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TSU Meeting SUNDAY — October 15, 2023

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David, Tim, Paul, Eric, Jay, Gustavo, Jeff, Carl, Ingo, Joe, Ryan, Keith

The meeting opened with show-and-tells. Tim displayed a gray Spectrum +2 128K (the Amstrad-era model) acquired via a swap with a UK contact, and the group walked through its slanted cassette buttons and Amstrad-era construction. Paul showed off his TS1000 mounted in a Timex 1050 portable case with a TI-style keyboard mod. Two newer participants introduced themselves: Eric (Utah, originally Ohio) and Jay, both with TS1000/ZX81 origin stories.

Much of the meeting was a wide-ranging tour of storage and interface options. For the ZX81/TS1000 side: the ZX Band Plus (AY sound, SD card, ~64K RAM) and the ZX-Wespi (ESP32-based, VGA-out, requires the machine in 50 Hz mode). For the 2068 side: the Oliger/JLO clones Willie Jones is preparing, the Larken and AERCO disk systems, the Portuguese FDD3/FDD3000, and modern cartridge/tape replacements including ByteBack, SVI-CAS, V-drive, and SD2IEC. David announced the TS-Pico — the Pico-based SD-card cartridge Gustavo and Ricardo developed in Argentina with Jeff's board design — is about a month from availability. Jay reported he finally got iPhone save/load working on a TS1000 by boosting the headphone output with an LM386 audio amp at a gain of 50.

The group then turned to two parallel design conversations they want to continue. First, reviving the never-shipped Timex 2060 bus expansion unit as a 3D-printable enclosure to host modern peripherals (Jeff's TS-Pico board, an HDMI interface, SD-card slots fitted into faux-microdrive cutouts, dual 2068/Spectrum expansion ports, an internal switching PSU). David proposed approaching Gary Grimes — the original 2068 industrial designer — to sketch the case, with Ingo and Joe taking on the 3D modeling. Second, a more ambitious "new 2068" successor: members compared the Agon Light (Z80 with a 24-bit address bus, BBC BASIC), the Spectrum Next and its NGo clone, and weighed FPGA vs. software emulation. Jeff, with ~7–8 years of 2068 FPGA work, framed it as a feature-set/cost/compatibility trade. HDMI (or DVI dressed as HDMI to dodge licensing) was a consensus must-have, and the group discussed keeping the original 2068 wedge look while moving to a mechanical, possibly low-profile keyboard with WASD-printed keycaps.

A long technical thread tackled porting Interface One microdrive support to the TS2068. Ryan has a "series 1 dock" home-ROM + X-ROM pair that works in an emulator by forwarding microdrive I/O writes through a DOS TSR. Gustavo has tried recompiling the Interface One source against Timex ROM addresses but ran into BASIC program-area layout conflicts that broke compatibility, and abandoned that path. Jeff confirmed the 2068 home ROM has only stub routines for the disk/microdrive commands — catalog/format/etc. just hit RST 8 — so any real solution needs the logic adapted to Timex ROM addresses plus hardware that emulates the Interface One's I/O port behavior. Action items: David will publish two Google-survey lists (one for the 2060 expansion unit, one for the new-2068 must-haves) on the groups.io list; next meeting is Monday, November 6.

Highlights

  • Tim showed a gray Spectrum +2 128K acquired via a watch-for-Sinclair swap with a UK contact
  • TS-Pico (Gustavo, Ricardo, Jeff) — Pico-based SD-card cartridge for the 2068 — is about a month from availability
  • Proposal to revive the never-shipped Timex 2060 bus expansion unit as a 3D-printable case, possibly designed by original 2068 designer Gary Grimes
  • Design discussion of a "new 2068" — Agon Light, Spectrum Next/NGo, FPGA vs. emulation, HDMI as a must-have
  • Jay got iPhone tape save/load working on a TS1000 by boosting output with an LM386 at gain 50

Projects discussed: TS-Pico · ZX-Wespi / Wespi-Nano · FPGA "Advanced 2068" Topics: Pico / modern interfaces (UnoDos, etc.) · Hardware projects & new boards · Disk & floppy systems (Larken, AERCO, Oliger) · TS2068 / TC2068 · Prototypes & rarities · ZX Spectrum

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