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kkk Summer Mega-Issue XX
THIS ES issus es ou eee ee cts CR cs ve 5
Summertime, and the living is easyll At least I hope you're all having a great one. But just because the weather has been great don't forget your little companion that kept you company through the long hard winter...no, your computer. I hope this issue will have a little something for everyone. The Zeeper 'graces' our presence again - I know but what can I do. Harvey T. gives us the latest installment of 'Playing With Electricity' as well as the minutes of the last meeting. Rois H. emptied all the Saudi Arabian sand out of his QL and offers a neat item for you QLers - QL to PC-XT file transfers. John B. chastises man for his inability to keep up with the computer. Ken A. sent along a great in-depth look at the hardware side of the PC8300. I've read other articles bout this machine but Ken's is the aost comprehensive by far. We continue with the next segment of 'Buzzwords'. Being the summer Mega-Issue you're expecting some really great reprints from the NETWORK. Well, you've got them: hardware projects, software reviews and listings,, tips, hints, and more; as well as a reprint of how to turn that extra 1000 into a programmable printer buffer. Enough of this, lets
get on with it. جار با پا ہار ہار جا بد ٭× ee eee eoe جا جار جار e de n n f fn n fn n f n fn Bn n n n G n B8 x
BITS & ec aeg اوک وھ اج ses و وو ےا وھ ما چو MINI
...we have our first contributions to the club 2068 program library: Hugh P. sent along a GREAT action arcade-type game that he painstakingly typed in from a Brit mag; new member Joan K. sent in a tape chock o' full of hints, tips, and just plain good stuff. Many thanks to each of you. If anyone else has Public Domain stuff that others would enjoy, send it along to Ian. ..«.you might have heard that ZX Computing, the only Brit mag
available locally, has ceased. It is an ex-mag. And it ain't just resting. Argus Specialist Limited, the publisher, says something about "the closure is due to a decline in the market place where this magazine previously operated." What did they expect after turning it into a games mag for 1
...the ComputerFest was such a hit that Fests are being planned for Florida next Feb or Mar; next May in either/or/both Cleveland, and San Francisco; and we are having our own in Seattle on the 26th of September...thats next month. More info about the Seattle Fest will appear in the next issue and be given at the meeting but lets have everyone think about it between now and then. Maybe we'll car-pool or even rent a small bus or van. Think about it.
.. .VSUG member Bill J. of Panama City, FL., will be publishing his own quarterly newsletter 'devoted to the support of users who have up-graded to Disk Drive systems'. $12.00 per year and guaranteed to satisfy or the balance of your money back.
... Zebra Systems is still in the picture in a big way. A member received his NEW Zebra catalog - new items added and even lower prices.
. ..We're glad to have a new exchange partner in the NETWORK - the Dallas Timex/Sinclair/Amstrad Users Group. ...Wwant your QL to run faster? Replace crystal Xl with one that runs at 16 Mhz. Won't run 9600 bd at the serial port but a true parallel port is unaffected. Otherwise works great.
...the club bought a copy of The Guide to Timex/Sinclair Telecommunications at the 'Fest. This 100 page book has been most generously placed in Public Domain by the authors. There isn't anything that has not been included regarding telecommunications for our machines. Copies will be made and given to those members indicating they want a copy. Hold up your hand at the Sept meeting. A count will be taken and copies made.
...Sinc-Link, the N/L of the Toronto Group reports that members have sent money to Doug Dewey but have not received their goods. Now no one can get in touch with Doug. Problems? Be advised.
...rumour has it that Amstrad is looking to bring out a 16/32 bit machine but the R&D expense is
astronomical. They might just realize they already have just about the best 68000 - based machine to come out but
it is 8/32 bit. Stick a decent keyboard and a couple of drives or a hard disc into a proper case with a QL motherboard and VOILA. Hey Alan want some Sugar on your crow?
.. the report of the demise of the Ottawa-Hull group was a little premature. À new address came to light and we're back in touch.
-.. Video tapes were taken at the
'Fest of all 12 seminars. The cost of
acquiring all 12 tapes is only $40.00US so the club might do so. We'll talk about it at the next meeting. REKKKKKKEKKKAEKKKKKKRKKKEKEREREREKEREE
Minutes June 12/87 (23 present) -by your HUMBLE scribe
The meeting was opened at approximately 19:25 hours by Ken
the Prez who cast imprecations in the general direction of all scribes with watches among whom your present reporter is not
numbered. At any rate, we did begin & the time was not 19:00.
First, we welcomed to our ranks Hilda McKinnon a new member from Vancouver. Ken then launched into a short demo of the PC83@@ which he had received from American Design Components. He played ‘Oh Suzanna’ at a variety of speeds for us. The machine has a range of 3 octaves. It was noticed that that the ROM is completely different from the 72×81 & will not run the same machine language.
Rod Humphreys then reported that Tim Stoddard still has the great 64K rampack deal going. The
Product Profile/87 was this week at the PNE & several of the members went to pick up freebies % data sheets & such. Rod also exclaimed that Her Majesties Royal Snails have set a new land speed record of 1 day to deliver a letter from Vancouver to Burnaby. We have a new member Jeanne Kiley from the USA who has the good sense to want to zap the zeeper.
Tim Woods of Time Designs Magazine has raised the possibility
to Rod of having a Pacific Northwest Sinclair Computing Conference this coming fall,
Specifically Sept.24/87 in Seattle. Any comments and feedback about this idea are welcomed.
Rod then put on another hat, and mentioned that we still have about $700.00 in the credit union. Printing is now being done at Rod's place of employ & there is a nominal charge of a penny a page which is keeping our printing costs down - still.
Rod then gave us about a 40 minute slide show of his trip to the Indiana Sinclair Conference. He bought oodles of stuff & had a good time meeting all the Sinclair notables he could. The slide show was excellent. He taped his talk so that he could pass it on to other groups & people. There are apparently videotapes of some of the lectures given, which we will be trying to arrange in the future.
John Brohman then spoke up % mentioned he is now selling Specterm 64, Pixel Print % the Larken Disk Interface for the 2048 via Weymil.
It was moved by Bob Denison & seconded by Harvey Taylor that Karl Brown be voted a Lifetime Honorary Membership in recognition of his uniquely valuable contribution to the club in its formative years. The motion was passed by acclamation. Those members out of town might want to check out May/APAı-(87) Byte magazine to see what Karl has been up to lately. As a result of those articles, letters
have been pouring into Al Wright's office where the Robotics club meets £?& Al is getting a Robotics newsletter together. Subscriptions are $15.00. There will be no Robotics meetings until Sept, by the way.
Rod mentioned at one point that our new member Jeanne Kiley had suggested that the way to overcome he sudden drop in attendance any time elections are being held is to announce that all of those not present are automatically nominated. Hmmmm...
Wilf & Harry reported, for the hardware group, that the 32K nonvolatile ram board was finally about to hit production. Wilf says he will have boards by next week. Harry Slot has designed a monster 224K nonvolatile bankswi tched nonvolatile ram disk board for the ZX81. He had the unpopulated board with him. There will no doubt be articles about these projects
orthcoming.
Rod rose to thank all of those who have sent in newsletter articles and to encourage the reticent to take pen in hand. L wordprocessor in x? 1
Ian the Librarian stood to say that he was getting a collection of books and magazines & to keep them coming. He is specifically looking for documentation for the following programs: StarTrek, Mars, Frogger, Financial Manager, Screen Calculator, .Robbers of the Lost Tombs, ChekStub & Morse Code Translator. If you can help, drop him a line c/o Rod. He is also looking for Conversational French X any Educational Programs. He is now using a dubbing deck for making copies & it seems to work fine.
Harvey presented Wilf Rigter with a copy of Fractal as an adjunct to winning his @L last month.
Mario Vereira showed us a small monitor driver and tape loader board he had made with an LED for watching levels. Guido Vereira by
the way needs help getting his SINCLAIR INTERFACE 1 back up and running. If anybody has one of these beasts, will they please get in touch with Guido and see if some troubleshooting arrangements can be made.
Ken the Prez mentioned that when he sent Tim Stoddard a non working 16K pack, he got a neat letter from Tim documenting why it didn't work, as well as his 64k pack. Rod told us about getting two 2016“ from Tim in return for considerations given.
