My new baby!

Any discussions related to the creation of new hardware or software for the ZX80 or ZX81
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Fwapp
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Re: My new baby!

Post by Fwapp »

For me, I'm indifferent to the joystick connector as I don't use joysticks, preferring to use keys for any gaming (I've been accused with having hands like a child pianist already, so be nice :lol: )

Having thought more since seeing this, I'd like to see the SD card stay normal size, mainly as this is what I use in my current ZXPand and across the rest of my retro fleet.

Of course, it's all up to Charlie and what works best for him, especially when it comes to assembly :)
ZX80, ZX81 - 2C158C Bugged Rom iss.1, 2C158C "kludge fix" iss1, 2C184E iss1, 2C210E iss3, US NTSC iss1 "straight traces", US NTSC iss3 TS1000
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Andy Rea
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Re: My new baby!

Post by Andy Rea »

sirmorris wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:12 pm You know it ;) Here's a version with a side-facing reset switch. I quite like it.

ocd.png


And one with the button on top.

ocd2.png
your PCB layout skills are looking about a Zxillion better than mine.... Also i would rather stay with the standard sized SD card too.

regards Andy
what's that Smell.... smells like fresh flux and solder fumes...
sirmorris
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Re: My new baby!

Post by sirmorris »

Having bowed to popular demand peer pressure :lol:
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In the world of 80s joysticks there is only one ;)

Side facing connector
- Paul should be happy ;)
- Mike should be happy ;)
10 pin box header
- this was purely a selfish thing. I'm happy!
- I can now expose both serial & jtag lines along with the joystick. I couldn't do that with a DB9.
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sirmorris
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Re: My new baby!

Post by sirmorris »

As per usual this prototype is a lash-up carefully engineered production example featuring preview features.

I have 3 more prototypes on their way, this time featuring final production layout. Fingers crossed :roll:

A couple of the current 3 may well find themselves in the hands of enthusiastic early adopters.
Lardo Boffin
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Re: My new baby!

Post by Lardo Boffin »

sirmorris wrote: Sun Apr 09, 2017 11:25 am
In the world of 80s joysticks there is only one ;)
Funny, I was expecting to see a photo of a Kempston Competition Pro in there!

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ZX80
ZX81 iss 1 (bugged ROM, kludge fix, normal, rebuilt)
TS 1000 iss 3, ZXPand AY and +, ZX8-CCB, ZX-KDLX & ChromaSCART
Tatung 81 + Wespi
TS 1500 & 2000
Spectrum 16k (iss 1 s/n 862)
Spectrum 48ks plus a DIVMMC future and SPECTRA
Moggy
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:00 pm

Re: My new baby!

Post by Moggy »

Excellent work Charlie another Mr Purple out of the starting gate! :D

How you find the time to do all this and design a MIDI INTERFACE TO THE EXCLUSION OF EVERYTHING ELSE is beyond me. :twisted:

Realising he has over stepped the mark Moggy hides

@Lardo.

Nice Filesixty there Lardo,and do I spy a Beeb? :D
Lardo Boffin
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 2:42 am

Re: My new baby!

Post by Lardo Boffin »

Moggy wrote: Sun Apr 09, 2017 2:42 pm
@Lardo.

Nice Filesixty there Lardo,and do I spy a Beeb? :D
Hi Moggy! The Filesixty was a surprise bonus with one of my recent zeddy purchases. I thought it only right that it got some usage. At the moment it is just stuck on with double sided sticky tape but seems pretty solid. Not sure which glue I would use were it to risk destroying it!

Yes that is one of my beebs. I only have two as unlike the zeddys they don't make me want to collect them - their production seems very uniform and lacking the 'what's in the box?' suspense of a zeddy. And they are way more expensive!
That one has a Watford RAM/ROM expansion (a massive extra 16k of sideways RAM plus space for loads of ROMS, currently holding BCPL, ISO Pascal, Beebug C and various versions of DFS amongst others), a Retroclinic Datacentre (USB connector along with 1MB of RAM to use as 5 discs, along with a 1gig Winchester HDD) and a Raspberry Pi acting as one of many co-processors including a 274MHz 6502! It also acts as a pretty fast (100MHz) Z80 so I may take some of my Z80 knowledge, when I have some, and at some point play with Z80 under CPM.
I have two so that I can keep one original (no modern add ons) so it runs an Opus Challenger Three 5 1/4" disc drive with 512K of RAM disc (an impressive feature when released in the 80's!). It also has the built in Speech stuff so talks like Kenneth Kendall! Kind of... It runs an original Acorn 6502 'cheese wedge' co-processor which operates at 3.5 MHz I think.

Lardo
ZX80
ZX81 iss 1 (bugged ROM, kludge fix, normal, rebuilt)
TS 1000 iss 3, ZXPand AY and +, ZX8-CCB, ZX-KDLX & ChromaSCART
Tatung 81 + Wespi
TS 1500 & 2000
Spectrum 16k (iss 1 s/n 862)
Spectrum 48ks plus a DIVMMC future and SPECTRA
sirmorris
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Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 5:45 pm

Re: My new baby!

Post by sirmorris »

And I love how you have them on your wall - I need to do that to win back some space on my workbench.
Lardo Boffin
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 2:42 am

Re: My new baby!

Post by Lardo Boffin »

sirmorris wrote: Sun Apr 09, 2017 10:54 pm And I love how you have them on your wall - I need to do that to win back some space on my workbench.
That will teach me to buy a house that was a prop from the 60's Batman TV show!

This is a screen grab of this on my treacherous iPhone:-
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It's the correct orientation!
ZX80
ZX81 iss 1 (bugged ROM, kludge fix, normal, rebuilt)
TS 1000 iss 3, ZXPand AY and +, ZX8-CCB, ZX-KDLX & ChromaSCART
Tatung 81 + Wespi
TS 1500 & 2000
Spectrum 16k (iss 1 s/n 862)
Spectrum 48ks plus a DIVMMC future and SPECTRA
Moggy
Posts: 3231
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:00 pm

Re: My new baby!

Post by Moggy »

Jesus H Chrysler Lardo where's the envious smiley when you need it!?

That is one serious beeble box kudos to you sir. :ugeek:

As far as I can remember my filesixty came with double sided tacky stuff so put the superglue away!
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