Replica SOFTY 2

[ortek_service]

Thanks for the upload of this slip - that I don't think has been seen before by any of us on here who have built Chris's replica / have an original S2 (Only Timbucus I believe, after we unfortunately didn't get any further contact with someone else who'd previously posted they had found some found some still boxed).

I've run it through Acrobat Standard, to straighten and OCR + cropped-it, to make it easier to read, and have re-attached it here.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'll get chance to do much with the serial interface for a while.
However, there's bound to be at least one of these S2's at the forthcoming annual RCF event in just under 3 weeks at the CfCH (that a few of us on here will be attending / exhibiting at), so maybe something to set-up there. So we might be able to get something going to show there.

I note it says the beeper sounds when the current command completes, but it also says it makes the keyboard 'more-pleasant' to use.
- So I wonder if it also gives an audible 'Keyclick', a bit like a Spectrum?


Re: Your program. If you are willing to upload-it here (A .zip of it should be OK / somewhere else & link to, to share it with others using these, that would be great. Or send it to ChrisOddy / me, and Chris can add this to his webpage, crediting you, if OK with that.

[jncoleman]

Yes, that's correct. The beeper sounds at each keypress or, in the case of keys that activate a function, as that function is completed. Since all the functions except one execute more or less instantaneously, that amounts to the same thing. I find this feature very helpful because I'm otherwise never quite sure that a keypress has registered. The exception is the burn command, where the beeper does not sound until the end of the burn cycle. I attach a picture showing the add-on beeper and RS-232 level shifting circuitry. (The two 10-way housings are being replaced with a 20-way.)

I'll write up some documentation on the serial I/O utility and send it all over.

How are other people dealing with loading data from a PC into this device? Is anyone using the parallel interface?

[ortek_service]

Thanks for the additional info.
I had also wondered if an S2 firmware upgrade was required, to support the Beeper and if yours came with a different one.

But, speaking to ChrisOddy, he says the original one he borrowed from Timbucus (and also got the firmware from) already had the Beeper copied. So it looks like there may have only been one firmware version - We haven't seen any version-numbered labels on the internal firmware EPROM so far, whereas the Softy-1 Chris repaired & replicated did have a version number on its EPROM label.

However, Chris has now managed to get a genuine S2, after a rare (especially as Maplin sold these originally) recent-appearance of one on eBay.
But not sure if this has the Beeper / if firmware is also the same.
So there's now three people on this thread who own original S2's - about as many as who've now built Chris's replica S2 version.

Chris, as well as me, also hasn't yet used the Serial (or Parallel) interfaces.
- But maybe Realtime has (may even have got it working as an EPROM-Emulator for SC/MP systems, that like the original Softy-1, this could do)