ch2 ch3" switch on the bottom, so I didn't bother taking a photo of that.
Even the keyboard tails haven't aged too badly on this one, so it looks as though the keyboard may be fully (re)usable.
And here's the PCB
I haven't tested it yet beyond a quick check of the 7805 regulator that shows a 'hot' 5.37V, so I won't power it up again before swapping that out for a switch-mode jobby I have in my spares box.
The internal photos are just to check if anyone else can see any unusual ICs in there. They all look standard enough to me, but there are far more knowledegable people here on historic variants than I, so it seemed best to share photos before doing anything drastic with it.