Rois Harder told us that he had finally got his QL from Saudi Arabia this very day. It seemed none the worse for wear after its travels. |
The next meeting will be Sept.12/87. There will be a super newsletter in August % a short reminder newsletter in early Sept.
AE AE MELEE EEE
STOLE THE SHOW
THE SINCLAIR MICROVISION POCKET TV RECEIVER provided a world wide sensation when shown for the first timie at the recent 1966 Radio and TV Exhibition. This fantastic British set tunes over 13 channels on bands 1 and 3. operates from six self-contained “Penlite” batteries and measures only 4in. x 2%in. x 2in. Despite the minute proportions of this 30 transistor receiver, quality from the exclusively designed tube and loudspeaker is superb. This amazing Sinclair triumph will be available early in 1967 at a cost of 49 gns.
SINCLAIR) MICROVISION The world’s only pocket T.V.!
here rte Lett tL بد ORO OORQOR ORO 3300 XOIOR GEORG ید یہد بد ¥ ¥
IHE CERPER SPEAKS...
I thought I would surprise you by actually saying some nice things you miserable wretches. spending a week talking brother Zeepers, I must to a certain level of admiration towards you. The most common trait of the : Sinclair usér is that collectively you are the absolute stingiest,.cheapest bunch of people in the world. That may also be .your most redeeming virtue.
My fellow Zeepers are continually telling how in the world of real computers, every one is going for bigger and faster systems. In the real world, everybody is impressed by megabytes and nanoseconds. What they don't realize is that their applications will use no more than 107 of the power of these new muscle machines.
The Sinclair user has an absolute terminal allergy against spending a dollar. This has given rise to an incredible level of ingenuity. The ZX-81 has to be the worst excuse for a computer ever created. That hasn't stopped you fanatics from producing miracles from literally nothing. You have made that fly-speck computer talk, sing, run disk drives, telecommunicate, use Joysticks, use bubble memories, and even multi-task. You continue to produce software that accomplishes all of the standard computer tasks plus a few more. That is an incredible accomplishment considering the fact that you're all mad.
about After to my admit
You weirdos continue to Squeeze every bit of power out
‘of your little microchips
888888888888888888888888888888
on
while the rest of the world continues to waste more and more computing power. If you fanatics ever got your grubby little paws on some free IBM PC's, the world would never need another computer. You guys are still trying to find uses for 64K! Imagine what would happen if you had 640K! Fortunately-that will never happen. My fellow Zeepers won't allow the price of real computers to come within the range of the ZX-81 user. They prefer that you stay contained in a quarantined population. The thought of even 100 ZX-81 users running amuck with real computers is to horrible to contemplate. The world isn't ready for really efficient Software or simple hardware. They are perfectly content spending thousands of dollars to do $20.00 worth of work.
888888888888889888888988888888
Next meeting:
YEPT/ 87
Sinclair-QL to IBM-XT File-Transfer by Rois Harder... July 4/87
From start to finish it was a challenging project... transferring a few hundred pages of Quill documents and program files from my VERS$-JM British- model QL, to my IBM-XT computer.
After waiting six months for my personal effects to arrive from Arabia, I was curious especially about how the many Microdrive Cartridges had stood up to climate and possibly worse conditions in the hands of the foreign shippers.
I did request time-to-time assistance from a few chaps on various aspects of this challenge, and Harvey Taylor was one who provided timely aid as I "“"slogged away" often into the wee hours of the morning. This was my first attempt at interfacing computers directly, and the matter consequently proceeded at a snail's pace.
I initially had some concerns about my SOHZ units bought in London and Jeddah, but after purchasing a Step-Up Auto- transformer for the QL system, I was soon reassured about that... everything worked sery well indeed when finally connected.
My attached drawing shows the final connections for transferring, and also indicates my Miracle Systems Serial-
Parallel Centronics Interface bought in Jeddah as well. This unit especially came in handy for the transfer, as it was equipped with the correct 630A BT plug, a requirement for the strange SER jacks on the rear of my QL.
The drawing is self explanitory... it was kinks in programming facets of the transfer that took the longest to solve. I have an internal modem... but could not use that for a direct connection between computers, so by inserting DB25 plugs in my Miracle System's cable, I finally configured the leads/wires correctly.
Another helpful chap from my work soon convinced me that the PROCOMM terminal software could do the IBM receiving of the ASCII files quite nicely. Assistance from another fellow provided an alteration to my QL-Super-Basic program so that the strange ASCII-CR character codes could be converted.
It was a pleasant experience finally, to see my files being transferred and displayed on both the outgoing and incoming computers’ monitors. The two- minute per page rate was rather slow, but certainly more convenient than re-typing the many files into the IBM.
6
21022217, ا ھا ے 11٤۷١6 tian removing otner control codes from the files in the IBM,
I found the "TEXTCON.EXE" utility in my
possession would do this neatly and quickly. A 5-page file took only 20 seconds to strip in preparation for transferring the programs internally to my WORDSTAR directories.
Yet still, all files had to be "cleaned" and "reformed" while in document mode in WORDSTAR... all In all,
a very time-consuming affair.
As I had not looked too deeply the operation of the QL in Arabia, surprised now to notice during these ASCII transfers, just how much "extra" overhead the QUILL files especially have
into I was
tagged on both fore and aft. After a document's last typed word, there were sometimes a few hundred extra characters
(and blanks) that were transmitted before EOF. It was always welcome to finally see that strange "'1;E" combination that told me “the end was near".
If I might add, shortcomings that I typing long documents with the QUILL wordprocessor. Although I found it much easier to use than any other to date, I Was limited by the size of a file that could be transferred to microdrive. Possibly this was just my version that had the problem... I'm not sure. I have attached a small "warning" note that I heeded while using QUILL.
For those interested, I have the following hardware and software for my QL. (1) EPSON FX-80 Printer (2) PHOENIX color & monochrome monitor (3) MIRACLE SYSTEM'S S-P Printer Interface (4) STAG 500va 50/60 HZ Voltage Regulator(we had diesal power in the Yanbu Compound) (5) 110v-220v Step-up transf. (6) 220v Power
there were had found while
certain
Supply for QL. (7) 80 Microdrive Cartridges (and a few spares) (8) QL- Doctor, QL-Art, Sketchpad, GrapiQL, ۳۲
Traffic Controller... Software. (9) A few QL reference books.
I am again living at 995 Shakespeare Avenue, Tel's. 980 4167, 980 3733.
٦اب | — |
SUNCLAIR-QL TO ISH-RYr INTERFACING
1 NULL MODEM 14 Reversal Plug ٦ for pins 2 & 3 ۱ if SER #2 Numbering is used. 13 [: 725
(or equiv.) 2400 BAUD N,6,2
For Serial File
Transfer ——
strapped together
European Version QL uses 630A/H plugs rather than DB9
QL
For Normal QL Printing
SER #2 (DTE) 1
GRD BK Miracle Systems
or Centronic Interface
DIR 3 9600 Baud
ALE te 6 To UE Parallel —
Note: The following BASIC program will transfer files from the QL: 1@ BAUD 240@ 20 DIR MDUS_ 3Q LET Ds="MDUL* 4Q INPUT “INPUT FILE TO ٥۶٥ SQ OPEN JN WS.D¢ & Fe:OPEN_NEW 6۱ 6Q IF EOF(WS) THEN CLOSE WS:CLOSE WG:PRINT:PRINT Fs" UPLOAD COMPLETE“160 TO 70 62 AS=INKEYS(WS):PRINT ASilF AS=CHRE(1S) THEN AS=CHRS(13) 64 PRINT H6.A$::60 TO 6Q 7Q X/=200:V/=820 GO BEEP Q.X7.Y7.10.19.14.1.2 9Q FOR A=1 TO 1@QQ:NEXT A 1QQ BEEP It is important that line 62 exists. The IBM has trouble with CHR$(15)
Sketch by Rois Harder (using FONTASY)
10 BAUD 2400
20 DIR MDV1_
30 LET D$="MDV1_*
40 INPUT "Input ASCII file to send:";F$
50 OPEN IN $5,D$ & F$:0PEN NEW 1
60 IF EOF(#5) THEN CLOSE 85:055 #6:PRINT: PRINT F$;" Upload completed":GO TO 70
62 AS$*INKEYS$(85):PRINT A9;:IF A$=CHRS(15) THEN AS$*CHR$(13)
64 PRINT 46,A$;:GO TO 60
$$9*24$9 WARNING trans À QL Microdrive Cartridge has around 208-223
70 x%=200:y%<820 Sectors of 512-Byte Data Blocks.(110-Kbytes) 80 BEEP 0,x*,y*,10,10,14,1,2 It has 14-Byte Sector Headers, 2-byte Block 90 FOR a=1 TO 1000:NEXT a Headers, & 10-Byte(Chr$)Medium Names.Each of 100 BEEP maximum 42-File Headers, (5 Sectors reserved 110 REMark *** This is a Sinclair-QL program per File), is 64 Bytes long. Maximum File or to upload a file to SER#1 or 82. It also Document length 1s approximately 5600 words. converts Hex(OF) to Hex(OD)..(ASCII 15 (32,768 Bytes at 5.8 bytes/Word or a maximum to 13). This allows use of a program of 64-Sectors x 512-Bytes = 32,768 Bytes.) "textcon.exe" on the IBM to strip off For safety, maximum document length must be all unusual QUILL control codes such as limited to 5500 words. Files can be merged "underline" & "bold". The program calls later into one for out-putting to a printer. the MDV-DIR and requests filename input. ( Allow an average of 85 words per sector. ) The hardware communication link is QL-SER1 ( There is a 23,226 word limit per drive)
to IBM-COM1. The "terminal" program PROCOMM One Microdrive loop takes approx. 7 seconds. was used for receiving in the IBM...(Pg-Dn DO NOT TOUCH TAPE SURFACES FOR ANY REASON. key, ASCII,and Download Filename.) The BAUD Sinclair QL - VERS JM
rate seems to make no difference due to the -—7-7-7-7--7-7---7---------------------------------- stripping action. In any case, it takes 2 minutes to transfer one full page of QUILL document. There are many strange QUILL Characters at page-end before the EOF causes the transfer to terminate.
