Modems, serial & RS-232
Modems, RS-232/serial ports, terminals, BBS access, VoIP-with-modems, and the Timex 2050 modem.
60 threads · 623 messages · 2001-12-21 → 2026-02-10
The earliest Yahoo-era threads (2002-2003) are dominated by a hunt for documentation on the Westridge/TS2050 modem — Robert "RAT" Turner and Stephen Wenzler both wanted schematics to repair units or to convert them into RS-232 ports, and the community settled around Louis Florit's transcribed Westridge→serial conversion notes hosted at timexsinclair.org and a schematic posted by Senen Rački into the Yahoo files. By 2007 Bruno (zxbruno) and Louis had established the basic answer: yes the 2050 can be hacked into a serial port for the 2068, and yes you could theoretically run BBS software over it, but "why would you?" was the open question. Late-Yahoo-era effort (2008-2009) shifted to preservation — Johnny Red built a TS2050 picture page, and there was a push to preserve the rare TS1000 side of the Smart Terminal cassette (the TS2068 side was already archived).
The groups.io era picked the same threads back up but with modern fabrication. Mike Druckenmiller Sr. designed and ordered a real serial-port PCB for the TS2068 in 2023 (#931); the first revision had a mechanical fault — the DB9 sat too far in and the elevation against the case was too short to fit under the 2068's cover (#927) — which prompted side-discussions on whether the AY/joystick port could be bit-banged as serial (Johnny Red had detected state changes on port 502 doing exactly that). Carl Miles received several TS2050 modems from the Bill Miller / David Anderson collections and worked through restoration, repainting, and serial-port conversion (#106), and a long thread on VoIP lines (#655) eventually produced the breakthrough that Jon could just skip the analog modem altogether: a PicoWifiModem bridged serial→wifi→telnet to the Magnum BBS, finally giving the 2068 a working BBS path.
Parallel work attacked the same problem from other angles. An Argentine project (Microterm by Jorge Castillo, #472) put a wifi modem on the joystick port with published source code, and members are building it. Jon (#651) investigated whether a 2068 serial board could also emulate ZX Interface 1 RS-232 for Spectrum-mode compatibility, possibly as a TSPico expansion. Carl's 2025 "Interface Zero" PCB project (#162) closed the loop — a clone of IF1 (real ULA + ROM) with a daughter board carrying the network and RS-232 hardware, putting Microdrive, network and serial all on one TS2068-native board. The TS2060 spec discussion (#834) supplied the historical context: Timex had planned channel-and-stream interfaces (C/G for parallel, T/B for serial) that simply extended IF1's GI-chip approach, which is the same lineage the modern boards are now reviving.
The through-line across both eras is striking: every recurring sub-problem — Westridge schematics, the 2050→serial mod, the missing TS1000 Smart Terminal tape, what to do with a working modem once you had one — first surfaced in the early Yahoo years and is being closed out now with real hardware (PCBs, wifi modems, IF1 clones) and a working BBS endpoint at bbs.magnum.uk.net.
Key threads
- Westridge TS-2050 Modem (2002) (archive.org) — Earliest community ask: Robert Turner wants the schematic to build a serial port; Louis Florit's hosted Westridge→serial conversion writeup becomes the canonical reference cited for the next 20+ years.
- Regarding the TS2050 and other Sinclair modems (2007) (archive.org) — Bruno and Louis crystallize the Yahoo-era consensus — 2050 can be converted to serial, BBS-on-2068 is conceivable, but nobody has shipped it; sets the agenda that the groups.io era eventually executes on.
- Serial Port Cards for TS2068 - 10 Ordered (#3762 on groups.io) — Mike Druckenmiller Sr. takes the 1980s schematics and actually fabricates a serial-port PCB — the first time the long-discussed 2068 serial card existed as real hardware.
- TS2068 Serial Port Cards - Busted (#3831 on groups.io) — Honest post-mortem on rev 1 (DB9 too far in, elevation too short to fit under the case) plus the joystick-port-as-serial side debate (Johnny Red detecting state changes on port 502) — captures the actual engineering iteration.
