Timex Sinclair 1000 Update and Questions

From: Doc Shipley <doc_at_mdrconsult.com>
Date: Sun Jun 16 16:16:16 2002

  Well. I was roaming yesterday and found a very nice old Macy's dress
box. In it was a TS-1000 with the TS-1016 16k memory cartridge, manuals
cables, and around 10 tapes, including PIM apps & games. After
soldering a broken joint on the m/b [1], running to WallyWorld at 2:00am
for a 300ohm-to-75ohm converter, and finally figuring out that I needed
to turn the brightness all the way up on the TV, the little booger
works.
  This is the first computer I've had that was in need of board-level
repair to start with, simple enough to ID the problem (and not too
densely populated), and common and cheap enough to "risk" non-essential
modifications. Texas Instruments trained me as a "Certified Solder
Sucker" or whatever in 1982, but I really haven't done any electronics
work since. I build cables, solder all the joints on auto work, and
stuff, but till last night had truly forgotten the joys of eutectic
solder. Also till last night, I had truly not realized how much worse
my eyesight has gotten....
  The card-edge cartridge connector is worn nearly through the traces on
the m/b. If the computer is jostled much at all, it loses the RAM and
its little mind. Next mod will be to do some (cheesy, yes I know) wire
patching to the finger traces.
  I joked last night about just going to the thrifts for a $5 B&W TV,
but my experience with tuning and brightness matches Jeff Hellige's
comments, and I may do exactly that if I keep this. What I'll more
likely do is try Glen Goodwin's idea and tap the composite signal off
the motherboard.
  The major question concerns the program tapes. I tried hooking up to
my stereo, the only cassette player I have anymore, and at any volume,
it just blows the Timex away. The display goes to hell, it doesn't seem
to "read" the program, and the display stays scrambled even after the
cassette stops. The manual states that a "Hi-Fi" tape deck, as opposed
to a cheap battery-driven portable, may be the source of problems. Does
anybody have a suggestion or solution? My instinct is that my cheap
stereo does enough EQ (not optional) to "blur" the signal.

  One of the websites I found last night quotes the promo for the 16k
cartridge - something like "With the addition of 16 kilobytes of memory,
the Timex Sinclair 1000 could conceivably store a program of 960 lines,
but of course. no programmer would ever need to..."

        Doc
Received on Sun Jun 16 2002 - 16:16:16 BST

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