Program Cartridge Copy 1.Power Up 2.Press F1 3. Master in mdv2 4.Formatted Blank in mdvi1_ 5. Then Type:lrun mdv2 clone 6. Press Enter.
LS SL ES EEE EE LEE EP PET EEE EEE EE ¥) دہ بد بد بد ہبہ بد بد بد ہت
META MEDIA PRODUCTIONS 726 WEST 17th VANCOUVER, BC CANADA V5Z 9
Meta Media Productions Announces Q_LINK A complete Telecommunications package for the QL Featuring Autodial, Redial, Integral Editor, Xmodem & Ascii File Transfer, Zoom printing for speed, XOFF/XON handshaking Edit your session, mark a block, then print it, save it or transfer it to another BBS. Store up to 49 Telephone numbers & 20 Signon passwords per setup file. Edit BBS phone numbers & names, Signons/passwords painlessly to create setup file. Load another Setup File for even more Numbers & Passwords. Extensive use of Menu/Quick modes suitable for novice/expert. Configures to any modem, Set 8 Seperate Modem Commands and Messages such as Dial, Immediate Redial, Reset : Supports all QL Baudrates: 100% Machine Language: Compatible with JSU, JM ROMs [ Comes with 3 Utilities - Unsqueeze, Delibrary & Filters ] The Fine Print: US$ 19.95 + $2.00 shipping Supplied on MDV or 5.25" disk [specify tpi]
META MEDIA PRODUCTIONS 726 WEST 17th VANCOUVER, BC CANADA V5Z 1T9
8
O REM John Brohman
I wonder how much longer we will have to wait for the rest of the computer revolution? Technology has successfully delivered the computer to the point where it is easily obtainable by the average working person. More and more computing power ‘is being squeezed into smaller and smaller packages. In terms of power for the dollar, today's computers are true bargains. That was the first part of the revolution.
The next stage of the revolution will have to wait for man. I am afraid that we now have computers that we are not smart enough to fully utilize. Consider how we communicate with computers. The human brain can process many levels of information instantly. The computer has the same capability. When the brain talks to the computer, it is seriously handicapped by the keyboard. We are spending too much time typing and not enough time thinking. Technology has allowed the computer to recognize and interpret human speech for several years. It is even within the capability of the TS 1000. Computers have been able to talk to us for years. Why are we still using keyboards?
Every computer requires that we learn it's language. This is the perhaps the most serious flaw in computer
design. A tool by definition, must work for man. Man does not work for the tool. Computers are designed in direct violation of the very basic concept. I don't want to learn the operating parameters of a computer. The role of the computer is to learn MY operating parameters. A computer should learn from me. I don't wish to learn from it.
Every time you turn on a computer it is just as stupid as the day it was assembled. Computers should be designed to accumulate and distinguish sets of instructions the user gives it. Once again, these instructions should be within my parameters, not the computer's. Imagine teaching a computer by voice one time to store someone's phone number and dial it when requested. Imagine never. having to teach the computer how to do this again. We have the technology to do this. We just haven't learned how to do it simply.
The concept of Arthur C. Clarke's HAL is well within the capability of the average computer. I should be able to come home and have my computer detect and identify my presence. It should automatically unlock the door. It should greet me upon entering. It should have automatically recorded such things as news reports, television shows, and phone calls. It should have the temperature of the home regulated for occupancy as opposed to vacancy. lt should have the hot water heater
— — —— —
O ODD ——
my absence.
— 44575 S54 eoe — — — ہے —
eau LUL a بن of any visitors during It should advise me of any scheduled events. It could advise me of energy usage and costs. We can build houses that do this and more. We can build them marginally more expensive than existing housing. We haven't learned how. We are told we live in an information explosion. We are supposed to have a wealth of information at our fingertips. I would like to see a computer that could search both it’s own database and remote ones automatically and produce the information required. Presently to do the above we have to first learn
how to use a database then how to use a communications
package. If we have mastered those steps; we can get retrieve the information we need. This is not exactly an explosion.
Finally, computers Should stop frightening people. What is the use of having all of this wonderful technology if people are afraid to use it? The average North American sedan is very easy to drive. You get in, fasten the seat belt, start the engine, put it in gear and go. This is a far cry from the Model A with it’s spark advance and crank. We are still designing computers like the Model A.
Am I asking too much? Not when you consider our technological machine can put men on the moon, develop an artificial heart, and do gene splicing.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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Military micro blazes along at 40 MHz
Performance Semiconductor PACE1750A VHSIC single chip, 16-bit, .40-MHz processor with on-chip 32-bit and 48-bit floating-point arithmetic im- plements MIL-STD-1750A Instruction Set Architecture (ISA).
It is supported by a family of ad- vanced CMOS products used to de- sign closely coupled computer sys- tems.
It provides 13 addressing modes, in- Cluding direct, indirect, indexed, based, based indexed and immediate long and short, and can access 4 Mbytes of memory in 128-Kbyte segments.
Throughput is 2.5 MIPS for a stan- dard real-time integer/floating-point in- Struction mix.
The chip uses a single multiplexed 16-bit parallel bus. Basic bus cycle is 4 Clocks long.
It packs 200,000 transistors in
52,000 square mils, consumes less
than 1 watt at 40 MHz and operates over the full military temperature range of —55 to + 125C.
THE SMALLEST SET
SIX-STAGE RECEIVER
Over 8,000 built and in use all over the world
THE SINCLAIR MICRO-6 continues un- challenged as the most remarkable receiver of its kind ever made available to the public anywhere in the world. it has special 6-stage circuitry and is, at the same time, the smallest set on earth. Everything except the light- weight earpiece is contained in the smart, minute white, gold and black case which is appreciably smaller than a matchbox, as the illustration shows. With vernier-type tuning control, bandspread over the higher fre- quency end of the medium waveband and powerful A.G.C. to ensure fade-free reception of the most distant stations, the Micro-6 provides remarkable standards of perform- ance. Quality of reproduction is outstandingly good and, again and again, the set is re- ported to give excellent results where other sets cannot be used at all. The Micro-6 cannot be too highly recommended, both as an
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THE TR7$8 (for building yourself or avaiable ready buit) measures only in. x lin. it wiit provide powertul loudspesker reproduction from «ha Mecro which can then be used as a car-radie, or domestic er portable loud- speaker set. The TA7SO alse has many other applications such as record reproducer, intercom er baby slarm. An output of 750 milliwatts ہوا feeding «nto a standard 25-300) loudspeaker requires only è OmV input inte 2K(). Frequency response 20-20.000 cis + 148. Power required 9 te 12 vola.
