TSU Meeting SUNDAY — March 17, 2024
David Anderson, Adam Trionfo, Carl Miles, Ryan Gray, Jeff Burrell, Joe, Paul, Tim, Conrad, Chris, Jeremiah, Brian, Gustavo, Mike, Rich
The meeting opened with hands-on help for David Anderson, who was trying to move a compiled-Pascal hello world out of the EightyOne emulator (which only saves to WAV in 2068 mode) and into a Fuse .tap file. The group walked him through Fuse's media/tape menus, saving the BASIC loader plus the machine-code block (the Pascal runtime brought the code length to about 5K), and producing a TAP that re-loaded cleanly. The conversation rolled into Wi-Fi modem builds — David is making an ESP32-based modem that mimics a Timex 2050 (with a small speaker for the dial tones), and there was discussion of an analogous Raspberry-Pi Wi-Fi modem and the Atari FujiNet as a reference point. Two newcomers introduced themselves: Conrad (a returning TS1000 owner) and Chris (a Niagara-area former ZX80/2068 user with old machine-code cassettes he wants to recover); they were pointed to the prior month's Audacity-based tape-rescue demo and to the groups.io list.
Adam Trionfo recapped "Bawd Day" (March 12, 2024), an in-person Albuquerque get-together with Carl Miles, Ryan Gray, Rick, and first-time meeting attendee Brian. They tried to dial period BBSes with a TS2068 and an Atari 600XL but found most numbers busy; SyncTerm/telnet got through, and Adam played Zork on a UK ZX Spectrum BBS via the 2068's terminal mode. Keith had just sent over the long-missing ZTerm PDF manual, so Adam plans to drive his Wi-Fi-modem prototype with ZTerm next.
Carl walked through his ZX80-clone build (Wilf Rigter's 2009 discrete-logic design): the modern ceramic resonator has built-in loading caps that fought the board's existing cap, leaving the clock low and the video out of NTSC sync — swapping in an oscillator off a real Timex got the rate close, but he still sees only a white raster with no pixel data, so the pixel-clock/shift-register path is next. Gustavo (Argentina) walked him through PAL/NTSC sync behaviour and the role of the diode that swaps the line counter. Carl and Ryan then covered TS1510-clone progress: Ryan's P-file→ROM converter (now part of his zx81-utils set) handles BASIC + variables and splits across the 8K cartridge banks, so they're up to ~14 titles (Mazogs, Frogger, Timex Pinball, Grimm's Fairy Trails, Crazy Kong, Kong's Revenge, two Donkey Kong clones, plus a fresh on-the-fly conversion of one of Bob Smith's ZX81 games during the call). ViewFile still fails — its loader runs a CRC check that fingerprints hidden system variables, which the P file doesn't carry. Carl is designing a bigger cartridge (256K flash, 16 program slots, a rotary selector instead of dip switches) and floated putting it on David's store; he also fixed Adam's TS1000 keyboard membrane (the original plastic had cracked just sitting there) with a modern Tynemouth-style aftermarket part. Jeremiah demoed his Dragon-Warrior-style 2068 RPG running on real hardware with movement, animation, and sound.
Jeff Burrell unboxed the first prototype board of his 2068E — FPGA mounted, VGA, a TC2068-compatible expanded bus, three RP2040s (mass storage, USB keyboard, mice) plus a Pico W for wireless — turned around in about two weeks. Joe showed self-printed laminated 2068 keycaps and posted a PDF of his artwork; the group compared notes on the German 2068 keyboard-overlay sticker, David's WASD-based mechanical replacement, and the case for a small board that turns a dead 2068's working keyboard into a USB device for Jeff's box. Treasurer Tim proposed using the club's ~$2,000 in funds to pay Bob Smith roughly $50–$100 per game to port his ZX81/Spectrum titles to the 2068 (with 2068 ROM-call and AY-chip docs supplied); members will reply to the list with picks. David has 30 of his Pico-based 2068 video boards built, targeting ~$50 and an end-of-March release, with a two-slot low-clearance expansion adapter as a side option. Charlie Day sent David an original Timex Computer Club membership card; David made 50 reproductions and is dropping one in with every order. Next meeting is Monday April 1.
Highlights
- Bawd Day (Mar 12) recap: Carl, Ryan, Adam, Rick and Brian dialled BBSes with a 2068 and an Atari 600XL; Adam reached a UK ZX Spectrum BBS via telnet/SyncTerm.
- Jeff Burrell unboxed the first PCB of his '2068E' FPGA board — VGA, TC2068-compatible bus, three RP2040s plus a Pico W for wireless.
- Carl's TS1510 cartridge clone is up to ~14 ROM titles via Ryan's P-file→ROM converter; a 256K-flash, rotary-switch cart for 16 programs is in design.
- Treasurer Tim floated paying Bob Smith ~$50–$100/game from club funds to port his Spectrum titles to the TS2068.
- David's Pico-based 2068 video board: 30 built, ~$50, releasing end of March; free Timex Computer Club card reproductions ship with every order.
Projects discussed: TS1510 Cartridge Interface Clone · FPGA "Advanced 2068" · "1068" — Enhanced TS1000 Topics: TS1510 cartridge interface · Cartridges, EPROM & dumping · Hardware projects & new boards · Spectrum emulation & software · Modems, serial & RS-232 · TS1000 / ZX81 / TS1500
Summary generated from the meeting recording; the full transcript is kept in the group's private archive.