Fixing a special ZX Spectrum
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2023
- This ZX Spectrum comes from a random Gumtree pick up, but it turns out to be more special than most.
A special shout out to everyone on Twitter who gave me tips for removing the faceplate.
Composite Mod how-to: blog.retroleum.co.uk/electroni...
@MarkFixesStuff faceplate removal video: • Sinclair ZX Spectrum 4...
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"It's typing shit!"
My computer has the same issue. Keyboard works fine though, I think it's more the operator.
Great repair!
That's one of the nicest rubber-key ZX Spectrums I've ever seen. The backstory is great too (I'm a sucker for a vintage machine with a story behind it).
definitely!
I can't tell you the memories and emotions that came from seeing that Speccy unboxed.
If I remember correctly, pins 14b and 15b of the edge connector, (they are on the underside of the Spectrum), should give composite video output. 14b is the GND and 15b is the Video Signal. This was also the case with some earlier Issues of the 48K Spectrum. I built an add-on with a speed control, (so I could slow down games), and comp out for my Issue 2 48K.
To get the face plate off one of my Speccys, I soaked it in a bowl of nearly hot water. It took a while but it worked.
What a crazy coincidence. LOL. Great history behind it. 👍
That's Tottenham Court Road, just off Oxford Street. Used to be a lot of Electronics shops there, now there are almost nothing of interest. At least to me
Great story behind the little old 16k, that's one of the things that makes our hobby so fascinating
I didn't learn much with the family ZX Spectrum, but I think I may still have gotten a better start than my daughter, who is currently being subjected to micro:bit at school.
The weird way instructions were hard-wired to key combinations somehow helped me, I think, grasp something important about symbols in code and in general...
Great looking find. It will be a nice showpiece for the university.
Man, rare in multiple ways that one.
The story alone is great, but add to the fact it's a 16K Spectrum and it's absolutely insane. 16k models were discontinued quickly due to poor sales and most were exchanged(Sinclair had an offer that if you sent them a 16k plus cheque, they'd send you a new 48k) or upgraded by the user, for any viewers who don't know the story of the 16k.
Wow a 16K Issue 2 with a socketed ROM. That is a very rare speccy...
the sockets left in as Sinclair offered a mail order memory upgrade service @ 07:10
Dood that’s nuts! Also jam in all new ceramic caps. You can also get replacement key mats and faceplate from Retro Radionics.
Thank you Mr Lurch for a great post. This is special to you and if I may add... also- special to me too. Your enthusiasm is contagious and you thought to share. The story has resonated with many here. This machine found a deserving home. And it's still teaching people! Best wishes with the channel. Greets from a warm Cape of Good Hope peninsula South Africa!
Nice fix and even nicer that you are going to display it at your University. I work at a small Canadian University, in the IT dept no less. We have a nice couple of displays full of photos, mementos and computing items from over the years. It's a great way to honor people who worked there.
Nice restoration and such a great story! Having a connection with a rescued system to it's original owner is such a treat 😀
My original Spectrum from back in the day was 16K, but we bought chips to upgrade it internally. Given the quality control of Spectrums at the time was really poor, I got quite adept at whizzing those chips out and returning the computer back to WHSmiths for a replacement model, which I'd then upgrade again.
Think we went through 4 or 5 of them until we ended up with a model that lasted for years. 🙂
Great video. Great story about Ruth Foxwell. Shame you didn’t show the replacement of the ULA.
This was one of the computers I was considering for my first computer. Alas, I bought a Tandy Color Computer (CoCo) and it fulfilled my programming needs. I went from a 6809E onto an Atari ST 520STFM (68000) and then onto a Macintosh IIcx (68030), and now I have many Apple pieces of equipment than I can poke a stick at...
Back in the day. Most chemists in the UK were also the photographic printers and also sold cameras and films. Even Boots chemists in the UK sold computers in the early 80s.
That's a lovely back story.
Oooo! I wonder if Ruth has any knowledge about a computer I have from the UC. My understanding is that the UC had a computer collection in the early naughts and this computer (HIS 432) was used during the 80s as an educational computer to teach Ada to students etc, and then it was in their computer museum for a while, before being shut down and a number of the machines going to a private collector in Victoria (long story short..!).
I've been trying to find details about this computer for at least 3 years now. Probably a long shot...
I don’t recognise that machine specifically, but last year I was given an entire ex-UC PDP11. It needs a complete restoration that I’ll get to one day.
@@MrLurchsThings Was that from the UC? My understanding was that their museum closed around 2011 and most of it was given to a collector in Victoria who started up his own museum. He had to close it down in 2019, hence why I got the HIS 432.