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Using components never belere made available te the public, the Microb le nevertheless easy te build. All parts — Mee amete gea earpiece and
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When ROd Humphreys brought his newly acquired PCESGG to the March USUS meeting, rumors flew and interest was keen, Could it be that $29.95U.5. could buy a Ts10@û compatible computer with ã nice chicklet keyboard and & Proarnatimable 2 OU Tid generator? Vell- se 3007 While -Chpatibility if a moot point, there is
ittle doubt that this computer CAN be erioglsu considered as a replacement for "الات aging ZXS1 or T516006, but do nat. expect lüüs hardware or software compatibility. Also, do mot expect any support beyond system hardware from the supplier. AMERICAN DESIGN CO has answered my request for software and additional information With a. Polite, “Hot. available." This places the ball right back into our court. If we wish to add the PCOSGG to our dinosaur collection, we had better come up With the required info and software ourselves. To this رت Harry Slot and 1 have ra. de SORE Preliminary observations that might hele people decide whether they should be interested in the FCS50C, and will alza indicate areas for caution.
Manuals: Two PC83G@ instruction manuals Nro uc come with the computer: an English version (5G small pages) and a Chinese version (36 large pages).
The English manual if a concise little booklet (full of grammatical mistakes! giving operatind instructions and simple BASIC programming lessons. Its Mä i Ti usefulness to the average user who KTIOLS ERSIC will probably be Chapter 9. which outlines how tc program the music and sound. Also useful if Appendix E, giving the errer codes.
The Chinese manual is MUCH more comprehensive, being a close copu of the British Sinclair ZX&l manual. Iit d$ $0 close à Copy, however, that some 1ے information has HOT been replaced bu ٢٢٢٢۵ information! E.g.: à 9 Volt power supplu if Shown, whereas the PCSSQG uzes a is power supply. This it <2 ۔ ق طلباع زا0 dangerous because one assumes that the edge connector diagram Given on page 66 shows the correct voltages and bus connections for ۳۳۳080 interfacing. . THIS is HOT THE CASE!!! What IS shown i£ an exact copy of the ZX81 edge connector diagram! A voltmeter will show that instead Of the و Volts shown in the Mandal, about 14 Volts is present (12 Voits unregulated from the 12 Volt power SUPP1lYI!! Do HOT use a TS1016 RAMpack With the ٥0ي ٣ Other PCESGG edge
connector differences are described below. 1 2
SUFFICE it to say, the Chinese manual is à Close copy of the British 7x81 manual, right down to the Programming examples used (€.9.: A$= DOUBLE CLOUCESTER" 3. The Majority Of new info is again given in the Chapters on Sound and Music, Memory Organization, System Variables and the Appendix showing the Character Set.
HARDWARE: Two brand names have been | . — reported for the 8308: LAMBDA and UNISONIC. Also there mau be slightly different production versions of — the motherboard.
The computer consists of five CRIPS, four transistors (excluding tuo inside the RF modulator), a five volt regulator, and an assortment of the usual diodes, resistors, Capacitors, A 1.5 inch loudspeaker if also seen. The Chips consist of à 2016 2K RAM, an 8442 ROM, a “PGC (ZSGR CPU), à 24595 and à c4aq5 ULA- IZO Chip. All Chips: are zocketed except the 74.565. There are four sets of emptu Chip pads for 2114 REH Chips, probably used as an alternative to the 2035 RAH.
The PC board is
The neat rubber 'chicklet' keuboard is connected to the motherboard bu means of a veru stiff sixteen conductor transparent. ribbon cable soldered at both ends. Harry atid I have replaced this in both our Computers by a flexible ribbon Cable and a Plug and socket arrangement in order to avoid Cable damage when the computer is frequently opened up for examination or 8104 1+7 ication.
The rear of the computer reveals the following sockets: DC POWER, EAR, MIC, MONITOR, EXTERNAL BUS (edge connectors, JOYSTICK, and TU. 1€ MONITOR output jack is driven by à transistor, and should therefore be capable of running a high or low impedance monitor. There is NG volume control for the sound (Harry and I have both installed one without difficulty).
The Video signal appears a. little distorted on a TU or a monitor, since the tops of some Characters tend to lean a bit. This might be caused by excess video or bu contention between the cunc pulses and the black backorcund levels, The JOUSTICK port. accepts a Standard Rtari-tupe joystick which was found ta activate a curious combination Of keys-
UP-4, DOUN-R, 27, RIGHT=F, and SHOOT=U. Can anybody explain the
reasoning behind these choices?
The sounds that COE ۲۲۳٢ the loudspeaker are Of three kinds: beeps far
every Key except SHIFT. programable musical notes (Single voice) having à
range o£ three octaves, and programmable Games sounds. All sounds: appear to be generated in the so-far mysterious C4Qas ULR Chip and are amplified bu a transistor Which drives the loudspeaker.
Last, but by no means least, is the £a Sada Of the 65838 edge connector. Yes, uou CAN run the TS26468 printer from it. HO, you CANNOT run all T51G@G peripherals
from it, ۹ة "uou mau even cause come damage if you try!!! Az previ ous 114 mentioned, 14 Volts appears where there
should only be 9 Volts. This may cause شغ T51G15 RAMpack to blow. When I tried out. lH speech boand (the 3 Volt line is not
used bu the speech board, complete silence Was the resuit! Further
investigation by Harry led to the
discovery that EIGHT control lines from the CPU were not connected to the Edge
connector as they should have been!!!
These lines were completely missing: INT, HHI, HALT, BUSAK, WAIT, BUSRO, RESET, and H1. Since the RAMpack did not appear to use these connections, it seemed OK to me to connect them as found in the zZX81 — the speech board then worked perfectiy.
if you are planning to do any interfacing
to the PCSSGQ, remember: if the 14 Volts doesn't get you, the missing CPU control
lines might! We are seriously considering reducing the 14 Volts to the usual 9 Volts at the edge connector and modifying the ۲90 RAMpack to operate on 3 Volts sa that the ۳٥28ق edge connector becomes truly hardware compatible with ALL ۲٣8 Peripherals.
PROGRAMMING: It would not be fair to the ^. developers (ZX81 cloners?7) o£ the PCESGG if one were to describe FCSSGOS ASIC as & copy of ZXE1 BASIS. Although 2*61 BRSIC APPEARS to He about SEX compatible, there are soe real
differences. From the prodrammind point Of View, the main conclusion is that the majorité of ZXE1 and T5100G BASIC programs Can bE Made functionally operable With very few programming modifications.
1۱510088 programs can be loaded into the PCESGS, but any variables saved by the
۲52100908 Will HOT be carried over to the ۳٢۳683889. If the variables WENE not. initialized inside the program, you will have to type them into the PCS3QG after x This Caf be SofeWhat tedious in programs such as CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH, which contains à lot of hidden data originally saved in String variables. By the way, uou cannot
load à PCESGG program into a T5160 (unless you are sneaky and make the
transfer via NON-UGLATILE RAM or some such non-tape devicel.
As you begin to program With the (ر 8ئ uou quickly realize that the ROM if a completely different beast from the T2108 ROM. The first signs of these differences are the different graphics characters, the
Missing colon, question Mark and quote image, and the lack of single Key token
entry, | PCE308 CHARACTER SET EE ECE
LS, FF CFF" AS BME E یق ہو X OX یں se 7-7 à ہے 9 LE. og 4 5 7 BO RAA BC D EF GA FTO k LMNOPGR SE TUVU XY Z THEN TO STEP RNC INKEYS PI IH K PAPER BORDER À 2
PT : PR F MM ر M
M om ux i iam نک
JE uE $ x 3 Sr CODE URL LEN
SIN CCS TAN ASN ACS ATN LOG EXP INT 530R SGN ABS PE EF. USER STR CHETS NOT AT TA E £x OR ANG = += ¢> TEMPO M ISIC S0UNG BEEF HOBEEP LPRIH T LEIST -STOP SLOR FAST NEU
SCROLL COHT DIM REN FOR GO TG | GOSUE INPUT LORD LIST LE T PAUSE NEXT POKE PRINT PLO T RUN SAVE RANG IF CLS UNF LOT CLEAR RETURN COPY
There are no Shading Graphics characters and the screen display is inverse video (white on black background). There if ami automatic line numbering key (increments bu 18), color commands for use With a calor board: INK, FAPER, BORDER, and sound commands like MUSIC, TEMPO, SOUHD, BEEF, HOEEEP. Music data is held in strings and meiodies can be assembled ky concatenatind the strings. Variables cannot take the came name as a token; &e.d.: LET ORS if iliedal because QR is a token. Variables and strings CAN be assigned Without the use of the LET Statement (e.3.: RE-"USINCLRIR")! The REM statement Will not hold spaces unless uou use «uote marks (even one set of quote marks at the beginning o£ the REM statement will worki:
Error codes are tuo letter abbreviations o£ error descriptions: e.d.: UVsounderined variable ... What does BS mean? Why ‘Bad Subscript'. af course!
