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Post by oocozyoo on Feb 21, 2021 16:10:49 GMT
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Post by spannernick on Feb 21, 2021 16:47:29 GMT
Wow, Nice job, you have done there..  ZX Spectrum Next is to expensive for what it is anyway, like the Ultimate 64, Mega 65, all these homebrew computers are cause they are not made by a company. The one you have looks like the Toastrack ZX Spectrum.. but thats 128k. I have 4 ZX Spectrums, one ZX Spectrum 48k Rubber keys, two ZX Spectrum + 2 grey and one ZX Spectrum + 3 with disk drive.. |
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Post by jj0 on Feb 21, 2021 16:52:03 GMT
Cool, 4 seconds startup is quite good. I'been thinking of using a Spectrum (same as yours) as Spectrum Next emulator but when I got it from ebay it looked so good I couldn't get uo the courage...
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Post by oocozyoo on Feb 21, 2021 22:58:21 GMT
Wow, Nice job, you have done there.. ZX Spectrum Next is to expensive for what it is anyway, like the Ultimate 64, Mega 65, all these homebrew computers are cause they are not made by a company. The one you have looks like the Toastrack ZX Spectrum.. but thats 128k. I have 4 ZX Spectrums, one ZX Spectrum 48k Rubber keys, two ZX Spectrum + 2 grey and one ZX Spectrum + 3 with disk drive.. You can select 3 spectrums f2 is 48k, f3 is 128k toastrack, and the f4 is the +2 spectrum very cool emulator its like having all 3 spectrums |
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Post by grasshopper on Feb 23, 2021 20:03:39 GMT
That's pretty neat. I like the fact that the GPIO pins can be connected to the original Spectrum's keyboard. Can the keyboard still be used outside the emulator?
It's just a shame that the software isn't compatible with the Pi 4.
With regards to the ZX Spectrum Next, it's an awesome product. However, I agree that the original kickstarter campaigns were crazily expensive (and I'm a bit sceptical about kickstarter campaigns anyway). However, you can now buy a clone board for about 100 euros, which doesn't seem too bad for an FPGA solution.
You can apparently fit the clone board into one of the Retro Radionics replica cases. You'd still need to add on the cost of tax, shipping, and a PSU. But even so, the entire package should end up costing less than £200. That's not exactly cheap, but it's not crazily expensive either, especially when you consider how ludicrously expensive the second-hand tat being sold on Ebay is these days.
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Post by oocozyoo on Feb 23, 2021 20:30:55 GMT
@ grasshopper "Can the keyboard still be used outside the emulator?" You use the keyboard as normal on the emulator ie 48k,or the 128k for typing,and then ive used the reset button on the side(see the two white wires going to the reset button) to switch to normal keyboard for selecting games ect for the front end emulator then press the button again to switch back,very clever Ive never tryed to use it other than in the emulator, so ill have to load another system on it to see if it works. |
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Post by spannernick on Feb 24, 2021 12:22:54 GMT
Found this... github.com/mrpjevans/zxscannerIn the official PI's magazine The MagPI #67 a simple build appeared how to connect a Spectrum 48k/Spectrum+ or 128k (not +2a/+3) using the GPIO pins. The magazine build uses a small Python script to read the keyboard 60 times/sec and translates the key presses to key events, but ZXBaremulator reads the keyboard with each read to keyboard port, exactly as the real machine does, so no lag is produced. The button in GPIO21 to enter/exit to/from alternate keyboard mode is optional. You can enter in alternate mode using the Caps-Shift+Symbol-Shift+ENTER keys. A small keyboard icon in blue color is printed on the screen. Symbol-Shift+K to show the keyboard help screen. zxmini.speccy.org/en/index.htmlGood thing is, the emulator works on a Raspberry PI 0,1,2 and 3... and Bare Metal means it don't need a Linux OS it boot it, it uses start.elf to boot straight in to the emulator like the VICE version(BMC64) so it loads in like 4 seconds cause no OS to boot first and uses the firmware code in the RPI to boot the emulator, but it don't mean the emulator will be any better, it the same code but the emulator might of had fixes added to it to make it run smoother. Only the RPI(Any) can do this cause it uses the RPI firmware code at start-up after it loads the kernel, they have basically hacked the firmware of the RPI to get it to boot a emulator instead and all the libs files it needs to run, in a image file.dtb(bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb) There's quite a lot of emulators now.. https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/7uvp5w/baremetal_raspberry_pi_emulators/
I wonder what the first emulator that came out that used a hacked version of the RPI firmware(Bear Metal) Maybe the BMC64 was the first emulator, it was the first one I heard of..? I might do this to one of my ZX Spectrum +2(the same model in the video), I have one that the tape drive don't work, I added a headphone cable to it so you could use a tape deck with it. I like how the ZXBaremulator has the same type of menus like its part of the ZX Spectrum a bit like CCS64, I think the menus for the emulator should look like its part of the computer is emulating cause it looks better that way. I wish someone would make a CCS64 bare-metal version of it but I think its only for the PC. |
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Post by oocozyoo on Feb 24, 2021 17:25:45 GMT
I had to use a pi3 as the sound over hdmi needs multi cores, ive got a pi1 but i needed all the gpio pins for the speccy keyboard to work as the pi 1 had half the pins, and ive got a pi zero but to get sound out you have to use some of the gpio pins which the keyboard used. So a pi2 or pi3 is best if you want to use a speccy keyboard and sound over HDMI.
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Post by spannernick on Feb 25, 2021 22:27:09 GMT
As Bill would say MOOOSSSST EXCELLENT DUUUUDE... |
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ZX Spectrum Next is to expensive for what it is anyway, like the Ultimate 64, Mega 65, all these homebrew computers are cause they are not made by a company.