Amazing find btw, I can't even imagine the luck needed to get a PDP11, especially in Australia!
i also have a 16K spectrum, in box, with the video out mod. works great! 16K games load quickly
Ive got a 16k issue 1 .with the trim pot hole underneath, and with all the kings parade box and manuals.even rarer.the first ones with the light grey keyboard
isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is good for removing the old glue even from the faceplate!
I really love the providence of the machine. I get it. I have machines like that and the history is wonderful (!). Have you ever considered doing chat-style interviews with some of these people? Apart from "yay content" .. it might be wonderful :) The chat about the machine's providence was just as interesting as the actual repair.
I did consider it for this one, but timing was against me.
From context, I suspect you mean "provenance" rather than "providence". Easy misunderstanding to make as they do sound pretty similar :)
Super special! Thanks for sharing it.
Nice one Jason, really good looking condition! Love that rainbow decal on these.
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Laz Dog -- All the keys of the alphabet 🙂
Very nice machine and a fantastic story!
Great video, and a great story!
What a lovely story.
Very appropriate to display it at work. Nice!
I wonder if there's a modern equivalent of that TR4 transistor. Something achievable by looking up the data sheet of the original, then searching modern online catalogs like CPC Farnell for a model with extremely similar features and values, possibly after twisting the order of the legs with a bit of heat shrink to avoid shorts.
What an awesome story always love your vid’s
Gotta say, I held my breath when you stuck that faceplate back on before testing it! :O
That brings back memories, my first "computer", bought with no less that 16Kb, but upgraded it to 48Kb, never bought the hard-key mod though.
Tea tree oil works well for getting off old gummy glue. Also letting the heat soak in to soften the glue more works wonders
Cool story and provenance 😀
What a lovely story
looks mint condition, amazing
I still have a 16k specky but you trump me with the ram pack 😂 that's cool 👍
I love finding old receipts with computers
That's a great story!
Great video :) . Ive always fold the keyboard cover plate never sticks down correctly again or comes loose again over a sort time. :)
Amazing backstory.
Fascinating.
👍
What a story; it pays to get chatty with people!
The box is the best part...
And even after all these years, the keyboard is plotting something. I'd also let my little brother play with it.
glad you got it working ! My 16k currently has ... blown ram :) Lots-a-desoldering ...
With a missing -5v, I was afraid that would be the case here. That old 4116 doesn’t like having missing/wrong voltages and it tends to kill them.
I am sure at some point in my childhood we had one of these as I can remember the rainbow and the rubber keys but my dad keeps saying no. Oh well I can dream :)
Please handle this stuff with extreme care!
great to have a machine with a story! I've now amassed a few of these and it was my childhood gaming machine. I was a bit surprised it booted for you and TR4 popped only once. You can get ztx653 new as replacement for the ztx651. Easiest way to sort the blue Issue 2 business is with a scope.
Those two pots need replacing before I do that
@Mr Lurch's Things the pots have no effect? I suspect the original ULA is ok. Well done with changing that membrane, those front plates are truly horrible.
I'm convinced it really is a Small world.
But a good and fascinating one!
Tottenham Court Road. Anyone from the '80s London UK knows exactly what a Mecca that place was for computers, electronics and camera gear.
I seem to recall that my son and I were saved after owning one of those bloody things by a Toshiba MSX 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Composite video on an audio lead made me twitch. There's nothing wrong with it though.. but!
26:00 The thing you've kind of omitted to mention is you were getting a replacement membrane, and this is the replacement membrane, here it is. Viewers who don't already know what's might be caught unawares and not quite understand that you're not putting the old one back in there.
EEAP called, they want their multimeter back.
Nice!
Luv the story.
Omg it looks new
Nice computer!
Was that one made in the UK? Dundee i believe... the early ones were.
Hi Buddy, did the the 32k ram pack come with its own blue tac as well. Ha ha
Why the use of an electrolytic capacitor? And not a regular non-polarised one?
Does the ram pack wobble?
You can never have too many excessories!
Seems to me putting the speccy in the oven on extremely low heat would be a good way to melt the glue and reduce risk of ruining the aluminum. I'd say 150-175F for a short time would do the job
I remember getting mine 40 years ago...sigh
My first computer was a Speccy (the first one), which was a gift from a British friend back in 1991.To relive the nostalga, I bought a speccy for a reasonable price, without a power supply from the UK. I seriously cannot find a single web page or video on how to make your own power supply. Would a modern 9V 2A centre negative power supply work? Perhaps I should buy an AC 9v transformer and add a AC/DC🤘regulator to it?
Yup. That’s all you need. Just make sure the polarity is correct.
Do a ZX81 next :)
Amazing end story... what's the chances of that..
