Spectrum Computing

the site is down, but the content is still there.
Would it be appropriate to mirror this or is that theft?

http://spectrum.alioth.net/downloads/

Caviat - I’ve never 3D printed before…. Just printed it out, it’s nice, but I would have preferred if the case held the edge connector and hence held the circuit board and the header together. But of course I can add that feature if I so wish going forward. Oh yeh, I see what you mean! I'll try and...

Does anybody know if the NEXT can connect to a Spectranet server? https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=614&p=3195&hilit=spectranet#p3195 ? doesn't look promising there. The next has wifi though, so is it 'just' some 'software' you need to be able to use those % commands?

oh, nice. that saves me a lot of effort! thanks. Caviat - I’ve never 3D printed before…. Just printed it out, it’s nice, but I would have preferred if the case held the edge connector and hence held the circuit board and the header together. But of course I can add that feature if I so wish going f...

Hedge1970 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 7:14 am There is this one https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4838221

oh, nice. that saves me a lot of effort! thanks.

It appears to have a TFNS server pre-programmed in firmware, which launches when you switch it on. If I let this load there does not seem to be a graceful way to “exit” to basic. However If I break into it as it loads I can then access basic and use the %mount - etc - commands of Spectranet. M If y...

I just got one of these cards, it’s from Aleksey Mine is in the mail... do they work identically to the normal ones? like can I use the English instructions on the web? I'm planning to cad up a 4d poopable case for it, I'm not aware of any in existence, but I can't do that till I know the dimension...

I'm a pro linux sysadmin so like a nerd I have a bunch of infrastructure machines hanging around in my home network, i doubt this is a shock to anyone on this forum. Progress: I can now commit a boot.bas file into my gitlab server, or any .asm file and I have a build system which will build the boot...

Thanks so much both. Easy when you know how, huh? I was typing 'LINE' like an HLL noob rather than finding the right key /o\ thanks for that [mention]Guesser[/mention] [mention]flatduckrecords[/mention] I found your github fork in another post https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=6...

Cheers, if I want to start making a fancy one though, or keep the source for it in git, is there a way I can make one outside of my actual spectrum? 'save' evidently does some 'magics' I don't yet have the knowing of that makes a nice tiny encoded file thingy. if you run 'file' on a boot.zx what doe...

I've been searching for an answer for this for a couple of days now, and I'm sure I'm missing something daft. How can you make a boot.zx file from linux? is there a 'compiler' that can do it? I've been mucking about loading other people's boot.zx files from tnfs servers to see how they're doing what...

I found wheel cleaning MUCH simplified by getting the whole board off. If you accurately mark the position of the disk spinny county led you can unscrew that and the detector on the other size and finangle them out with tweezers. You can get all about it with a stick covered in IPA or lager or whate...

urk, this is getting a bit real.


I am *not* going to rush this. I've got plenty to keep me busy like learning to how make tnfs servers do things and I have yet to finish the modern PSU (I finally found my side cutters)

I'm going to check as many voltages as I can because the cpu fell over in this board as well and this is all too suspicious.

It was of course crushed, so who knows what violence it's been though :/

Thanks again for the advice.

I didn't go as far as to reFLOW the pins, but I did try giving them a bit of heat from the iron. My eyesights isn't as awesome as it once was and I think I would need a loupe to check for solder joins between pins. It seems just occasionally gate arrays do appear but who could know if they worked? h...

it makes me think a little of badlands, but only because everything does because it's probably my favourite game

The oscilloscope (hanmatek dos1102) arrived and does a passible sine wave when connected to a leg of X1 I can see 35.51Mhz on X1, and IC15 pins 8,9, 10 and 11. (I found the frequency function) As previous there is continuity from pin 10 IC15 to pin 100 of IC1 Pin 87 IC1 is too small to get near, but...

At the risk of turning this into a blog, whilst I wait for a faster sillyscope to show up, I'm doing one of the cisco conversions to make a modern psu for the +3 https://spectrumforeveryone.com/technical/replacement-psu-2a-3-machines/ Popped out the blue and white wires from the board https://live.s...

Thanks for the help Mark, I super appreciate it. I did test all 6 gates, but not all at the same time, and yes with no respect to actual voltages. I think I'm going to order a 100Mhz scope, I can afford one and although it might be a bit bendy on some of the frequencies it may get me a bit closer to...

I popped IC15 into a breadboard as I muttered below with some leds resistored to the output lines https://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/1019/PC74HCU04P-pdf.php shows them as A(in) and Y(out) Poking 5V into the inputs made the leds turn off, so I believe this part to be working and I pop...

The part I've pulled out is a:

Philips PC74HCU04P
602990T
HSS8818 A Y

If it's an inverter can I not pop it in a breadboard, give it Vcc and Gnd, feed 5v to each input and check the output is the opposite of the input to check it's working?

Awesome, thanks. That schematic is the one I've been working from, but it's taking a while to go in to my head. I've finally found the X1 xtal and osscilator circuit around it pointing at OSC on IC1.. i'd got lost down the line running to the edge connector. I'm going to stick IC15 into a socket rat...

re: piggybacking chips, I thought it distinctly odd, but I'm also an idiot, and I've almost no experience with computers beyond building modern ones, which obviously doesn't need much understanding of voltages. deffo a learning experience for me :/ My scope is a cheapy fpga based thing, so 10mhz is ...

Talking to myself a bit here by now, but to salve my despair I fired up the less destroyed +3 and THIS one does this? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51190867894_b42cf1f134_c.jpg This is the characteristic barring which is improved by replacing the 1uf and 100uf capacitors is it? I have those ca...

sigh, IC15 is out of the board and I still see 5.1v on pin 6 of the cpu socket, also most other pins. I think that is now indisputably a gate array which is utterly gone. The only thing that should be connected to 6 on the cpu with IC15 out is nzck from the gate array. I am very sadface, and only ha...