ZX UNO+

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I recently got a ZXUNO+ from Antonio Villena, as I had told in another thread.

I wanted a FPGA, and the uno+ seems a good option for a start with fpga devices as, being the zxdos+ better, the uno+ is half the price (60€) and I only want to focus on the Spectrum.



For the video cable I started with a RCA cable, there are better video options with a nodern TV, but that's what I needed for a start (and besides I don't have any other cable! ) , and the first impression was better than expected, much much better than when I use my Spectrum Plus with the same TV (with no composite video), a clear and bright image:





I still haven't tried the VGA or scart options (I need a cable I don't have now!) but the RCA cable gives a very good image.

As to the sound, someone was going to lend me some PC speakers, but luckily I found a weird jack-to-rca cable at home (I have no idea why the f*ck I had it!) but it worked so the pleasure is now complete

So as a conclusion, the uno+ is an excellent value-for-money fpga option to play Spectrum games.

I'll post some questions I have in mind in this thread soon.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I forgot to mention that the keyboard issue I had with my real Spectrum when playing Commando, explained here:

viewtopic.php?t=4577

I tried the game with the uno+ (the same file) and it worked well, no problem when pressing OPAQM keys, what makes the mentioned 'issue' even more enigmatic.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

And now a question:

When loading the esxdos files, the system displays this error:



As the manual says, I copied the BIN, SYS and TMP folders of the esxdos089.zip file to the sd card. Apparently It doesn't seem a problem, as the system runs ok.

Anybody knows the reason?

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]Juan F. Ramirez[/mention],

RTC is Real Time Clock. Most devices don't have one, including your one. You can ignore it.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Now I try to load tzx files via a tzx-duino.

It works ok with my real Spectrum, but it doesn't with the UNO+. Nothing happens on the screen.

I suspect is the cable, I use the ear/mic one that came with the Spectrum and maybe it needs a different jack cable.

What do you think?

[Pegaz]

I use the same original Spectrum cable for ZX-UNO+ and works like a charm, with Android phone and PlayZX app.
Just guessing, but maybe tzxduino recognizes Uno as +2/2A model, which needs a different cable with some kind of splitter, because Ear/Mic are combined into one jack.
But i doubt that, most likely problem is with volume level...

[Luzie]

Now I try to load tzx files via a tzx-duino.

It works ok with my real Spectrum, but it doesn't with the UNO+. Nothing happens on the screen.

I suspect is the cable, I use the ear/mic one that came with the Spectrum and maybe it needs a different jack cable.

What do you think?

Another one you should try is "ZX Tape Player" (viewtopic.php?p=70865#p70865 / https://github.com/semack/zx_tape_player)

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Hi! I want to share a new acquisition for my ZX UNO+ set, a 8'' monitor.

I had read in some places about people claiming these kind of monitors were ok for retrogaming. I liked it and bought this one last black friday for only 43€ on Aliexpress.



A very interesting feature is the number of video-options it has: VGA, HDMI, AV, etc plus two internal speakers at the back.



I chose AV mode, as it's the only cable I have. The result: acceptable, closer to what old TVs were, but not the quality of modern LCD TV, as it can be seen in the first posts of the thread.




But it shows something crappy: when you change graphics on screen, what it was shown before still 'slightly' appears (some thing similar to many old ATM screens). It vanishes after some seconds. It might be an AV thing -I hope- so I want to try the VGA option.


In the first pic, the '(c) 1982 Sinclair Research Ltd' message still remains lessened. In the second, the same to the Beach Head title after pressing any key and changing the screen.

To put it in a nutshell, it's a very cute monitor, a very good option for retrogaming. It is sold in 7'', 8'' and 10''. For me, 8'' are enough.

And it's obviously very value for money. There are more expensive options with -suppossing- better quality. Only in Aliexpress are dozens of models.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

The question is: with my technical limitations, I have no idea which VGA cable I need to try this video option.

So I need advice, mates!

[Nitrowing]

Ghosting?
https://www.howtogeek.com/858707/what-i ... -ghosting/