1 REM " PCS3Q0 MUSIC EXAMPLE
18 LET A$="C£ED2E4C4AGGREGAE4CEC SE4E4D4"
26 LET B$="C4D12"
30 LET C$£z'"D4C1lo"
40 LET O$="FSFSR4ARGR46464E4C40 ie
SG MUSIC H$4E$«Rn$4C£4D$448$405
13
The BASIC program area begins at address 17302 rather than 316509 used hu the ۲1898. This means that the address for storing the first bute cof machine code in the first program REM statement will] be 17307 (not 16514). The reason for this is that the PC8S@@ has incorporated a fixed screen memory: (memory mapped display file? located between 16518 and 17235. Isn't that nice!
These are just a feu cf the 08ع
iiosuncrasies uncovered so far.
iot has the circuit diagrams wel} wade. Wilf Rigter has been locking into the Workings cf the RON. I ah looking forward to more in-depth information from Harry and Wilf. Both Harry and I hav been favorably impressed with the hardware and its potential, but admittedly it may not ke Cf interest to all 51898 fans,
in summation, the 86ح interest to uou if:
1. uou are an avid ے2 81/51989 user. 2e. uou program mostly in BASIC and are | Willing to modify most of your existing
RON Harry under
may be of
sorftWare in order to make the graphics and punctuation appropriate.
d. YOU do not intend to use anu interfaces other than the T5204û
printer and the ٥٣60 RAħpacks (or uou are willina to perform the required edge connector modifications in order to utilize existing ZX81 peripherals. YOU With to make use of the simple BASIC sound programming procedures, Se YOU Can move Existing ZX81 machine code to the new addresses required by the PCESGG and you can replace all 1 ۲09۲: 15 With full Machine Code routines (this is One way to learn hou to manipulate machine cade).
The 83086 is a versatile little computer that meets the first criterion for belonging in our club ... it's CHERP' Keep in Hind, however, the complete lack o£ support that comes With it (but you're already used to that, aren't uou?).
ERK KK KEKE ES E KY
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkřikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
YXXXXYXYXXXXxx
THRERDS...by David King Computing cune 787 this progres helps desi gn those thread designs created Gh Wood with pins and thread. 18 LET m-5.5-: IFFT j=44749- LET X€£-"j3diCOS5 z41277- LET g-"dax5 IN 2787": PAPER 6: IKK 7: BRIGHT 1: BORDER 9: CLS ۔ SC TO 98 268 LET z-p 3€ LET xX-UHL x£- t ET uy-unt ux- RETURN 4@ LET z-paszxk: GC SUB 39 o£ LET u=x-PEEK 23677: LET vy -PEEK 23678: IF HOT 9 THER LET w =U/J: LET t=t4+S8R {FBS (I) -RBS (vzxv)) 68 RETURN 78 INPUT “start new board? (y; "m "; LINE 5$: IF 5£-"uy" THEN CL 86 INPUT “use Sage pins? {y/n} "; LINE p$: IF p$=“u~ THEN GO TO 196+ (5*X-"n") GE INPUT “width7?ts for max 5.5 inches) “jd: LET d-dz387/&: INPU $ "how any pins? “n: LET s-23P zm 1868 FOR p=8 TO 1.99a3PI STEP s- EG SUB 28: PLOT x,u- BEEP .0604,0 : HEXT p 118 INPUT “how E2nu pins on eac h time? ";k: INPUT “continuous o f return? (C/S “; LINE c$: IF c% =" Tr" THEN INPUT “draw return ther fad? tysn} "; LIE rs 108 LEF z-9: LEY t-z: وج SUB 38 ۔ PLOF x,y 13E FOR q-6 TO 2zPI STEP s- GO SUB 48: DRHU U,v- IF c£X-"c" THEN LET p-z: &O TO 35898 :
148 LET p-p45: Ge SUB 20: GO SU B SE: IF rX-"y" THEN DCRB£EU u,v: G
O TOC 168
15€ PLOT x,y
168 REXT q: PRINT ری “thread us Ed “, INT (m/1. 75212} /1€8,;" ins" : TAB 23, “press kei": PAUSE B: 50 TO 7€
14
BUZZ WORDS
We continue with a couple of letters from the BUZZWORD dictionary.
bBBbw.
BAUD RATE: A measure of data flow. The number of signal elements per second based on the duration of the shortest element. When each element carries one bit, the Baud rate is numerically equal to bits per second (bps). The Baud rates on UART data sheets are interchangeable with bps.
BCD (Binary Coded Decimal): Each decimal digit is binary coded into 4-bit words. The decimal number 11 would become 0001 0001 In BCD. Also known
as the 8421 code.
BENCHMARK: Originally a surveyor's mark used as a reference point in surveys. In connection with microprocessors, the benchmark is a frequently used routine or program selected for the purpose of comparing different makes of microprocessors. A flow chart in assembly language is written out for each microprocessor and the execution of the benchmark by each unit is evaluated on paper. It is not necessary to use hardware to measure capability by benchmark.
BIDIRECTIONAL: A term applied to a port or bus line that can be used to transfer data in either direction.
BINARY: A system of numbers using 2 as a base in contrast to the decimal system which uses 10 as a base. The binary system requires only two symbols, 0 and 1. Two is expressed in binary by the number 10 (read one, zero). Each digit after the initial 1 is multiplied by
the base 2. Hence the following table expresses the first ten numbers in decimal and binary:
Decimal Binary Decimal Binary
0 0 5 101
1 1 6 110
2 10 7 111 k 3 11 8 1000
4 100 4 1001
BRANCH: Refers to the capability of a microprocessor to modify the function or program sequence. Such modification depends on the actual content of the data being processed at any given instant.
BREAKPOINT: A program point indicated by a breakpoint flag which invites interruption to give the user the opportunity to check his program before continuing to its completion.
BUFFER: A circuit inserted between other circuit elements to prevent interactions, to match impedances, to supply additional drive capability, or to delay rate
of information flow. Buffers may be inverting or non-inverting.
BUS DRIVER: An integrated circuit which is added to the data bus system to facilitate proper drive to the ` CPU when several memories are tied to the data bus line. These are necessary because of capacitive loading which slows down the data rate and prevents proper time sequencing of microprocessor operation. BUS SYSTEM: A network of paths inside the microcomputer which facilitate data flow. The important busses in a microprocessor are identified as Data Bus, Address Bus, and Control Bus. BYTE: indicates a pre-determined number of eight consecutive bits treated as an entity. "Word" and "Byte" are used interchangeably.
15
CCCEC
CLOCK: A generator of pulses which controls the timing of switching circuits in a microprocessor. Clock frequency is not the only criterion of data manipulation speed. Hardware architecture and programming skill are more important. Clocks are a requisite for most microprocessors and multiple phased clocks are common in MOS processors.
COMBINATIONAL LOGIC: A circuit arrangement in - which the output state is determined by the present state of the input. Also called Combinatorial logic.
(See also Sequential Logic.)
COMPILERS: Compilers translate higher-level languages into machine code.
CONDITION CODE: Refers to a limited group of program conditions such as carry, borrow, overfiow, etc., which are pertinent to the execution of instructions. The codes are contained in a Condition Codes Register.
(See also Status Word Register.)
CONTROL BLOCK: This is the circuitry which performs the control functions of the CPU. It is responsible for decoding microprogrammed instructions, and then generating the internal control signals that perform
the operations requested.
CONTROL BUS: Conveys a mixture of signals which regulate system operation. These “traffic” signals are commands which may also originate in peripherals for transfer to the CPU or the reverse.
