ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2017
Entry 13th June 2017: Post: 01
Jack Problems 2
Hi
I have no idea if this mail went. I have to say I grow ever more tired
of Thunderbird. I better leave it at that. It never but never can
connect to the server without pumping at my various accounts over and
over till they register. It never can save a draft. I still do not know
why it bothers and then we get the fatal error message that it couldn't
send a message and yet it often does. So annoying... so so annoying.
Sorry if you are reading this twice. Once was bad enough... Never mind.
What I wrote but was told the message had failed.
Back to my adventures with the Spectrum+ .... this is the model without
the heatsink.
http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz119.htm
I like this computer because it is basically a Spectrum 48K but with the
proper keyboard. You still get the 48K BASIC and the various commands
from the single key press so if you are use to the Speccy then you can
fly with BASIC using this computer. On the later versions you get the
tape loader and choice of 128 +3 or 48K BASIC... all very confusing.
This computer just boots into your standard Sinclair notification and
then you are at the BASIC prompt from the getgo. Amazing to think that
this computer was released in late 1984.
I have been very successful using a small tape machine that was actually
my tape from the days of using the ZX81 and 48K back in the early
eighties. Its a PYE D6600. There is an image here ...
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-retro-cassette-recorder-image499091
You can Google it if you want a trek through Ebay and PinInterest or
what ever the sites called.
I wrote a short question answer database and saved it to tape on the
Spectrum. Took me a while to get the tone and volume just right but all
worked fine. The great thing about the Spectrum is the on screen colour
bands around the centre box. When you get use to using the Spectrum you
kinda know if the large bands are large enough and the small bands small
enough for data transfer. You recognise the boot start to identify the
beginning and the end. You even have some idea from the strength of the
noise as to whether the process is successful. Trick is to save not one
, nor twice but three times.
Happy with my adventure I decided to see if I could get the saved
program onto 3" disk. This means using the +3 with the 3" drive but try
to use a cassette. And then you hit the problem. Instead of the twin
mono jacks used on the Spectrum+ you get just a single 3.5" stereo jack.
I can just hear Mr Sugar demanding cost cutting and the removal of two
to a single jack.
[ quote ]
The ZX Spectrum +3 has a single 3.5mm stereo socket which is used for
both tape input and output. The +3 was not supplied with a suitable
cable but details are included in the manual. The tip of a 3.5mm stereo
jack is connected to the MIC output, the ring connected to the EAR input
(sleeve is ground common to both). The diagram in the manual shows a
twin lead from the stereo jack to a pair of mono jacks for the earphone
and microphone sockets of a mono cassette deck. The EAR input was
disconnected on the +2A but can be restored easily by the addition of
one capacitor on the motherboard.
[ end quote ]
Anyway I have dug through all my cables and connectors and I don't have
one. So off to Ebay and now I wait for my cable to arrive. So I have
stopped that little adventure. Ideally it would be nice to cross
platforms with BASIC somehow so that I can use the information on the
Amstrad 6128 or even the Atari or Amiga. It is the format that floors me
of the types of disk. If I could have found a way to read 3" disks on a
PC I would have done it by now. Gets worse when the Spectrum+3 is a
different format to the 6128 and that is different to the 9512 and the
Einstein etc. So annoying. Where is CrossDOS when you need it on the
humble Spectrum.
And so that's that.....
One kinda interesting side note and that is I found my Caltek
Instruments AG1300 Multimeter.
http://www.caltek.com.hk/showroom3.htm
So if you don't hear from me over the next few weeks maybe you could
ring the ambulance services. I will probably be a gonner by then but hey
you may be able to save the computers. I am going to see if I can check
the circuits on the Spectrum 48Ks I have to see where the problems lie.
Can't be that hard.
Anyway I am going now.
scuzz
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