Forthcoming Cambridge CfCH events: RetroComp.Sale Sun 26th Feb, RCF-Japan 1st&2nd Apr

[Timbucus]

There is an official video due out but, it will be a few weeks in the meantime the IMP is covered in this one as is the UHF_Satcom demo of RTTY and Slow Scan transmissions...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQuginjetYI

[ChrisOddy]

I really enjoyed this event, my voice having now recovered !

It was great to finally meet up with Tim, Ian, Ian, Phil and others.

Getting the Softy 2 working was a good result - Softy 2's are like buses, never seen one before then two come along at the same time, thanks to Tim and Pete.

Thanks to Tim for the loan of his Softy 2, which I am now figuring out how to make a replica case for (vacuum forming) and to Ian (Realtime) for new keyboards for my MK14 and Softy 1 and Softy 2.

The MK14E is just about finished, I just want to check out the VDU and need to get (the other) Ian's (Coolsnaz2) fast loader up and running so I can get some of the VDU programs on the MK14E as a final check that everything is OK.

All in all I've now got plenty to keep me busy for a while.

Chris

[Pernod70]

Originally Posted by ChrisOddy

It was great to finally meet up with Tim, Ian, Ian, Phil and others.
Chris

And me, briefly, you dumped the ROM for me from a Tandata Td1404.

Was intending to chat with you about your System collection but with so many people to see, and how busy it was, didn't get to spend time talking to you unfortunately. I'm sure we'll see you again at the next one!

[Phil__G]

We very briefly met Sam from @LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER, his synth builds & restoration videos are brilliantly entertaining, very knowledgeable bloke, well worth subscribing if you have any interest in old analogue synths

[ScottishColin]

Here's a review from an exhibitor I stumbled across on Mastodon mentioning some familiar names:

http://www.breakintoprogram.co.uk/mu...-festival-2023

Colin.

[SiriusHardware]

Thanks for flagging that up, an interesting read.

[Phil__G]

Does anyone know if Dave McNaughton is UK based?
"The High Nibble" seems to be a US venture (?)
One day I would love to build an Imsai 8080 replica but I'd need a set of his paddle switches...

[Timbucus]

Originally Posted by Phil__G

Does anyone know if Dave McNaughton is UK based?
"The High Nibble" seems to be a US venture (?)
One day I would love to build an Imsai 8080 replica but I'd need a set of his paddle switches...

He is based in Australia and I understand he buys those switches in bulk as they are still made. You could ask I suppose. The actual kits have a waiting list of many months as they are so popular.

Had a good chat with him over dinner and a pint on the Sunday night along with UHF_Satcom as we were all in the hotels the extra night.

[Phil__G]

I have tried emailing Dave a couple of times Tim but never had a reply, the last time was Sept 22, he probably has enough orders to not need new requests
I wish I'd thought at the time, you could have given him a nudge for me
Cheers
Phil

[Mark1960]

You could try to make paddles to fit on the rocker switch type, you would probably need a 3d printer to make a decent attempt.

[Phil__G]

They're already on thingiverse Mark, and they do need the rocker type switch - and thats not so easy to find. I did find some NKK's but they were £8 each plus the cost of the paddles, about £160 just for the toggles! Straight panel-mount toggles are no good, they need the see-saw pivot of the rocker switch:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2363586

[ScottishColin]

Happy to print some switches from that design if anyone wants any.

Colin.

[Phil__G]

I would take you up on that kind offer Colin but for the silly cost of the rockers... as you'll gather I've been pondering Imsais for a while and the cheapest suitable rocker I found was £5.50 each and might not be suitable... and there are 22 of them...

At one point I did have a thought, for stability if each paddle sat on a pair of side-by-side cheap ebay toggles? (typ 50p!)
They could be wired in parallel or one of each pair left unwired, just there for mechanical support.
I didnt pursue the idea as I dont have a printer!

[Qbertni]

I wonder if the design might be adapted to this type of switch, cheaper at £2.81

https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/...-spdt-0-4a-20v

[Timbucus]

Might be worth an IMSAI retro repro thread...

[Timbucus]

Not at CfCH but, if anyone is going to Crash in Kenilworth this coming weekend stop by the Adventure Stand and say hello - I will have my MK14 playing MAZE I hope...

[ortek_service]

Originally Posted by Timbucus

Not at CfCH but, if anyone is going to Crash in Kenilworth this coming weekend stop by the Adventure Stand and say hello - I will have my MK14 playing MAZE I hope...

Thanks, Tim, for the heads-up on that. I nearly missed this again, as not a great amount of info on the 'net (it took a bit of Googling with the specific details, to find it and organiser's event page seemed it was still to be fully-updated)

But I found there was apparently still 2 tickets left remaining (advance only for this event) last night
- Although oddly, there were then 4 left just after the start this morning, and 5 left after I bought one then!

They are a little-pricey at £18 - oddly + £3.60 VAT on top of this (never seen anywhere else that lists the VAT separately for events, and maybe not that many going are VAT-registered to claim it back as a 'Business expense'.

Hope to see you there, Tim, a short while later.

[ortek_service]

Originally Posted by ortek_service

Thanks, Tim, for the heads-up on that. I nearly missed this again, as not a great amount of info on the 'net (it took a bit of Googling with the specific details, to find it and organiser's event page seemed it was still to be fully-updated)

But I found there was apparently still 2 tickets left remaining (advance only for this event) last night
- Although oddly, there were then 4 left just after the start this morning, and 5 left after I bought one then!

