Timex Sinclair User Group Meeting with European Friends — January 15, 2023
David Anderson, Tim Swenson, Jeff Burrell, Joao Diogo Ramos, Gustavo, Francois, Carl Miles, Ryan Gray, Andy Hradesky, Adam Trionfo
The headline session was a Sinclair QL deep-dive from Tim Swenson, who walked the group through the QL's hardware (microdrives, the 128K base machine, the gold card / Aurora / Q40-Q60-Q68 family) and demoed two emulators in detail: SQL UX (a C-based QDOS emulator for Linux, recently given an essential speed-throttle option) and SMSQ Emulator (a Java-based SMSQ/E emulator with the pointer environment, preemptive multitasking, multiple virtual WIN drives, NFA pass-through, floppy-image mounting, and configurable color depths up to 24-bit via Aurora modes). He showed Exchange (Quill/Abacus/Archive/Easel), discussed compilers (Turbo, QLiberator, C68, small C), and demoed his own Structured Super BASIC preprocessor that lets you write QL BASIC without line numbers and with conditional compilation and includes. For newcomers he recommended starting with SMSQ Emulator plus a QXL.WIN image.
Jeff Burrell gave a live update on his FPGA video-output board for the TS2068. The current build snoops the 2068's bus, mirrors every video-RAM write into FPGA buffer RAM, and outputs a clean 640x480 VGA signal — three bits per channel, with ULA+ palette support. He has also packed an 80-column VT100-compatible text mode (derived from Grant Searle's multicomp terminal, driven by a single Z80 I/O port) and a TMS9918 VDP core into the same FPGA. A daughterboard for SD card, serial, and a Raspberry Pi Pico (eventually with Wi-Fi) is next. FPGAs are back in stock at DigiKey, so more boards are coming.
Joao Diogo Ramos joined from the Loja CX museum with a tour of Timex-Portugal R&D artifacts: a Seikosha-rebranded printer (the same OEM as the TS2080), an in-circuit emulator (DICE) that replaces the Z80 and exposes a VT100 debug port, a silver-painted TS1000 from FCC radiation/paint experiments, and an Argentinian TS1000 prototype with an unused blue-and-yellow label. He gave the deepest context yet on TENET (Timex Educational Network) — David Carlin's classroom-networked TC2048 system that Timex Portugal tried to sell to China and India — and confirmed the v1 ROMs have been dumped and will be released once the museum's recreation work is done. Gustavo (Argentina) followed up specifically wanting the TENET ROM image and protocol; Joao offered to put him in touch with the project lead. Joao also flagged the third Planeta Sinclair "GOTY" awards on 2023-01-29 (streamed on YouTube) and a new museum podcast that will run some English episodes.
David closed with a tape-preservation update: a small Windows mini-PC bolted to his monitor, a USB audio adapter, a shoebox cassette deck, and Audacity capturing at roughly -6 dB peaks. WAV files load directly into FUSE (often more reliably than TZX-Tools), and an .81 emulator handles ZX81 captures with amplitude/offset sliders. The current backlog is hundreds of tapes from Bob Swoger (Chicago TSUG, Sir Clive Alive) and Dick Cultice (SMUG, Milwaukee); Dick's TS1000 saves carry a 60 Hz ripple that complicates decoding, so David plans to record straight onto a real TS1000 with a ZX-Expand/SD setup. He has set up a shared Google Drive as the staging area before items go to archive.org. Side discussion covered Carl Miles' TS2068/TS1000 keyboard and YUV-to-RGB merch boards, Kapton-tape stiffeners for ZX81 membrane tails, and JST's new zero-insertion-force connectors (in stock at RS UK, 43-week backorder at DigiKey).
Highlights
- Tim Swenson demoed two Sinclair QL emulators (SQL UX, SMSQ Emulator) and his Structured Super BASIC preprocessor
- Jeff Burrell showed a working FPGA video board for the TS2068 with 80-column VT100 mode, TMS9918 VDP, and ULA+ palette
- Joao Diogo Ramos previewed Timex-Portugal R&D artifacts and confirmed the v1 TENET ROMs have been dumped for eventual release
- David reported on tape-preservation workflow (Audacity + FUSE) recovering Bob Swoger and Dick Cultice cassette collections
- Third Planeta Sinclair GOTY awards announced for 2023-01-29, streamed on the museum's YouTube
Projects discussed: FPGA "Advanced 2068" · Library Tape Archiving Process Topics: Spectrum emulation & software · Hardware projects & new boards · Video upgrades (composite, RGB, HDMI) · Tape & library archiving (TAP/TZX) · Tape, cassette & loading · Prototypes & rarities
Summary generated from the meeting recording; the full transcript is kept in the group's private archive.