exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Ok well I know I said I have no desire to use a ZX Spectrum as they were terrible devices, well I bought one...
I still have no desire to use it, I just want one and have a future plan of making a tactile keyboard for it (although I have since discovered you can buy them).

Anyhow I picked up a rather clean boxed one for a pinch and decided to own one. I promptly did the rather simple composite video mod and it booted up first time. Nice.
Half the keys didn't work...
Ok this is to be expected, you just cut a bit of the ribbon cable away and it shall be fine for a good while.
After opening and hearing an instant 'pop' as the ribbons came out of their connectors, it was obvious the membrane was never going to get another shortening. They barely reached the connectors and I'm amazed someone managed to get them into the sockets.
Anyhow, no huge issue, membranes are cheap and plentiful. So I scored a nice new membrane and keyboard cover. So I boot the little gem up and all keys work!
Do a few little tests and find one of the ram chips is shot.
I've ordered a full replacement set of upper ram and shall replace them this week.

All in all it's been nice to have one back in the fold, but I still have no desire to use it.

Have I become a hoarder?

PaulJ_2.0 wrote: 02 Feb 2020 22:46 All in all it's been nice to have one back in the fold, but I still have no desire to use it.

Have I become a hoarder?

I’d say collector, but not hoarder. Yet.

I myself rarely use my vintage computers. I find that I get more enjoyment from reading about them, fixing them, collecting them, etc.

I've never seen a ZX Spectrum with a blue keyboard panel, why did you choose it ... if you want a better keyboard, why didn't you buy ZX Spectrum+ or TIMEX TC2048? This original ZX Spectrum is famous for its rubber keyboard and I think it should stay that way. Especially if it is about to be a collectible item, and you're not going to use it much.

Oh I am not into the collectable side of things. I buy things that interest me.
I purchased a blue keyboard cover, because I liked the look of it. It's quite simple to change it to original black if desired.
The keyboard rubber is not what I wanted to change, I wanted to change the membrane for some very small tactile buttons that you can fit inplace of the membrane that keeps and uses the rubber keys. Someone has already done this though, so I may just purchase a completed board.

@PaulJ_2.0 can you post pics etc if you do the keyboard upgrade please. I'm slowly building a harlequin board and have a case and rubber keys but the membrane has gone.

PhilC wrote: 03 Feb 2020 22:39 @PaulJ_2.0 can you post pics etc if you do the keyboard upgrade please. I'm slowly building a harlequin board and have a case and rubber keys but the membrane has gone.

For sure.
This is what the replacement looks like. I'm still mulling over doing one for myself as I'm sure I could do a better job.

I have few of them, I grew up with those little machines. I've built a Harlequin 48KB clone, a Nuvo128 clone and a Just Speccy 128 clone. Just to flex my soldering skills :mrgreen: I also have some peripherals, like a DivMMC, great device, an Interface 1 with working microdrive in mint condition and a vDrive in a not so mint case. It's fun to dabble with those little machines, playing JetPac, etc.

Hi...I traded it for a working one, and the tones were back ! I have rejuvenated back one speccy. I even added a little exchanging module, which is much more force productive than a 7805, and obviously I did the composite mod.

Later I'll check whether I can purchase a ula (cloud ?), And fix the rom (vertical high contrast striped) for the other in part working board.

PaulJ_2.0 wrote: 03 Feb 2020 21:24 I purchased a blue keyboard cover, because I liked the look of it.

Looks a beauty to me!

BW