On 06 Jan 2022 at 06:39p, Jeff pondered and said...

As far as not having an actual ZX Spectrum, if you're a decent solderer you can remedy that with Harlequin kit, also available from ByteDelight.

The original ZX Spectrum required only one specialized chip: the ULA (an

I have a ZX81 upstairs with a soldered RAM pack to avoid the wobblies. :)

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On 07 Jan 2022, Avon said the following...

I have a ZX81 upstairs with a soldered RAM pack to avoid the wobblies. :)

Oh, man, that RAM pack was definitely party to many a love-hate relationship.

My first computer was a TS1000, the US equivalent of the ZX81. I still have
it around here somewhere, too. I had the RAM pack, too, and a thermal
printer, both of which were similarly rebranded. I later upgraded to the TS2068, the US equivalent of the Spectrum. It did not have anywhere near the following and support in the US that the Spectrum enjoyed in Europe and elsewhere. I mostly had to rely on what books, magazines, and cassettes I
could manage to get ahold of, which were few and far between, so I used the Timex/Sinclairs more for programming than playing games.

What was the home computer scene like for you in the early 80s?

Jeff.

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On 06 Jan 2022 at 08:17p, Jeff pondered and said...

I have a ZX81 upstairs with a soldered RAM pack to avoid the wobblies

Oh, man, that RAM pack was definitely party to many a love-hate relationship.

It was :) So many people lost good programs when that sucker burped :)

What was the home computer scene like for you in the early 80s?

Well for me it was TRS-80 and a machine put out by an Australian entrepreneur called Dick Smith called the System 80, you can find images on Google.
The it was into Apple IIe... all of these were at my high school.

At home I started with the ZX81 and did a lot of typing in code to get it to do stuff, then moved onto a BBC Micro B which lasted until I left home.

At uni it was early Apple MACs then in the early 90s I bought my first home PC which was a 386 chip, that was about the time I was using Telix and starting to dial BBS and then run my own :)

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On 07 Jan 2022, Avon said the following...

At uni it was early Apple MACs then in the early 90s I bought my first home PC which was a 386 chip, that was about the time I was using Telix and starting to dial BBS and then run my own :)

Ah, yeah, Telix! I still remember the "doodle-dee doodle-dee doodle-dee"
sound it would make when a line on the BBS I ws trying to connect to opened
up!

Jeff.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Cold War Computing BBS (21:1/180)

I have a ZX81 upstairs with a soldered RAM pack to avoid the wobblies. :)

That certainly beats the old Blu-Tack solution.

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TALIADON | 2:250/6 | 21:3/138 | TALIADON-BBS@MAIL.COM | o-----------o-----------o------------o-------------------------o
| "Error is a great teacher, and humility its hardest lesson." | o--------------------------------------------------------------o

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* Origin: TALIADON BBS (21:3/138)

On 2022-01-06 13:40 Jeff said...

Ah, yeah, Telix! I still remember the "doodle-dee doodle-dee doodle-dee" sound it would make when a line on the BBS I ws trying to connect to opened up!

I got into BBS:ing very very late, when there wasn't many boards left to call, but anyway, Telix was my favourite terminal program, I had forgotten about that sound though. :)

I have been using the Telix theme for irssi (IRC client) for more than 20 years :)

Best regards
//beardy

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On 06 Jan 2022 at 08:40p, Jeff pondered and said...

Ah, yeah, Telix! I still remember the "doodle-dee doodle-dee doodle-dee" sound it would make when a line on the BBS I ws trying to connect to opened up!

Now that you mention that sound, so do I - happy memories and a feeling of anticipation :)

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On 09 Jan 2022 at 03:38a, beardy pondered and said...

But indeed, SD cards are their weakness, and I've had most of the use-cases die on me when the SD card dies. What you said about the power loss and power issues is probably the cause indeed, I thought it had to
do with overclocking, but the root cause is probably the power indeed.

I've been wondering about this fragility of SD cards also.

