View allAll Photos Tagged ZXSpectrum
2012
Digital collage print
Edition of 3
24 x 24 inches
This is one of a set of 10 digital collages I made for the "Shinobi Marilyn" show at Emily Amy Gallery.
©Ashley Anderson
I've unsoldered the keyboard connectors from an old ZX Spectrum motherboard. We only need the smaller 5-pin one here though.
Using a pair of scissors, we remove the circuit board from the keyboard. Notice that it uses a similar style of keyboard membrane as the Spectrum, albeit using an 8x16 matrix instead of 8x5 (i.e. 40 keys) on the Spectrum.
the 5-pin Spectrum keyboard connector soldered onto a bit of stripboard and the lines jumped over to pins on the 16-line connector of the USB keyboard PCB.
The first step was to get the ZX Spectrum keyboard working. For this, I start from a roll-up USB rubber keyboard. This works in a similar way to the ZX Spectrum keyboard.
This shows that the ZX Spectrum keyboard membrane fits nicely into the USB keyboard PCB, at least on the 8-line end. We just need to connect the 5-line end of the membrane over to get some keypresses being generated. We can remap the keyboard later to get the right keys coming out.
Voila, a ZX-Spectrum USB keyboard. I hooked this up to my main Linux development PC to get it working right. the UNIX app 'xev' will show what keycodes each key generates, and the 'xmodmap' command remaps the keyboard so the right characters get generated. I wrote a shell script to remap the 40 Spectrum keys correctly. Mail me if you want to see it.
After some experimentation I found that just using the first 5 of the 16 pins wasn't the best solution since some keys didn't work., so experimented with different pins. In the end, I went with the following: 1-2 2-4 3-1 4-5 5-8 (which is different from this earlier picture)
Next step, getting power in. I thought it would be a nice touch to use the original ZX Spectrum power supply for the new system, which meant taking the 9V (closer to 14V in practice!) from the PSU and using a L7805 regulator to take it down to 5V. This is similar to what happens on the original Spectrum motherboard, and we can reuse the Spectrum's heatsink too. The regulator is rated for 2A, which is just about enough to supply the new mainboard plus a couple of attached USB devices.
My Amstrad/Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A model from 1987. Still in (almost) perfect shape and working.
The machine is built on a Zilog Z-80A processor with 3.5 MHz speed, 128 kilobytes of RAM and tape recorder as a data storage. Today it seems odd connected to my 50 inch TV, but... I learned a lot using it almost 30 years ago :-)
BTW: I'm very curious how our great high-performance notebooks will working 30 years from now? :-)
Spectrum keyboard connected to the usb keyboard adaptor. I glued a lolly-stick in as a temporary splint to keep the 5-pin board from moving around and possibly damaging the soldered joints to the main board.
Running Firefox (Iceweasel as Debian calls it) on the new Spectrum. I've set it up to autoconnect to my wifi network when the wifi adaptor is plugged in.
The usb hub removed from its packagiong. The connecting lead is freakishly short, but can be made longer by opening the case, cutting a slot and taking the lead out via the back of the case instead.
The upgraded ZX Spectrum running on the same TV and power supply. A USB mouse is also connected now. It runs Debian Linux on the 8 gig SDHC card.
The final layout of the upgraded ZX Spectrum. Top-left - Beagleboard with stereo out/in jacks lined up with EAR/MIC sockets and HDMI port with TV socket. Top-right - the 4-port Kensington USB hub at the edge-connector port and 9V power jack.
Middle - USB keyboard adaptor. Bottom - 2-port usb hub and power distribution board (added 2 blue caps as per the regulator's datasheet).
This is the new mainboard, BeagleBoard. (rev C2). It is a complete single-board computer, 500MHZ ARM processor, 256M memory, SD(HC) card for storage and only 3x3 inches. It needs no extra cooling which helps. TV-out via HDMI (DVI) and S-Video, although I decided only to bring out the HDMI socket to minimise the modding required on the Spectrum case. I've added an 8GB SDHC card for storage, but it can take any size (I think 32GB is the maximum SDHC card available just now). It won't run Crysis, but it's good enough for a bit of web surfing, email and 8-bit emulation.