CONTROL PROGRAM: The Control Program is a sequence of instructions that will guide the CPU through the various operations it must perform. This program is stored permanently in ROM memory where )ا can be accessed by the CPU during operations.
CPU (Central Processing Unit): The heart of any computer system. Basically the CPU is made up of storage elements called registers, computational circuits in the ALU, the Control Block, and 1/0. As soon as LSI technology was able to build a CPU on an IC chip, the microprocessor became a reality. The one-chip microprocessors have limited storage space, so memory implementation is added in modular fashion. Most current microprocessors consist of a set of chips, one or two of which form the CPU.
CROM (Control Read Only Memory): This is a major component in the control block of some microprocessors. It is a ROM which has been microprogrammed to decode control logic.
CROSS-ASSEMBLER: When the program is assembled by the same computer that it will run on, the program that performs the assembly is referred to as the resident or native or self-assembler. If the program is
assembled by some other computer, the process is referred to as cross-assembly.
CYCLE STEALING: A technique used to transfer data between microprocessor memory and external bulk memory. Data transfer is accomplished without stopping MPU operation by using microcycle time between data fetch and instruction fetch time in an instruction cycle. Creates a virtually infinite memory storage for MPUs. Applicable for 3-state output memories and MPUs. (See also DMA.)
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS REPRINTED FROM THE JANUARY/87 ISSUE OF TIMELINEZ - THE JOINT NEWSLETTER OF THE THREE T/S USER GROUPS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA.
TS2040 Printer Switch... by John Ezike
DISCLAIMER: Neither VSUG, ZXappeal, nor the author accept any responsibility for any damage that might occur if you attempt this project.
RE EE LE LL bà à LE LL LL LE LE LLLELLLLLL]
The reason for adding a switch is that even after pressing the ‘off’ button to turn the printer off, power is still being supplied to the printer! The on/off switch onty controls the print driver. Leaving the printer on for very long periods of time could cause it to overheat and be damaged. You could unplug the power when not using the printer, however frequent plugging and unplugging can wear out the plug and jack. The idea is quite straightforward and simply involves cutting the trace through which power is supplied to the printer and jumpering the cut trace with a switch. A LED ( light emitting diode ) is used to indicate power is on. For this article 1 will use Radio Shack parts numbers as it will make them easier to locate.
PARTS LIST:
1 - SPDT MICROMINI SWITCH, *275-625
1 - LED *276-041
| - 470 OHM RESISTOR 1/4W 5% *271-1317
22 GAUGE HOOK-UP WIRE
You can get the parts from any electronics Store, just make sure the specifications are the same. Cut two 8 inch lengths of the hook-up wire and remove 1/4 inch of the insulation from all four ends. Clear your work area, making sure there are no small particles lying around that could enter the printer mechanism and damage it. Plug in the printer. Remove the paper from the printer by cutting the paper at the roll and pressing the 'on' button until the remaining paper comes out. Unplug the printer and turn it over. Remove the four screws, placing aside carefully for safe-keeping. Holding the case together, turn the printer back upright. Carefully lift off the top half of the case and place to one side. You are now looking at the component side of the printed circuit board (PCB). See Fig.l. In the top right hand corner is seen the heat sink and in front will be the printer mechanism. Two amber-colored flexible ribbon connectors are plugged into two sockets labeled از and J2. Carefully remove each connector by holding the sides and putting upwards. You might have to move it from side to side while pulling. With the connectors free, remove the printer mechanism. There are two metal plates on either side bent out to form four flanges, with rubber grommets in the center of each flange. These grommets fit around four plastic posts; labeled E, F,G, & H; which are attached to the lower haïf of the case. Hold the PCB down with one hand and gently lift off the side of the mechanism that fits around posts G & H. Hold only the flanges while lifting. Do the same on the other side. DO NOT TOUCH THE ROLLER OR
“ANY OTHER PART OF THE PRINTER SINCE IT
IS DELICATE AND COULD BE DAMAGED. Place the mechanism in the top cover along with the screws and paper and place aside. Remove the PCB from the case by sliding a small screwdriver between the PCB and case and lifting. Centered on the rear edge of the PCB is the power jack. 1/4 inch below it are two groups of three feedthrough holes, each group in the shape of a triangle. Locate the feedthrough hole, labeled 'C' in Fig.1, in the group on the right. One inch below this hole is another hole, labeled 'D in Fig.l. The dotted line joining points C and D refers to the trace connecting them on the other side of the PCB. The jagged lines crossing the trace denotes that the trace should be cut. Cut it. In the lower left hand of the PCB is a feedthrough hole labeled 'B' in Fig.l. Turn the PCB over and with a sharp knife or blade gently scrape off the protective coating to expose a 1/74 inch area of copper around 'B'. This will be the ‘ground’ to which you will solder one end of the LED.
Look at the LED. You should see a flat side around its rim and the shorter of its two leads should be next to this flat side. This is the cathode, or negative, lead. On some LED's you will see a notch instead of a flat side above the cathode. From the component side, push the cathode, or shorter leg, through hole 'B' and solder it to the copper area you just exposed. Make sure the solder connection is shiny and smooth. Now solder the other LED lead to either end of the resistor and solder the other end of the resistor to point 'A'. This is the positive side of the LED and the resistor acts as a current limiter and protects the
17
LED from excessive current. Point 'À' is the lead on the disc capacitor C11, which is connected to the positive lead on the electrolytic capacitor C10. Turn the PCB over to verify this. If CI 1 is placed too close to the surface of the PCB, turn the PCB over and solder the resistor to the solder pad corresponding to point ‘A’. We are now going to connect the switch. From the component side, push the stripped end of one of the hook-up wires through hole 'C' and solder it. Push one end of the other wire into hole 'D' and solder it. Make sure the trace between points 'C and D' is completely cut. A cut about 1/10th of an inch should do it.
Now refer to Fig.2. Retrieve the top half of the case and with a drill or some other suitable device, drill a 1/4 inch hole to mount the switch. Place the two case halves together and drill another hole, just large enough to fit the LED, centered where the cases halves join. DON'T DRILL AROUND THE PRINT MECHANISM!! Mount the switch in the 1 /4 inch hole. It'll be a little cramped so take your time. Solder the free end of the wire connected to 'C' to the center terminal of the switch. Solder the free end of the wire connected to 'D'to either of the two outside terminals on the switch. Replace the PCB in the lower half of the printer case, making sure to align the notches on the side of the PCB with the tabs in the case. Replace the printer mechanism. The rubber grommets in the flanges should be flush with the top of the screw posts. Plug in the two ribbon connectors, pushing down firmly but carefully to make sure they are
in all the way. Bend the LED forward so it rests on the groove formed by half the hole in the bottom half of the case and protrudes about 1/8 inch outside the case. Make sure the LED leads are apart. Hold both case halves together, turn over, and replace the Screws.
Piug in the power. If the LED is lighted, the switch is in the 'on' position. If it isn't, try the other switch position. If the LED still does not light, quickly unplug the power, open up the printer and check the connections, especially the installation of the LED, looking for solder bridges and/or bad joints. If no problems and the LED is lighted, insert the paper and perform the self-test procedure as described in the printer manual.
If all goes well, CONGRATULATIONS!!!
To use the printer after plugging in: turn the new switch ‘on’, and press the ‘on’ button. When finished just turn ‘off’ the new switch - no need to unplug. This project should also work for the Alphacom printer
Editor’s Note: I substituted a Radio Shack #275-2565 push-on push-off switch for the one in the article. The ptacement is very important. I suggest if you do use this switch that you dritt the required hote on the top surface to the teft of the paper rott at least tuo inches from the front edge.
