Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

I have just bought one of these off eBay and have to say I am quite impressed!


Here I am about to load Runaway Car (my own 1K effort).

It doesn’t load any faster than tape but then given that most zeddy games don’t take too long anyway thats not a major issue.

Not sure how the magic works but it loads on the several zeddies I tried. First time every time!

Also, and more importantly to me, its cheap enough to bundle in with a refurbished zeddy so I can sell the entire package - just add a micro USB PSU.

@Lardo Boffin, I see you have Maduino installed, then inf you are happy with your experiece you can upgrade to new version 1.56. This is focused on zx81 improvements:

- Now can play tzx files with id19 (short implementation)
- if activated in your user config first, you can manage several id19, dispkayin also on your oled screen.
- Speedup loading improvement 175% when using speed control flag, by stetching normal pulse length and gap.

Maxduino firmware for your tzxduino is available at:
https://github.com/rcmolina/MaxDuino

Check this 3 videos on youtube, hope you and the community enjoy them:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IWwC1yYNdaw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B3cWMsbfCMw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BMAbezajP0w

Regards

Thanks for the information. I will have a look when I buy another one (I tend to sell them when I refurbish a nice condition boxed ZX81 so don’t actually own one!).

Just bought another one. Its about time I kept one as they are very useful.

The faster ZX81 loading is interesting. Can (or has) the same been done with the Spectrum? The original 48K can load much faster than a cassette player can go (I think Manic Miner can load in about 30 seconds). Can these do that as well?

Thanks!

@Lardo Boffin, the easy way to achieve this is making an snapshot first (z80 or sna). Then you can use my modified z802tzx3 command line tool and its GUI to generate your tzx speedup file for loading.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 6406965712

Here you have a small csharp version that admits drag-and-drop

https://github.com/rcmolina/z802tzx3/tr ... 80tzxGUIcs

If you prefer the old VC6 try this one:

https://github.com/rcmolina/z802tzx3/tr ... /z80tzxGUI

Happy testing, you can generate several tzx at the same time with different speeds

The TZXDuino looks like an interesting device. I didn't know it existed. I did make my own SD to wav device with a Propeller chip and another with a small touchscreen and an Arduino Due. Mine handled .o, .p, .80 and .81 files. Sadly I lost the code for them in a hard drive crash . I went to the github site for the TZXDuino and I was surprise to see that a 386 amplifier was listed. Both the Propeller and Due use 3.3V logic and I found no problem sending the output directly to a ZX81 without an amplifier and always had a good clean load. I may try to rewrite the Due code since right now the Due has it running and I would eventually like to figure out how to save to a SD card.

@blittled, you are right... This device is for many different computers, handling many fornats... For example dragon 32/64/Coco needs the LM386 amplifier, and some sinclair zx spectrum +2 as far as I renember.. So, not required in general (but I have also a couple of dragons ja,ja)

Hope this info is useful for you.

Rafa

I've used the TZXduino firmware with my own Arduino Uno and an Ethernet/SD-shield. I've made my own mono-mini-jack shield. As long as the Arduino outputs 5V to the ZX81 or Lambda 8300, then the software will load. If it is below 5V it will fail. That's the experience I have.

Indeed tzxduino hw uses proc with 5v logic vcc: nano, nano every, pro mini, mega.. You must take care this in your own design if you want to change it, as mrtinb says.

rcmolina wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:16 pm @Lardo Boffin, the easy way to achieve this is making an snapshot first (z80 or sna). Then you can use my modified z802tzx3 command line tool and its GUI to generate your tzx speedup file for loading.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 6406965712

Here you have a small csharp version that admits drag-and-drop

https://github.com/rcmolina/z802tzx3/tr ... 80tzxGUIcs

If you prefer the old VC6 try this one:

https://github.com/rcmolina/z802tzx3/tr ... /z80tzxGUI

Happy testing, you can generate several tzx at the same time with different speeds

Thanks! Manic Miner now loads in about 50 seconds which is an improvement.