Was the other machine the Sheen console?
Nope. That video is still coming
Another machine from Cambridge, UK (where I live)...
Hi, hope you can help me, I'm desperately looking for a spectrum plus keyboard. I'm working on a new mobile spectrum next and need a keyboard to use with it, and am looking for a decent one to use. Do you by chance have one or know someone who does. Willing to pay for it. Also looking for the full tape system for a +2. If you can help I'd be grateful. UK based. Final product will be shown on my youtube when complete.
When you say Robert do you mean Robert C who used to (and may still) teach visual and interactive computing to the computer engineer and IT undergrads? You didn't be any chance study at UC before you worked there?
Different Robert, but I’m great friends with the Rob you’re talking about. In fact you may even see him on the channel later this year.
I did my Masters at UC whilst working there (years ago now) and did Games Programming Techniques with Rob, probably my favourite unit. I learned so much.
@@MrLurchsThings I took Rob's class about 20 years ago and I would guess he is the 2nd one you know. It’s definitely a small world. I guess you might know Joel too if you were around in that era. Rob was (and hopefully still is) a great teacher and although I had failed the previous version of the unit (I really didn't get along with the previous teacher), I got a HD under Rob and I learned a lot from that class beyond just the coding. I'm a part-time lecturer/academic director in a different field and country and while my game programming has been limited to indie projects, what I took away from Rob's class was the importance of creating learner-focused classrooms and being motivated / passionate about what you teach. I still reference that class and how it changed me as a student when I'm training both teachers and students alike. I doubt Rob would remember me specifically, unless for some reason he remembers some strange kid who submitted a final project involving mechs stomping trees and blowing up landscape, but if you have the chance please pass on my thanks to him and I look forward to seeing him in a future episode.
As for Ruth, if I remember correctly she was a member of the university council while I was there. I never met her myself but some of my friends did and they spoke highly of her. However I never would have picked any of the university management to be speccy owners or users, especially considering how rare they were in Aus relative to the Vic20/c64, microbee, TRS-80 and even the TI-99/4A. The only spectrums I've ever encountered were ones bought in or imported from the UK so finding one in such good condition that has a good personal story behind it is a pretty amazing find.
What's in the box???!? I always get seven vibes
The thing that's not clear to me from your video but that I'd love to know is whether that Speccy ever actually worked for Ruth, or whether all she got out of it was the book that taught her BASIC. Because the dirty little (not-so-secret) secret is that Sinclair (and not just Sinclair) did have a lot of issues with quality control, and if you grew up around that time in the UK, especially if you weren't strictly upper-class, you grew up with the understanding that often-time things, including things you bought, were, excuse my French, a bit crap. And if you were, say, a working-class kid or lad who'd saved up for the "big" purchase of a Sinclair computer for months and months, and you found out the bloody thing never actually worked, you often had little recourse and perhaps more or less sucked it up, because you wouldn't have known how to get a new ULA, or that you needed one, and couldn't afford to hire a chap to repair the accursed thing. You lacked access to the education, the DIY knowledge and had no extra money to spend to make it right, and what's worse, you may have blamed yourself, because you didn't know it wasn't you. So for all those people who remember the Speccy fondly as what got them started on the road to bigger and better things in IT, as it did for Ruth, there were a whole lot of people who had quite the opposite experience and ended up hating computers as an expensive infuriating thing you couldn't get to work. So even though we know the outcome with Ruth, I still would love to know if that machine ever really worked for her, especially considering how little signs of use it displays. Were this machine's ULA/membrane and transistor always broken, or was that just the ravages of time?
what would you do with it you ask....well my mate played Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy
Please scan the documentation
Don't know much about the keyboards on these but would you not clean the carbon contacts on the rubber keyboard as a precaution, I know fixing cordless phones over the years we would clean the membrane as well as the rubber keyboard contacts.
These don’t have carbon pads.
@@MrLurchsThings So what makes the connection then.
@@waynegoodwin3217 Metal. The membrane has 3 layers - the top and the bottom layers have thin metal tracks printed on them, and the centre layer is a separator with a hole for each key. The rubber keyboard is just rubber, it squashes the membrane down and makes the top and bottom metal layers touch, creating the circuit. The original membranes fail because the plastic becomes brittle and cracks, which then breaks the metal tracks, mostly commonly on the ribbon connectors near where they plug into the PCB.
If only you had some Crash Magazines to display alongside the Speccy :)
i enjoyed the video but at least be honest that you googled stuff... "if memory serves -5 is served by TR4" like you hadn't just checked before hand. "If I remember rightly...." about the two pots. everybody double checks these things... not to do so would be careless.
Why?