I saw a cheap ZXpand on eBay

[mrtinb]

I'm not the seller, but just saw this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234942210777

[Moggy]

It's an issue three which happily has had the wire link mod done to it to restore the missing clock signal (caused by the redesign from issue 0ne ) for the AY chip which remains silent without it.

[Lardo Boffin]

Bet it won’t stay cheap for long!

[Spinnetti]

I thought I had all the variants (I have 3), but don't have that one - early one?

[Moggy]

Issue 3, the follow on from issue 1. A redesign of the issue one to make construction simpler, it was found that the redesign omitted the clock signal to the AY board meaning a link wire fix needed to be employed or the AY board remained silent.

In all its variants ( not counting the genesis of the spand which was a piece of Vero board inside a Sinclair rampack with an SD card stuck out of the top.) there was the plain/beige board prototypes (never sold and now in the hands of the centre for computing history ), isssues 1 & 3, the purple board prototype for the issue 5 (again never sold except for a few boards I believe), the shiny black issue 5, the matt black issue 5.1, red limited issue 5.3 and finally the white board or "winter spand" as Charlie calls it of which three currently exist and are part of an ongoing project concerning audio playback.

The white spand retains it serial connection for use with MIDI but is minus the stereo output socket which is replaced by a socket for connection from the AY chips B-port to a DAC c/w jack and phono socket for said audio playback.
This may or may not be something Charlie offers for sale depending I assume on demand and whether or not he wishes to pursue it past the experimental stage.


I think that just about covers it unless anyone knows different?

I would add that all versions of the spand except issue 5.3 and the ones now made abroad which I believe are based on the 5.3 have the B-port pads/holes readily accessible for connecting to a DAC and are capable of audio output when connected to a suitable DAC.

[mrtinb]

Which one is the ZXpand+?

[Moggy]

Issues 1 and 3 are the "classic" spands everything else is a +.

[Spinnetti]

You know, my dream would be to take the ZXPAND, add cpu, ROM and ULA (and a VGA port) and stuff in in a Speccy repro case and you'd have the ultimate zeddy in TS1500 form seems to me. If I was smart enough to do it, I'd go after it. Wonder if Charlie wants a new project lol.

[1024MAK]

A halfway house may have been a Minstrel 3 mated with a special version of a ZXpand.
See here

Mark

[Spinnetti]

True, but too many chips