- Timex 2050 Modem and Serial Port Conversion (#5417 on groups.io) — Long-running practical effort: Bill Miller / David Anderson 2050 units distributed, Carl restores and repaints them, multiple members do the Westridge→serial conversion, ending with David confirming the minimal RS232→TTL wiring to the 8251.
- Modems and Voice-Over-IP Lines (#5281 on groups.io) — The thread that finally produced a working BBS endpoint — Jon builds a PicoWifiModem and reaches Magnum BBS via serial→wifi→telnet, sidestepping the analog phone-line problem the group had been chasing since 2002.
- Wifi modem for TS-2068 via joystick port (#7205 on groups.io) — Argentine Microterm project (Jorge Castillo) showing the joystick-port-as-serial path is real and shipping with source code — alternative to the Druckenmiller card.
- First steps in getting Microdrives running on a TS2068... (Interface Zero clone) (#8607 on groups.io) — Carl's 2025 PCB clones IF1 (ULA+ROM) plus Wes Brzozowski's Interface Zero, with a daughter board for network and RS-232 — pulls Microdrive, networking and serial onto one TS2068-native board, the modern realization of the TS2060 channel/stream plan from #4519.
All threads (60)
↳ marks a thread where this topic begins mid-conversation — the link jumps to the message where it starts.
| Thread | Msgs | Activity | Started by |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⭐ Modems and Voice-Over-IP Lines 📎 | 84 💬 | 2024-03-12 | Adam Trionfo |
| ⭐ Timex 2050 Modem and Serial Port Conversion 📎 | 53 💬 | 2026-02-10 | Adam Trionfo |
| ⭐ ABQ User Group Meeting - Sat. Feb. 3, 2024 📎 | 40 💬 | 2024-02-08 | Adam Trionfo |
| ⭐ TS2060 parallel and serial interfaces ↳ #4541 📎 | 29 💬 | 2023-10-24 | David Anderson |
| ⭐ First steps in getting Microdrives running on a TS2068... 📎 | 27 💬 | 2025-11-09 | Carl Miles |
| ⭐ How to do Binary Comparison (BIT Test) in Timex Basic 📎 | 22 💬 | 2023-07-26 | kevin.personal |
| ⭐ Serial Port Cards for TS2068 - 10 Ordered 📎 | 22 💬 | 2023-06-20 | Michael A. Druckenmiller |
| ⭐ TS2068 Serial Port Cards - Busted 📎 | 16 💬 | 2023-06-22 | Michael A. Druckenmiller |
| ⭐ Timex/Sinclair 2050 Modem with actual TS2050 Label 📎 | 14 💬 | 2023-12-03 | David Anderson |
| ⭐ Investigating the Spectrum's RS232 Interface (ZX Interface 1), for a potential 2 📎 | 12 💬 | 2024-03-14 | Jon |
| ⭐ Westridge TS-2050 Modem | 12 💬 | 2002-09-16 | Robert "The R.A.T." Alle |
| ⭐ TS-2050 modem | 12 💬 | 2003-10-07 | Stephen Wenzler |
| ⭐ Wifi modem for TS-2068 via joystick port 📎 | 10 💬 | 2024-10-23 | Ricardo Calcagno |
| ⭐ My guess..... ↳ | 8 💬 | 2003-11-09 | Stephen Wenzler |
| ⭐ Serial Port Works 📎 | 7 💬 | 2023-07-18 | kevin.personal |
| ⭐ MTERM manuals 📎 | 5 💬 | 2021-12-10 | François Lanciault |
| ⭐ WC2050 Hack to convert to serial port... | 2 💬 | 2003-08-28 | Louis Florit |
| ⭐ 2050 schematics | 1 💬 | 2003-10-03 | Stephen Wenzler |
