exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

stephen_usher wrote: 04 Oct 2023 14:31 Good news on the health front, for both you and the speccy. :-)

Yeah, I am feeling better day by day, but I feel better, try to do something, then feel a bit rubbish again, so back in bed resting.

Very happy on the Speccy front though.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 04 Oct 2023 14:34 Thanks. In bed now after lunch, very tired despite sleeping well last night.

Yes, pretty much the same here...though I'm going to attempt working from home for the full day tomorrow & then be in the office for the half-day Friday (morning). That gives me Saturday for more rest before the drive down to/from Cyber Legends 2.0 on Sunday...

JezC wrote: 04 Oct 2023 15:16

rubber_jonnie wrote: 04 Oct 2023 14:34 Thanks. In bed now after lunch, very tired despite sleeping well last night.

Yes, pretty much the same here...though I'm going to attempt working from home for the full day tomorrow & then be in the office for the half-day Friday (morning). That gives me Saturday for more rest before the drive down to/from Cyber Legends 2.0 on Sunday...

I'm going to see if I can work tomorrow, I usually WFH 4 days a week, but if I feel like this I'll take off the rest of the week.

Hope you feel well enough for CL 2.0 on Sunday.

OK, so good news Spectrum wise.

My spare board that was missing a couple of RAM ICs and a ULA is now up to full function again :)


So thanks to Retroleum for the Nebula ULA replacement and the RAM ICs. I'll get a new case, keyboard (+Membrane) soon and then I can happily have 2 full Spectrum 48K rubber key machines.

OK, so whilst I wait to get the case and other parts to make this board a whole Spectrum again, and also parts for other projects, I decided to give it a little TLC in the form of a recap and Traco upgrade:


Traco is installed and tested so no need for a heatsink any more, which I didn't like as it was very close to the top few pins on the Nebula.

Caps are next, and finding my new blue silicone workmat to work on rather better than my older smaller one, especially with the magnetic spots for holding screws :) After discounts from Temu it was just £1.88 :)

Well, that's annoying. I have all the caps apart from 2x 1uF 63v axials...

I could have sworn my cap kit had them in it (Perhaps I used them elsewhere?) but no, so now ordered. TBH the old ones have terrible ESR when tested so they need to go, but the rest are absolutely fine.

I have so many caps in stock, but none of these, very annoying.

As is normal with me, I have no patience, so I present my fully re-animated Spectrum 48K:


The parts from ZX Renew are as ever, excellent and look perfect, though I do find them to be a bit slow in dispatching. Also it came with a weird number of screws, but I suppose I shouldn't complain as we can at least get these parts, in this scenario a case, keyboard membrane, rubber key mat and keyboard bezel :)

:D :dualthumbup:

I did say that they sent a strange number of screws. :-)

stephen_usher wrote: 18 Sep 2024 15:04 :D :dualthumbup:

I did say that they sent a strange number of screws. :-)

You did :)

:dualthumbup:

Well done !