Timex Sinclair User Group Meeting 84317854575 — December 6, 2021

Gary Grimes, David, Carl Miles, Stuart, Eric, Adam

This meeting was a guest interview with Gary Grimes, the industrial designer who did the case design for the TS2068, the TS1510 Command Cartridge interface and its cartridge shells, the TS2050 modem, and the color/graphics work on the TS1500. Gary came to Timex in January 1983 from Philips (where he'd built a career in consumer audio design) and stayed less than a year before returning to Philips in Europe — but in that short window he set the visual identity of the silver Timex/Sinclair line. He walked through his original thumbnail sketches, explaining how he homed in on the final case shape within a few weeks, why the cartridge slot ended up where it did (side mounts conflicted with the rear jacks and joystick ports), and how the silver-over-light-gray two-tone scheme came straight from his Philips audio work.

Gary confirmed several pieces of TS2068 lore. He designed the keyboard graphic overlay himself in Letraset, including the multi-function key legends — the supplier reproduced his artwork so faithfully that a tiny imperfection in one letter survived into production. The textured ridges on the TS1510 cartridges were lifted from a compact-cassette case he'd designed at Philips. The machine was originally planned as a 2048/2072 pair; the story (as the group recounted it) is that Timex VP Dan Ross misspoke the name as "2068" and decided he liked it better, and the 2048 was eventually dropped for cost. Gary's ID work was essentially complete by the start of February 1983, well ahead of the hardware/software crunch — the late issues (the upside-down 74LS244 bank-switching board, socketed ROMs for in-field swaps, ROM bugs) were on the engineering side.

On the modern side, Carl Miles showed his pandemic project: a from-scratch replacement keyboard for the TS2068 with custom-printed keycaps (designed in Illustrator, ordered from a custom-keycap house) on a PCB he laid out himself, using real mechanical key switches and amp connectors that drop straight into the original case. He offered to share the keycap artwork and board files on GitHub. Carl is also restoring/repainting matching silver peripherals (2040 printer, micro-drive shells) to complete the TS2068 system look, and discussed the Portuguese TC2068 cabinet differences (taller cartridge clearance, added power LED, filled-in RF modulator hole). David noted Gary has been in contact with Joel at the Load ZX Spectrum museum in Portugal, who has Gary's original drawings.

Briefer mentions: Jeff Burrell's FPGA-based "advanced 2068" board (could potentially live inside an existing 2068 case); a separate Jeff working on 3D-printed cartridge shells (with the textured grip surfaces); the Westridge-branded TS2050 modems that shipped after Timex pulled out; and a discussion of how few 2068 cases survive, with a suggestion that someone scan an existing cabinet into a 3D program for future reproduction. The group agreed to hold a follow-up open-projects meeting two weeks later on Monday December 20, 2021.

Highlights

Guest interview with Gary Grimes — the industrial designer of the TS2068 case, TS1510 cartridge interface, and TS2050 modem
Gary's TS2068 case was designed in January 1983; the silver/gray two-tone scheme came from his Philips consumer-audio work
Gary drew the keyboard graphic overlay himself in Letraset — the supplier reproduced his artwork faithfully enough that a tiny letter imperfection survived into production
The "2068" name reportedly came from Timex VP Dan Ross misspeaking the planned "2072"; the matching 2048 was dropped for cost
Carl Miles demoed a modern from-scratch replacement keyboard for the TS2068 (custom keycaps + PCB with mechanical switches) and offered to share the files on GitHub

Projects discussed: TS1510 Cartridge Interface Clone · FPGA "Advanced 2068" Topics: TS2068 / TC2068 · Cartridges, EPROM & dumping · TS1000 / ZX81 / TS1500 · Modems, serial & RS-232 · Hardware projects & new boards · Prototypes & rarities

Summary generated from the meeting recording; the full transcript is kept in the group's private archive.