MEK KKM KK E مبد E سد KEK EE یبد یبد بد بد EEE EEE EE EEE OO OQ یبد یہد یبد یبد یبد ERE EEE EE EEE ERE KEY
1 REM by Tos
Vandepoet. Repri
nted from ZX Computing Hay/87. 2 REM prints to 2840 printer
in Various Sizes. be greater than 4
Uidth cannot
18 INPUT "text to be printed ^" 73%: INPUT “heightvpoint ";h: IN
PUT "width/point “;#
15 FOR n-1 TO LEN at: LET h4=" ": LET s$="": PRIT HI 21,0;aş$ in
17 FOR e-1 TO h:
n): LET s$-56%+"
28 FOR x-e69 TO 7
R y=@ TO 7
LET h$=h#$+a%t : NEXT € : LET p5-"": FO
38 LET p$=p$+ tht PND POINT (x, 4} =1) + (5$ AND POINT (x,y) =8} 48 NEXT y: FOR &-1 TO wv: LPRIN 18 T p$: NEXT e: NEXT x: NEXT n
Playing with Electricity -Summer 7
This started version of disks somewhere £ quicker to
is the second time I have this article. The first is in limbo lost in a mess it will be rewrite than to search through 20 disks & half a dozen corrupted remnants. I find Quill is great at trashing disks. It's usual trick is to write a file into the directory.
Anyway, minor bitching aside, there are three things I want to get to in this play, two of which will fit. These are the difference between jobs, procedures, % basic, as well as the screen format, but first a word about modems.
I have verified that a 1200 baud
modem can be hooked up to the QL without a Modaptor using the following connections.
GLUSERZir 3 Modem CDR-9] CDR-25) Pin
1 ¬ GND ------ > 7 — Signal Ground 2 = TD — — > ++ FO
S — RxD ہے > J- RD
4 — No Connection
9 — No Connection
9 — +12v ------ > 20 = DTR
9 — «12v ------ p^ Wee Yam
I have used the above connections with an Avatex 1200 modem. Incidentally, the pins 6,7,8 on the North American QL DB-9 are tied to ground. [That info is verified by Wilf Rigter.] This is not mentioned in the @L User Guide presumably because in the UK a British Telecom type of connector with é pins is used.
HHH HEH KH HHH
Jobs. This can Particularly if disposed to the hacking mentality in the least. However, I know some people have got it bass ackward, so
be confusing, you are not
by Harvey Taylor
I will attempt to unravel...and throw in a curve or two, as clarity demands.
Superbasic is a is a special kind of a job, the root job and as such it always exists. It might be suspended, ie. not running or taking any processor time, but it is always there.
A superbasic program which you type in is not a job. The program itself is data which the superbasic job interprets.
However, if you take your superbasic program and compile it with Supercharge, @ Liberator or Turbo the output of that process is a job.
The Psion quartet are all jobs. In general jobs are started with EXEC, EXEC W, EX or EW. Each job has a distinct ID number allocated to it by GDOS. This number consists Of a tag which is the nth job which QDOS has created and an offset in the Job table which @DOS maintains. You can switch between QL jobs by typing <CTRL><C>. You can change this character by poking the System
job. Superbasic
Variable SV.CGCH, which stands for Change Keyboard Queue Character. This is a Word value at £28992 or
Decimal 1629864.
A procedure in Superbasic is the code you put between: DEFine PROCedure Such_and_Such END DEFine Such_and Such You can also define a Machine Language Procedure with the
following format:
Word : Number of Procedures Word : Pointer to Routine Byte : Length of Name
Bytes: Characters of the name Word : @ L a Seperator 1] Word : Number of Functions Word : Pointer to Routine Byte : Length of Name
Bytes: Characters of the Name Word : Ø L End of list J
There is an format in
also be defined. Superbasic
wonderful feature.
Here
be
GQDOS is an code operating example is checking the status of a Controller taking appropriate action. can the scheduler
Floppy
20
Lk!
a Procedure, know it
could also
system Disk
be started on loop.
*
piece of
It
example of actual code that Machine Language Functions can This is what makes extensible, a
below.
is the first tricky bit. have seen that machine language can a Job, but did you be something else...a Task? À task as defined by asynchronous executed to take care of some business.
unique %
chip & The code interrupt or on would seem
then that operating the Jobs/Procedure
Another tricky bit here
fact that these terms differently by most system writers. Unix
Processes, the Amiga
Tasks, the GL talks of they all have different them.
Machine language do anything. In can raise confusing, This something
the topic they can
like just
and start an editor job. example of such code:
چرج وچ چو چرچ ےچ جو چ چا وچ چحچ و وچ پے چ وچ ور وع چ ںوچو عچ چو وع عضو جو ججضص وع اچ چاحعوع وچ وچ یووم
+ This code Initializes the PROCEDURE "EDITOR"
*
INIT PROC LEA PROCLIST, ٤ * POINTER TO PROC DEF LIST MOVE.W BP_INIT,A2 JSR (A2) MOVEG #0,D0 # NO ERRORS
INIT EXIT RTS
*
PROCLIST DC. HW 1 * NUMBER OF PROC DC.W EDIT PROC-* * POINTER TO PROC DC.B b * LEN.B DC.R ‘EDITOR DC.W 0 * END OF PROC DC.W 0 ٭ NUMBER OF FUNCTIONS DC.W 0 ٭ END OF LIST
+
٭ر حر بت جج چو رع پچ چرعچ وت چچ و پر چرچ وچ یچچ AREA ضرع پچ حا چججچچ جع وچ ت٘چخچچو وچ چرچ EERE HARE وع ےو وضع
This is the FROCEDURE "EDITOR"
M |
EDIT PROC MOVEG #9,D1 MOVE.L #2048,D2 MOVE.L #0,D3 58086.۲1۰ ۹ MOVEO #MT_CJOB,DƏ TRAP #1 TST.L 8ءء BNE.S ABORT_FROC MOVE.W #$4EF9, (AQ) 4 LEA EDITOR,Al MOVE.L AL, (AQ)+ MOVE.W 8۸+۶4۵8, ٦+ MOVE.W 8:۶888, ۵+ MOVE.L &'EDIT',(AQ)* MOVE.L ۳۰08 Q',(A0)* MOVE.L *'.99 ‘,(A@)+
w k k + k
*
BASIC IS JOB OWNER CODE LEN.L
DATA LEN.L
START ADDRESS OR 8 QDOS CREATE JOB
RETURNS AG=BASE,D1=J0B ID
* IF ANY ERROR: ABORT
JMP.L 2 TO EDITOR 4 QDOS JOB FLAG 2 LEN. W 2
4 INSERT NAME 4
conceptually all system stands apart from structure.
procedures particular, if I without being start sort of situation lets you do type Here is an
of the
is the are used operating talks of talks of Jobs and curves to
can
jobs.
"EDITOR
4 22
MOVE.L ۵1, )6۶+ * INSERT JOB ID 4
E ےہ کے E
‘ 26 BYTES MOVE.W #DATA_LEN-1,D@ + DEFINED ELSEWHERE
DATAINIT MOVE.B #9, (AQ)+
DERA 0,7 #
MOVEQ ` 88,D2
MOVEG #0,D3
MOVEQ #MT_ACTIV, DØ
TRAF #1
BRA.S X EXIT. PROC
SET PRIORITY
TIMEOUT Q-EXEC : -1=EXEC_W 0005 : MANAGER TRAP ACTIVATE JOB
"^ + k k
*
ABORT PROC: MOVE.W UT_ERR®,A2 * REPORT ۵8 ERROR CODE TO CHANNEL 9 CONSOLE JSR (A2)
EXIT_PROC: MOVER #0,D0 RTS
* اض ض جع چو رضعو چے ےو چرچچ چ بی دع جع چرچ چ ص و رع ع وج ع وچ ص×ضفض چرچ چ دع چچ بضغ وچ چ چو بضع ضخض وضع عص صظ ضعنی--٭
* The Start of the Editor JOE code EDITOR mm
4 à EEE E E E E E E E E E + How it works.
This code would be loaded into memory with LBYTES filename,respr (16384) Then called from superbasic ( with CALL RESPR(Q)J. That will cause the Frocedure Initialize code to be executed, which will add the Machine Language Procedure EDITOR to the Superbasic Name List.
Then when you type "EDITOR", the procedure creates the job with MT ۰ Note that the job doesn't yet start to execute. All @DOS does is reserve the memory for you and set up its various tables. The Trap returns the base of the allocated memory. In this memory you put the code JMF.L Editor and the 8005 Job flag and standard name format.
At this point, about all you have to do is start the job with MT ACTIV.
Now for the screen format. The QL display has 2 modes, a 4 colour mode and an 8 colour mode. These are controlled from basic by the keyword MODE n, where n is 4 or 8.
