Newbie to the Sinclairverse, help with ZXpand+?

[PaulKD]

Hey all,
I'm Paul, from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. I am a sometime Texas Instruments TI 99 4A enthusiast, and I was recently lamenting the fact that these consoles used to cost me 15 bucks, lol, and now they go for 125 dollars in lousy condition. As a project, I started to cast about for a retro computing platform that would still be fun and cheap enough to get into. I knew about the ZX81 only from youtube videos. I never heard of a Spectrum until I saw that movie Bandersnatch, and in searching for what computer the main character was using to write his game, I got into Sinclair history. I really liked the ZX81... the black and white and no sound... I wondered what I could do with it, and I saw all kinds of things I liked on YouTube.
I will mention that I am not a programmer, OR an electronics guy.. I do electronic music on Midi gear and play around with TTRPGs and do other crafty stuff. I got into retro computers completely by accident. I love playing with my TI 99 4As and so I collected up some Timex Sinclair 1000's with composite video mods from people I met online... I am really enjoying using them, but also having a problem with the ZXpand+ that I was lucky enough to get a hold of. It seems like I need to update the firmware, and I cannot seem to... do that. If anyone on here knows about the ZXpand+ and would be willing to talk to me about it, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you in advance, and thanks for admitting me to the forum! Looking forward to learning a lot about this awesome little computer!!!
Kind Regards~Paul

[1024MAK]

Hello and welcome to our forum Paul!



I hope you enjoy this forum

I recommend you post about your problem in the hardware area of the forum.

Mark

[jrlefort]

Hello Paul,

welcome to the forum ... I am quite new here too ... but I am not new the to the sinclair world, and not to the TI99/4A either ... the TI99/4A was the first computer i've ever wrote a program on. And when I was done, I played a lot of TI-Invaders, Parsec, Q-Bert and Mister Munch.

plenty of good memories.

[Spinnetti]

Generally shouldn't be any need to update the firmware unless there is some specific issue you are trying to solve. It works equally well on the TS1000 as the ZX81. I have 3 ZXpands, all slightly different versions and i think they are all different firmware. IIRC, some of the early ones were more difficult to update than the newest ones, but again, unless there is a specific issue that solves no reason to really. Also other than 1k/PAL on the ZX81 vs. 2k/NTSC on the TS1000 they are about the same thing and the ZXPAND works the same on both.

[Moggy]

The latest TOMTE firmware just improves the serial in/out put a bit which is ok for say MIDI playing which streams from the card and to the outside world via the serial port, other than that it doesn't offer much more than the firmware you probably have now.

As for the comment regarding firmware updating, having flashed quite a few with normal and custom firmware provided by Charlie, the older spands flashed just as easily as the latest ones.

[PaulKD]

Hello, and thanks for the responses everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are awesome!

I do not have time for a proper reply but I will just say the issue with the ZXpand+ is that I can't open my CAT anymore, after removing and reinserting the SD card with some file changes. I am getting error message 3/0 when I enter CAT "" , whereas before this seemed to open the directory. Does this make sense?

I will write more later, thank you again all!

Regards~Paul

[Moggy]

Hi Paul.

There is a file management system for the spand, details and the thing itself found here...

https://www.sinclairzxworld.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=956


And the manual for the spand should you not have it....

https://github.com/charlierobson/ZXpand ... ine-Manual

Error three says " Card not responding or no card is present."

You haven't accidently formatted it as NTFS by any chance? Either way it seems to be a card or card reader fault.


Post the problem in the hardware section which the gurus peruse quite often and I'm sure they will get you on your way.

[blittled]

Welcome to the wonderful Sinclair universe. We are practically neighbors! I live south of Erie PA and about 80 miles from Cleveland.