| Average age of group members | 26 💬 | 2008-01-31 | Bill Loguidice |
| HAM License? 📎 | 22 💬 | 2024-01-30 | Adam Trionfo |
| Oliger Public Domain disks ↳ | 16 💬 | 2008-12-30 | Paul Anderson |
| Those who have the cassette that came with the TS2050 | 14 💬 | 2009-04-09 | zxbruno |
| Regarding the TS2050 and other Sinclair modems | 14 💬 | 2007-08-02 | zxbruno |
| New Member 📎 | 11 💬 | 2021-08-04 | willie46151 |
| COM210: Telephone Modem 📎 | 11 💬 | 2023-08-14 | Senen Rački |
| "Baud Day" Celebration on 3/12/24 📎 | 11 💬 | 2024-04-01 | Adam Trionfo |
| Long Shot… 📎 | 10 💬 | 2023-09-27 | David Anderson |
| Ebay auction ↳ | 9 💬 | 2002-09-14 | Louis Florit |
| Spectrum Terminal 📎 | 8 💬 | 2024-01-17 | Adam Trionfo |
| rtty | 7 💬 | 2012-01-11 | Billiam |
| Westridge 2050 Modems 📎 | 7 💬 | 2024-02-26 | Paulo Leite |
| "Z-Term 64" Terminal Program 📎 | 6 💬 | 2024-02-06 | Adam Trionfo |
| TS 2068 RS-232 output from joystick port details 📎 | 6 💬 | 2024-01-17 | qwertyfan2000 |
| Using the TS2068 as a terminal to telehack... (through ts-pico?) 📎 | 6 💬 | 2026-01-26 | David Anderson |
| Byte-Back BB-1 or BB-68 | 5 💬 | 2016-11-17 | Dan Schenk |
| RS232/wifi 📎 | 4 💬 | 2021-12-21 | David Anderson |
| Timex Sinclair and the internet | 4 💬 | 2008-12-13 | rockbobster2mars |
| BBS Newsletters Archive Progress | 4 💬 | 2024-02-12 | David Anderson |
| Westride 2050 modem 📎 | 3 💬 | 2023-04-21 | John Mobley |
| Phone Line Simulators | 3 💬 | 2024-09-10 | SuperMikeNJ |
| Regarding the TS2050 and other Sinclair modems (Ethernet/TS2068) | 3 💬 | 2007-08-08 | kb0oyz |
| "Sinclair Survival" and ""Across the Pond" Timex Columns | 3 💬 | 2024-02-13 | Adam Trionfo |
| Good Morning - Where's my head at | 3 💬 | 2023-08-22 | David Anderson |
| a bit of modem history | 2 💬 | 2024-03-18 | Paul Holmgren |
| 2050 Modem Boards | 2 💬 | 2011-08-24 | pxx1_2000_32724 |
| User Manual for Timex Sinclair 2050 Telecommunications Modem | 2 💬 | 2007-07-28 | george.orr1 |
| VOIP | 2 💬 | 2005-04-09 | Eric Johnson |
| 115200bps in Timex FDD 3000? | 2 💬 | 2004-12-22 | Jarek Adamski |
| TS 2068 Twister and Z-Link | 1 💬 | 2002-07-20 | Abed Kahale |
| ISTUG TS2068 BBS | 1 💬 | 2024-09-10 | Adam Trionfo |
| potential topic for hardware folks to explore | 1 💬 | 2024-03-10 | Paul Holmgren |
| RS232 Interface | 1 💬 | 2001-12-21 | rgschimke |
| Network interface on 8251 USART | 1 💬 | 2006-04-05 | Jarek Adamski |
| 2023-06-27 Serial Port Update | 1 💬 | 2023-06-27 | Michael A. Druckenmiller |
| MTerm II available | 1 💬 | 2024-02-14 | David Anderson |
| IPv4 Subnetting | 6 💬 | 2010-07-15 | pxx1_2000_32724 |
| BYTE-BACK MODEM @ EBAY 📎 | 4 💬 | 2024-09-27 | Luis D'Ardis. |
| 2050 modem to rs232 zebra kit | 2 💬 | 2022-01-18 | Willie Jones |
| Terminal Emulator Idea | 1 💬 | 2023-09-18 | John Mobley |
| phones | 1 💬 | 2024-01-03 | larry lorenson |