They are a little-pricey at £18 - oddly + £3.60 VAT on top of this (never seen anywhere else that lists the VAT separately for events, and maybe not that many going are VAT-registered to claim it back as a 'Business expense'.

Hope to see you there, Tim, a short while later.

It was good to see you Tim, and your MK14-replica (+Ortonview Emulated VDU) there - Not sure if you got MAZE running on it, as I only saw the Sir Clive screen - photos attached.
Your MK14 seemed was by far the oldest system that was there, as I never saw either of the ZX80's there running (although one was connected to an old TV). And I didn't see unusual DIY Sinclair 'portable' one, with it's custom-case CRT-monitor on top, running either. So wasn't quite sure what was inside it.

I also spotted a few rival Commodore's there (mostly in the Fusion Retro mainly non-Sinclair Home Computers corridor) with a PET 3032, a (Modern mini 'games') C64, plus a few Amiga's

In view of all the full-size Arcade machines they'd set-up, the free mini crash magazine booklet, the 7 talks (that didn't seem to be detailed on the 'net in advance, and unfortunately missed the first three as I only got there at 2pm after dropping into a Dr Who 60th Anniversary fan's re-creations exhibits local-museum 1-day exhibition first, that didn't open until midday), and especially the film premier at the end (that was on for >2hrs, finishing >10pm, so after 9pm official finish - although most stands were packing-up around 6pm when there seemed to be rather-less people still there), I thought it was actually rather good value in the end. Plus the first 350? ticket buyers were in a draw for a free Spectrum Next prize!
It seemed there were far more people were at this event than the Spectrum 35th at the CfCH (maybe even this year's RCF on the sold-out Saturday?) with many parts - especially the corridors - rather-packed at times. So they had to put on another session of the Spectrum Next Panel, that Tim was on, discussion-talk.

This event may have warranted its own thread in advance, but maybe a bit too late now it's taken place. It was (like Crash Magazine and the Spectrum) mostly focussed around Games, but there was a lot about the Spectrum Next (as delivery of the 2nd Kickstarter batch is imminent - after all the issues of having to find new case moulders / re-design of TBBlue PCB with newer FPGA and other component sourcing problems)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_Next
And someone was also demo-ing having the Next with an FPGA-Core running Acorn BBC Master OS / ARMBASIC along with PiTube, for nearly 30 Co-Pro's (Inc. Z80, for some Cross-assembling back to Spectrum?). Plus displaying at true 1280 resolution on an HDMI Monitor.
There was also a few stands selling original Sinclair Computer software cassettes & magazines from £1 each.
And newly re-made, more robust plastic tails, Spectrum / ZX81 etc Keyboard Membranes from £8

Back to the 'Rubber Keyed Wonder' (even though technically it was pointed out there it was actually a Silicone? Elastomer) film, this had some quite-rare content. Especially the filmed building of an original MK14 kit (that they'd done some suggestive components manipulation and accompanying music to virtually make it a bit X-rated at times!). Plus also the Spectrum 3D Ant Attack game's creator, Sandy White, showing the original modified Spectrum board, he connected a Softy to in order to use its in-circuit emulation.
It seemed there were hundreds of crowd-sourced backers for this film, that all featured (along with a very-long list of games screenshots), in what must be the longest credits I'm ever seen at the end.
It would be good for it to have a wider-audience (like the Commodore Story UK-Premier I saw at TNMoC a few years ago). But maybe too-specialist for BBC etc. (Although they did show the Micro Men). And maybe have to see if there's a DVD released / it's available on a streaming service that Atari ones are?

[Timbucus]

Glad you thought it was value in the end. As a commercial operation I assume the price had to be slightly higher.

Was good to see you there - in fact there was at least one other from the forum said hello... he may reveal himself.

I did have MAZE running most of the day with CLIVE200.HEX just on the screen at the same time. As Maze is played only on the 7 segments. It seems to have some bugs which Phil is looking at I think so it crashes out occasionally so needs an 0F10 GO to restart - it seems that is what had happened when you took the photo.

[ortek_service]

Yes, I expect the venue-hire cost is also a factor - like with other Computer shows & radio rallies. But as they can't really charge exhibitors, if most are not selling things, then has to be the visitors paying.
Whereas museum-based events, are just getting more visitors than usual, paying the standard entry fee, so not really any additional overheads.

Although with such a large capacity turnout, that must help with costs
- And, as I thought it might be, the Car Park was full, when I drove through it (but luckily spaces for free on the road just round the corner). Although I only noticed later that there were signs about ANPR cameras on it, and only hope that just driving through it for a few minutes doesn't result in a large fine as I didn't think I'd need to enter registration into their terminal if I hasn't actually parked there. Maybe it works differently for this event, as barrier on entrance was permanently up.
When I last went to an Acorn RISCOS event held at a Hotel in outer London a few years ago, you had to get ticket validated inside for free, but they only gave you 2hrs - So had to nip out of venue and move to some nearby free on-street spaces, later on.

Thanks for the info on Maze - I'd assumed it was VDU-based, as I never expected a 'Maze game' to be possible on 7-seg displays!
- And thought it would probably be a 2D centipede / pac-man style, as I guess a ZX81-style '3D Monster Maze' would be difficult on this (especially without a 16K RAM expansion!)
So I'll have to take a look at 'Maze' running on this (Maybe even get it running on my ChrisOddy replica, once I've got some RAM on the board, I mainly-need to complete it)