Hi to All

Introduce yourself to your fellow forum members - what was your journey into the Sinclair world?
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McKlaud
Posts: 337
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:02 pm
Location: St Albans, UK

Hi to All

Post by McKlaud »

Hi All,

I bought ZX81 on auction a few weeks ago and it flashed back my first contact with this microcomputer when I was 6-7 years old. I bought it as faulty unit, but with few touches it showed the "K" cursor on the screen. I managed to upgrade the internal memory from 1KB to 16KB, played a few demos and games that required 16KB memory pack and it has worked flawlessly since then.

My only concern is that the ULA is getting very warm quickly. I hope it would not fail soon.

My Zeddy below:
Image

Cheers
Claudius
Claudius
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sirmorris
Posts: 2811
Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 5:45 pm

Re: Hi to All

Post by sirmorris »

Hi Claudius! Welcome aboard :D

Don't worry about the ULA failing - they do get very warm. It's normal. There has been some ... lively debate on whether something should be done. There are 2 sides.

No - just enjoy it, these things are made for playing and no-one can say whether a hot ULA is a problem.
Yes - put a heatsink on it and install a fan!!

There is no definitive winner as yet ;) Me - I say play away!!
Lardo Boffin
Posts: 2160
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 2:42 am

Re: Hi to All

Post by Lardo Boffin »

One thing I think everyone agreed on was to replace the power regulator with a modern one - that significantly reduces the amount of heat being generated inside the case.
ZX80
ZX81 iss 1 (bugged ROM, kludge fix, normal, rebuilt)
TS 1000 iss 3, ZXPand AY and +, ZX8-CCB, ZX-KDLX & ChromaSCART
Tatung 81 + Wespi
TS 1500 & 2000
Spectrum 16k (iss 1 s/n 862)
Spectrum 48ks plus a DIVMMC future and SPECTRA
McKlaud
Posts: 337
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:02 pm
Location: St Albans, UK

Re: Hi to All

Post by McKlaud »

@Lardo Boffin: I did this at the time when I upgraded RAM to 16K. Anyway thanks for the advice.
Claudius
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sirmorris
Posts: 2811
Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 5:45 pm

Re: Hi to All

Post by sirmorris »

Oh and running from a regulated 7.5v supply works wonders, too!
Moggy
Posts: 3231
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:00 pm

Re: Hi to All

Post by Moggy »

Having bit the bullet and fitted a 40m fan inside the case with a suitable vent on the top front edge near to to the ULA I can honestly say that after using a smoke match to view airflow the mod has some merit.

Now as for heatsinks MWWAAAAAA!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Almost forgot welcome to the club Claudius and a nice file-sixty keyboard you have there and everything Sir Morris and Lardo said too. :D
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