Skip to content

TSU Meeting MONDAY — December 4, 2023

Watch on YouTube

David Anderson, Carl Miles, Ryan Gray, Adam Trionfo, David Ellis, Jeff Burrell, Gustavo, Johnny, Andy, Mike, Willie

The bulk of the meeting was a design conversation around a modern realization of the never-shipped TS2060 expansion unit. Carl walked through his vision — a base housing a switching power supply, internal slots/risers to neatly house the TS-Pico and other peripherals, a Spectrum bus on the back (so a Twister board isn't needed), and possibly a second 2068 bus and a stereo sound chip — and Ryan shared sketches he'd been doing for the back-panel layout and card-cage arrangement. The group dug into Gary Grimes' original 1983 industrial-design drawings (the disc-drive cutouts on the side, the detached linear power supply à la the Portuguese FDD-3) and debated whether to mount expansion cards vertically or rotate them horizontally to save height.

On the TS-Pico side, the team reported ~20 open GitHub issues — a mix of bug fixes and enhancements — including better handling of SD-card case-mismatches and recovery from malformed commands. Gustavo introduced himself as the ROM/firmware author: the TS-Pico inherits his TPA commands from a 1985 Timex ROM mod, so standard SAVE/LOAD/VERIFY/MERGE syntax works unmodified and tape and SD storage coexist in the same BASIC program. A current limitation — single program per .tap file — was reviewed using David Ellis's checkbook-program crash as a worked example; Ricardo is working on a mount-the-tap-as-a-tape model that will let multiple programs save into one file. The 2068 power-supply 'brick' (made by RDVE) was discussed as the part most likely to fail today — hot diodes near the main filter cap — and several 15V replacement options were recommended (DigiKey, salvaged Radio Shack Enercell adapters with the correct tip polarity).

A long history segment covered the TS2068's naming (the machine was called 2072 internally for its 72K of RAM before being renamed), the dropped 16K TS2048 prototype, and a piece of press-kit product art for it. Johnny (from Portugal) brought in his Timex Terminal 3000 — the CP/M terminal that pairs with the FDD-3000 controller via an Atari-5200-style connector — and then a paper printout of an unpopulated TC3256 prototype board (Z80-based, with Thomson gate arrays and one SCLD; only a handful were ever assembled before Amstrad's purchase of Sinclair blocked Timex Portugal from exporting the Spectrum ROM). Johnny also showed the Portuguese TC2048 (essentially a Spectrum in a 2068 case, with the cartridge port removed and a power LED added) and the Timex 2080 printer — a rebadged Seikosha SP-1000.

Other threads: David Ellis (new attendee, and the owner who created the groups.io group when Yahoo Groups shut down) was welcomed and asked about importing the archived Yahoo posts (the group now has 30 GB of file space). Adam shared the story of Bruce Taylor's 'Henry' ZX81/TS1000-based talking robot from a 1983 Sync article and a TAB book, prompting a discussion of why the upper 32 K of a ZX81's memory map can't run code (M1 fetches there are treated as video). Game-controller adaptation (NES via shift register, Sega 3-button as Atari-compatible) was floated as another card idea. Carl mentioned a Spectrum Next 2 unit shipping soon and the hope of a TS2068 FPGA core eventually appearing on it. Ryan closed with two Christmas demo programs — a December-1984 type-in and one of his own from the 80s — and David proposed everyone bring a Christmas type-in to the December 17 meeting.

Highlights

  • Carl and Ryan presented a concrete design for a modern TS2060 expansion unit — internal slots, Spectrum bus, switching PSU, horizontal card-cage option.
  • TS-Pico has ~20 open GitHub issues; Gustavo detailed the TPA-command ROM (1985-vintage) and Ricardo is implementing multi-program .tap mounting.
  • Johnny showed his Portuguese Timex Terminal 3000 + FDD controller and a paper layout of the unpopulated TC3256 prototype board (Z80 + Thomson gate arrays).
  • History clarified: the TS2068 was internally the '2072' (72K RAM); the 16K TS2048 was dropped late, and Timex Portugal later shipped a different 2048 (Spectrum in a 2068 case).
  • Group agreed to type in a vintage Christmas BASIC program each for the December 17 meeting; Ryan demoed a December-1984 type-in to set the tone.

Projects discussed: TS-Pico · FPGA "Advanced 2068" Topics: TS2068 / TC2068 · Pico / modern interfaces (UnoDos, etc.) · Prototypes & rarities · Timex Computer (European: TC2048/3256) · Repair & restoration · TS1000 / ZX81 / TS1500

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