Does anyone know / can suggest some SSD or other hardware that would be better, and how best to add it to the Pi?

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Does anyone know / can suggest some SSD or other hardware that would be better, and how best to add it to the Pi?

Any external HDD/SDD with a USB interface can be used in a Pi, just like any other computer. However, unless you're connecting to a Pi4 (which has USB 3), you'll be limited to USB 2 speeds.

McDoob
SysOp, PiBBS
pibbs.sytes.net

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On 08 Jan 2022 at 11:10p, McDoob pondered and said...

Any external HDD/SDD with a USB interface can be used in a Pi, just like any other computer. However, unless you're connecting to a Pi4 (which
has USB 3), you'll be limited to USB 2 speeds.

Thanks, yeah it's just something I've not delved into but can see how you could hook in an external HDD drive via USB, I'd need to do some homework on how to get the Pi to boot off it.

I figured there must be some SSD and hardware (a hat or interface) that plugs into the Pi that can accommodate a SSD for quick booting, then folks would use an external HDD connected via USB to add more storage. I think :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/11/06 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Thanks, yeah it's just something I've not delved into but can see how
you could hook in an external HDD drive via USB, I'd need to do some homework on how to get the Pi to boot off it.

I figured there must be some SSD and hardware (a hat or interface) that plugs into the Pi that can accommodate a SSD for quick booting, then
folks would use an external HDD connected via USB to add more storage. I think :)

I believe it's possible to install the OS directly to USB storage in NOOBS,
and I know it's possible in PINN. As for migrating an OS to external, and
then making it boot, that's out of my purview.

I'm not aware of any direct (ie sata, nvme) hardware interface for storage. From what I can tell, any enclosure that includes a storage device relies on (and uses) one of the USB ports.

The Pi Compute Module 4, on the other hand...never mind, that's a whole NEW
can of worms... ;)

McDoob
SysOp, PiBBS
pibbs.sytes.net

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* Origin: PiBBS (21:4/135)

Does anyone know / can suggest some SSD or other hardware that would be better, and how best to add it to the Pi?

I currently have a pi running in an 'Argon ONE M.2' case. It has a slot for an M.2 SATA drive. I found a cheap 128GB M.2 drive and been running it for several months now and it runs great!

I installed debian on it btw.. running all kinds of stuff off of it =)

|15Z|07ylone

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Avon wrote (2022-01-09):

On 08 Jan 2022 at 11:10p, McDoob pondered and said...

Any external HDD/SDD with a USB interface can be used in a Pi, just
like any other computer. However, unless you're connecting to a Pi4
(which has USB 3), you'll be limited to USB 2 speeds.

Thanks, yeah it's just something I've not delved into but can see how you could hook in an external HDD drive via USB, I'd need to do some homework on how to get the Pi to boot off it.

Every Pi model (2/3/4) does it slightly differently. AFAIK it is possible with all models.

I figured there must be some SSD and hardware (a hat or interface) that plugs into the Pi that can accommodate a SSD for quick booting, then
folks would use an external HDD connected via USB to add more storage. I think :)

An SSD just for booting? How often and how fast do you have to reboot your Pi? Booting from SD card is not that slow.

The best Pi setup for an SSD would be the Pi4 Compute Module and a carrier board with an M.2 slot. It uses PCIe instead of USB 3.0.

Like https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/m2-on-raspberry-pi-tofu-compute-module-4-carrier-board

Not the cheapest solution though.

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* Origin: Birds aren't real (21:3/102)

That's a problem for C64, from what I've heard...I think the SID chip
hasn't
been reverse-engineered...

There are several modern SID replacements now.. The new hotness is the
ArmSID which is a complete ARM based computer that emulates a SID chip
and fits into the original SID socket. :D

Some others are SwinSID/Nano SwinSID, BackSID, FPGASID, SIDKick...

http://midibox.org/forums/topic/21331-sid-clones-listsourcesexperiences/



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