Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

patters wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:33 pm Most of the games I've tried have worked, but not One Little Ghost for some reason. I wonder why it's not compatible with the turbo loader.

I don’t remember doing anything particularly different with OLG compared to any other of my ZX81 games

Thanks for the confirmation, I'll raise an issue on the project's GitHub.

Brilliant project!

I love how simple, cheap and powerful it is to do this mod!

Great job

Hi!

I realize I am super-late to this thread. I had only found the thread on tlienhard about two months ago and this thread today. I hope it's still ok to add to this one. I purchased a Timex Sinclair from ebay, and the motherboard doesn't match the pictures in the ZX-WESPI posts I've seen, so I had to go hunting for where to solder things to.

So far I have done a composite mod I saw on ByteDelight, added a vL81 and swapped for a new z80 from digikey. Got my ESP32 yesterday, and as I was looking to hook it into the zeddy, I found a +5v rail with my multimeter, but in the process managed to destroy the new z80 I had dropped in. Fortunately I still had the original, so it's functioning again.

I used a HiLetgo ESP, and I got this "esphome-flasher" tool that lets me view it's log, and I can tell it's running the "zx_iot" version 0.2.0.6. I think it's wired in solidly: I made sure to use the pin 16 for the "SVP" pin, (which I assume is the same as the VP pin in the diagrams?) and I soldered the blue lead to the tip of the mic connector. When I do LOAD "" from the ts1000, the video gets all wonky but nothing ever seems to load. I left it in that state for a minute or two at a time before powering off.

Any advice?

I couldn't get my to work, until I realised I had used a wrong resistor value.

soulmanpt wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:37 pm Hi!


So far I have done a composite mod I saw on ByteDelight, added a vL81 and swapped for a new z80 from digikey.

Any advice?

What is a vL81? Also, what is the advantages of a new Z80?

A vla81 is a modern ULA replacement (https://vdrivezx.com/vla81/).

Aside from being new and potentially more reliable a new Z80 may well be more power efficient.

Lardo Boffin wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 12:21 am A vla81 is a modern ULA replacement (https://vdrivezx.com/vla81/).

Aside from being new and potentially more reliable a new Z80 may well be more power efficient.

For the new ones does it matter what the speed is? Will they all work?

soulmanpt wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 6:37 pm Any advice?

Check your machine can successfully load from tape. This is a dependency for the WESPI. I bought two ZX81s and one was ok. On the other I wasted loads of time also doing the 16K mod, composite mod etc. and then couldn't get the WESPI that worked fine in the first machine working in it. I then tried using my MaxDuino which works fine with the first Zeddy and realised the second Zeddy's ULA is borked causing the tape loading to not work.