Next part is to allow things like a mouse and a wifi adaptor to be connected. I'm using a Kensington PocketHub Mini 2.0 USB hub for this. (actually 2 of them). They are really tiny and allow for external power.
Simvol IK clone of ZX Spectrum 48K
Игровой компьютер «Символ»
CPU: КР1858ВМ1 or Т34ВМ1 (Z80A russian clone)
CPU clock: 4 MHz
Chipset: Т34ВГ1 (ULA russian clone)
Memory: 16K ROM + 48K RAM
Firmware: Sinclair 1982 or Didaktik Scalica 1989
Video: RGB or b/w monitor or TV
Audio: 1-channel beeper (on PCB) and audio output to monitor/TV
Input: KEMPSTON Joystick compatible interface (in chipset), tape, mechanic keyboard.
Enchanced functions: possibility of install КР580ВВ55 chip — parallel interface for printer (Centronics), CPU system bus (not installed, but placed on PCB).
Sofware compatibility with ZX Spectrum 48K
SIze: 270 x 170 x 60 mm
Weight: <1,1 kg
Power: +5V, <3W
Temp: 10°C — 35°C
Origin: Russia, Penza city, 1994
Comparing the USB hub with the ZX Spectrum edge connector port. A perfect fit in terms of both width and height.
Constructed power distrubution board. We take in whatever the Spectrum PSU feeds in from the power socket, feed it to the regulator and take 2 taps from the 5V line; one for the new mainboard and one to power the 4-port hub. (later I added a third tap to power the internal 2-port hub for reliability)
We need 2 USB hubs in the the project, a normal external 4-port one at the edge connector and an internal 2-port one to allow both the main hub and the usb keyboard to connect to the new motherboard. Since we're short on space I removed a second Kensington hub from its case and sawed off 2 of the ports to make an ultrasmall 2-port hub.
Comparison of the original and upgraded ZX Spectrum rear ports. 9V DC power, EAR and MIC sockets are identical, the expantion port becomes 4 USB 2.0 powered ports and the phono TV socket becomes an HDMI port for digital TV. The only modification required on the case was to make the TV socket slightly wider. I decided against bringing out the SVIDEO socket on the Beagleboard to minimise the modifications to the Spectrum case.
The ZX Spectrum was an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. And very popular it was too, with over 5 million were sold. All my mates had one, but I had an Atari 800 (an expensive machine in those days, paid for by some inheritance money). The days of the IBM based PC being a common place household item was years away.
But don't get too excited about this re-created version, as all is not as it seems...
"The recreated Sinclair ZX Spectrum is, by design, a wireless controller for use with iOS (and selected Android) devices, games and apps including the FREE 'Recreated Sinclair ZX Spectrum' iOS / Android apps."
From Wikipedia:
In January 2014, Elite Systems, who produced a successful range of software for the original ZX Spectrum in the 1980s, announced plans for a Spectrum-themed bluetooth keyboard that would attach to mobile devices such as the iPad.
The company provided a crowdfunding campaign in order to fund the project, which would be compatible with games already released on iTunes and Google Play. Elite Systems took down its Spectrum Collection application the following month, due to complaints from authors of the original 1980s game software that they had not been paid for the content.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum#Clones
Running the FUSE ZX Spectrum emulator in a small window, it runs fullscreen no problem though. It can do up to 500% speed. There's also 1.5 gigs of Spectrum Z80 and TZX image files stored on the Beagleboard's SD card to play with.
Fully booted spectrum. It runs Debian Linux, xorg and OpenMotif window manager (I'm an old-school Sparcstation user so it's a personal perference). The screen resolution is currently set to 1024x768, but it can go much higher. The SDHC card has a fairly full Debian install including most libraries, gcc compiler and office apps. Can use 'apt-get' to install anything else needed later.