Zaxon divMMC AY Review

[PeterJ]

I thought I would do a quick review with photographs of the 'Zaxon divMMC AY' that I recently purchased. I was not asked to do this review, and I paid for the item myself.

The Zaxon divMMC AY was purchased via 'SellMyRetro':

https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/37181

The cost was £49 + £5 shipping to the UK. It arrived with me (from Poland) in under two weeks and was very well packed.

The features advertised are as shown below:

Three interfaces in one

• Kempston
• AY 38912 stereo
• DivMMC , working under latest ESX DOS
• Reset button
• Tested with ZX48,128,128+2 (A/B) and +3

The version of ESXDOS installed was 0.8.7. The unit appears very well built with a nice solid case (much better than some others). Its rather long at 13cm (Excluding the edge connector). It is 9.5cm wide and 1.5cm deep.

On the right hand side there is a 3.5mm jack for attaching speakers. On the rear there is:

• Joystick port
• NMI button and a reset button.
• Two DIP switches. One is for switching ESXDOS off and upgrading, and the other is for choosing the model Spectrum.
• Two microSD slots - Nice to have two slots. There was one 2GB microSD Card included

Everything worked as expected, and the sound quality when connecting to speakers was very impressive. It really gave a new dimension to playing games. With my retro spend next month, I'm going to buy some speakers to attach to it permanently.

There was no documentation provided at all which did frustrate me (This has been covered elsewhere). I was lucky enough to get some help from [mention]akeley[/mention] as to which DIP switch did what, and I was able to upgrade ESXDOS to 0.8.8. Zaxon did reply to my request for details of the DIP switches this morning.

It seems to work very well, and I would certainly recommend it to others. The length of 13cm did surprise me. This does mean it does hang out of the back of the Spectrum a long way. I'm wondering if I need to put something under it to provide support.

The case is a sealed unit. It would be nice to have screws so you could access the PCB if needed. I'm just worried in case I drop a microSD card into the unit and can't get it back out! I would also like a power LED. I often turn off my screen but leave the Spectrum plugged in. I have once unplugged it whilst the Spectrum was on (very naughty!).

Feel free to ask any questions.

[Seven.FFF]

Would you like to shed light on the claim that these can only read files, and can’t write them, which somebody made on here recently?

It seems very unlikely to me.

[PeterJ]

Would you like to shed light on the claim that these can only read files, and can’t write them, which somebody made on here recently?

It seems very unlikely to me.

Let me test that tonight and I will feedback here.

[PeterJ]

[mention]Seven.FFF[/mention]

Quickly typed a one line BASIC program then used

Code: Select all

SAVE *"filename"

and I was able to see the program listed when I pressed the NMI button. Loading it back in worked just fine.

[Seven.FFF]

Great! Thanks.

[akeley]

Would you like to shed light on the claim that these can only read files, and can’t write them, which somebody made on here recently?

If you're refering to my post from the other thread, then I only meant it in relation to making snapshots on divMMC AYs younger/cheaper brother - Just Nano SD. That's due to a very laconic info provided in its description (something we've discussed recently here). I've also once asked Zaxon about it specifically and did not get a clear reply, so I assumed it can't do it. Basically, up till last week I, until it transpired in some other conversation with Zaxon, I wasn't actually aware that my cheep Just Nano also has this capability! *eyeroll.gif* So yes, you were right - seems anything capable of running esxDOS can save too.

[mention]PeterJ[/mention] , glad you're happy with it! I recommend installing [mention]bob_fossil's[/mention] UNO browser from the other thread here. It should work well with this device and is sooooo much better than the native esx browser.