New (and last ?) inbound

Blogs & guides and tales of woo by forum members.
User avatar
HigashiJun
Posts: 2383
Joined: 19 Jun 2020 07:21
Location: Tokyo

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

rubber_jonnie wrote: 13 Feb 2025 15:28 I'm so used to only having 64KB of RAM I didn't notice :)
:lol: :lol: :lol:
User avatar
HigashiJun
Posts: 2383
Joined: 19 Jun 2020 07:21
Location: Tokyo

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

Yay !

I have now 2 weeks off and beside some travel, I plan to finish some retro stuff.

:D

I made some progress on the Tandy today morning. First, the missing rubber feet are now in place:

1.JPG

The NEC V20 is also fitted:

2.JPG

I also plan to fit an RTC from Cybernetic Systems under the BIOS chip, but for the moment it is unfortunately out of stock...

https://www.tindie.com/products/cyberne ... ar-module/

3.JPG

Here is a view of the motherboard:

4.JPG

The V20 works fine:

5.JPG

And the 3.5" FDD replacing the 5.25" one:

6.JPG

I am still waiting for my VGA card bought on Tindie. I already have the "plus connector" to ISA adapters so I could fit it, together with an XT CF IDE Mini I have to build since they are not available any more...

More to come later.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14903
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 19:40
Location: Essex

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Looking good. I presume that the V20 is a simple drop in upgrade that gives a slight performance boost?
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
User avatar
HigashiJun
Posts: 2383
Joined: 19 Jun 2020 07:21
Location: Tokyo

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Feb 2025 08:33 Looking good. I presume that the V20 is a simple drop in upgrade that gives a slight performance boost?
Yes, you presume correctly.

And according to a test made by Adrian's Digital Basement, the average boost increase is around 24%.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14903
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 19:40
Location: Essex

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

HigashiJun wrote: 22 Feb 2025 08:41
rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Feb 2025 08:33 Looking good. I presume that the V20 is a simple drop in upgrade that gives a slight performance boost?
Yes, you presume correctly.

And according to a test made by Adrian's Digital Basement, the average boost increase is around 24%.
I've probably watched that episode :)

A 24% gain is well worth it for a simple chip swap.

You've also reminded me that I need to finish my XT-IDE card. It's built but I need to flash the ROM.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
User avatar
HigashiJun
Posts: 2383
Joined: 19 Jun 2020 07:21
Location: Tokyo

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Feb 2025 09:35 A 24% gain is well worth it for a simple chip swap.

You've also reminded me that I need to finish my XT-IDE card. It's built but I need to flash the ROM.
For sure !

I have all the parts for the XT-IDE card bar the reverse CF socket, not delivered yet.

In what kind of machine do you plan to use yours ?
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14903
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 19:40
Location: Essex

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

HigashiJun wrote: 22 Feb 2025 09:45
rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Feb 2025 09:35 A 24% gain is well worth it for a simple chip swap.

You've also reminded me that I need to finish my XT-IDE card. It's built but I need to flash the ROM.
For sure !

I have all the parts for the XT-IDE card bar the reverse CF socket, not delivered yet.

In what kind of machine do you plan to use yours ?
Well, TBH I don't have a suitable XT machine at the moment and my Book 8086 has it built in, so I will probably test it in my Amstrad Alt-386.

I was actually given the PCB so I just thought 'I'll build this' without any real thought about where I'd use it :dizzy:
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
User avatar
HigashiJun
Posts: 2383
Joined: 19 Jun 2020 07:21
Location: Tokyo

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Feb 2025 10:14 I was actually given the PCB so I just thought 'I'll build this' without any real thought about where I'd use it :dizzy:
:lol:
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14903
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 19:40
Location: Essex

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

You're a bad influence 🤣

I've been looking for one of these now 😁

Surprised how expensive they are.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
User avatar
HigashiJun
Posts: 2383
Joined: 19 Jun 2020 07:21
Location: Tokyo

Re: New (and last ?) inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

rubber_jonnie wrote: 23 Feb 2025 21:14 You're a bad influence 🤣

I've been looking for one of these now 😁

Surprised how expensive they are.
Sorry, I don't do that on purpose...

;)

Return to “MEMBER BLOGS”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ClaudeBot, nicknm, petal [bot] and 9 guests