The video ram in the QL normally consists of 32K bytes starting at ۴20800 or decimal 131072. The QL can have 2 screens of video ram, but the implementation of the dual screens is incomplete. The problem is that GDOS is locked into having the System variables start at #28000 & there is just no two ways around that, because it is hard coded in the ROM.
The GL screens are what you might call interleaved bit planes. In mode 4, the information is setup as follows:
Word Ø 1 2
Byte Ø 1 2 x 4 S 7
Bits 7654321076543210765432107654:21076543210765432107654:321076542210 GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRR
O 14
21
The G stands for Green, the R stands for Red. You can play with the screen directly by poking a value into the video ram. A command such as POKE 131072,255 will set every green bit in the first word of video ram and draw a short green line in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
POKE 131073,255 will similarly set all the red bits.
POKE 1:1072,255 : POKE 131073,255 will set all the green and red bits and give you a white line. The fourth colour black is the absence of light with all bits clear ie. zero.
The very first pixel of the first line is controlled by bit 7 of byte O [for Green] and bit 7 of byte 1 [for Redil. The second pixel is similarly controlled by bit & of the two bytes and so on.
A screen resolution of 512 pixels thus و کا 2912/8 = 64 words [128 bytes].
In mode 8, the information is setup as follows:
Word @ 1 2 2 Byte @ 1 2 3 4 9 6 7 Bits 7654321076542210765432107654321076542210765432107654571076542212
GF GF GF GFRBRERBRBGF GF GFGFRBRBRBRBGFGFGFGFRERERBRBGFGFGFGFRERBRBRE
bits controlling the colour there are 2^3 or B colours as you know. One wonders if the Sinclair engineers considered using 16 colours rather than implementing a FLASH.
A screen resolution of 256 pixels thus requires 256/4 = 64 words.
As usual, let me say that if you are a QL enthusiast feel free to write c/o the Editor.
This assembly language is a subroutine I developed to write directly to the screen in MODE 8.
»eof
F stands for Flash and B stands for Blue. Clearly with =
XXXXXXXXEXXXXXXXXEYEEEEEXXTEEXXEEUXTEESTEEEXTEEXEERXSEREESEEERERXEEETTEXXEEXEESEXEXYK
PLOT POINT DIRECTLY | SCREEN 128 BYTES WIDE : 2 BITS BYTE8 & 2 BITS BYTE! ؛ 4 PIXELS / WORD ==> 256 PIXELS 256 ROWS DEEP ;
EXPECTS D7 = COUNT DO = ROW (90-255) Di = COL (8-255) RETURNS D@ = ERROR CODE
WANT TO PUT @-7 IN BITS RGB, WITH F CLEAR ALWAYS
BIT? 646 BITS BIT4 BITS BIT2 BITI BIT@ EVEN EYTE 6 F 6 F 6 ۴ 6 E
ODD BYTE R R R 8 R B R B OR CARRY BIT X/C 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 5
7 6 4 3$ 2 4 ae. Bo To BEF) D: R.9 R. & R B8 À و
k k k ہہ Ke و Ke KK Ke Ke مہ پھر KK ٭ ok ok K K
+ PLOT_PNT +
RANGECHE
MOVEM.L D1-D3/D7/48,-(A7)
TST.M ELO CMPI.W BHS TST.W ELO CMPI.W EHS
MOVE.L
MULU SUBA.L
HOVEQ MOVE.W LSR.W ECLR ADDA.L ANDI.W
+ 4 CASES D1-0,1,2,7
EQUALS?
TESTI
TEST3
MOVEO ANDI. W
TST.W ENE.S MOVE.W LSR.B ROXR.W LSR.E ROXR.B LSR. E ROXR.B ERA. S
CMPI.W BNE.S MOVE.M LSR.B ROXR.W LSR. E ROXR.B LSR.F RÜXR.R ERA.S CMPI.W ENE.S
MOVE. W
LSR. E ROXR.W LSR.E ROXF.B LSR.E ROXR.B BRA.S CMPI.W BNE MOVE. W LSR.B
Da
OR ERROR 8 08 Of ERROR Di OR_ERROR #256,D1 OR_ERROR
8)8 7 0 a0
#128,D8 0,06
02 D1,D2 #1,D2 £0,D2 D2,A0 $t05,D1
#0,D3 #07,D7
01
TESTI #£3F3F,D2 #1,07 #1,D3 #1,D7 #1,D3 #1,D7 #1,D3 PUT_DATA
#$61,D1 TEST2 &$CFCF,D2 #1,D7 #3,D3 #1,D7 #1,D3 #1,07 #3,D3 FUT_DATA #£02,D1 TESTS #£F3F3,D2 #1,07 #5,D3 &1,D7 #1,D3 #1,07 #5,D3 PUT DATA ##03,D1 NC_ERROR #$FCFC,D2 #i,D7
*
w k kkk
"M * o karka
NK k ee 0o o k
SAVE SOME REGISTERS
TEST IF ROW 8-255?
TEST IF CUL 90-255?
BOTTOM LEFT HAND CORNER OF SCREEN
CALCULATE ROW DISTANCE IN BYTES CALC LEFT HAND CORNER OF ROW
CLEAR TOP
COPY COLUMN
/2 CALC BYTE 8 : 255-127 & 3 BELOW MAKE SURE WORD BOUNDARY
A0-» APPROPRIATE WORD
MASK OFF 9-3
TARGET MASK MASK OFF COUNT 8-7
CLR MASK
BITO TO X/C
X/C TO BITIS
BITI TO X/C
X/C TO BIT?
BIT2 TO X/C
X/C TO BIT 7, BIT7 TO BITS
CLR MASK
BITO TO X/C
X/C TO BIT13
BITI TO X/C
X/C TO BIT7
BIT2 TO X/C
X/C TO BITS, BIT7 TO BIT4
CLR MASK
BITO TO X/C
X/C TO ٤
BITI TO ٤
X/C TO 7
BIT2 TO X/C
BIT7 TO BIT2,X/C TO BITS
CLR MASK BITO TO X/C
23
Reprinted from the May/87 issue of the N/L of the Dallas T/S/A Users Group
ROXR.W #7,D3 * X/C TO BIT9 LSR.B ٦ + BITI TO X/C ROXR.B #1,D3 * X/C TO 7 LSR.BE #1,D7 * BIT2 TO X/C ROXR.B #7,D3 * BIT7 TO BIT@,X/C TO BITI PUT_DATA AND.W D2, (AQ) * G/F/R/B TO 0'S OR. W D3, (AB) * INSERT DATA OK_EXIT MOVEQ #0,D0 PP EXIT MOVEM.L (A7)+,D1-D3/D7/A0 * RESTORE REGISTERS RTS * RETURN WITH ERROR CODE NC ERROR MOVEQ — &-1,D0 * NC ERR = -1 BRA.S — PF EXIT QR ERROR MOVED — &-4,D0 * OR ERR = -4 BRA.S — FP EXIT * * kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
1 REH ٣ ٣ ٣٢و afn fe€printed Fra 13۲6ا 7 issue af the news Letter OF SLUG...... Sinclair Louisville Users Group
2 REM »«..don' t Panic When you
run the Listing...just Wait,
| 3 REM a colour T ar fnonitor — EVEN mare IMPTESSIVE result
19 LET asUSR "p"
28 FOR j=8 TO 31: READ b: POKE dtj,b: NEXT j
SB CATA 6,255,1387,6,75 1,254,16,252,193,16,23
48 CATA 33,0,18,43,1 5:295 ,5 38 3ے 176 28
cO RANDOMIZE USR 65511
دید بد بب بد OE OR OE OO GO C EEE EEE سد بد E OO پچ بد پچ کچ کچ کچ سد کچ پچ
--- Computer Industry Advertising Definitions: NEW-different color from previous model.
ALL NEW-no interchangeable parts with previous model. IMPROVED-old bugs replaced with new ones. EXCLUSIVE-imported product.
UNMATCHED-almost as good as the competition.
FOOLPROOF-no provisions for adjustment.
ADVANCED DESIGN-ad copy writer doesn't understand how it works. FIELD TESTED-manufacturer lacks test equipment.
. FACTORY DIRECT-manufacturer in fight with distributors. RUGGED-too heavy to move.
LIGHTWEIGHT-lighter than rugged.
PORTABLE-has a handle. |
HIGH PERFORMANCE-almost meets designer specs. - BREAKTHROUGH-we finally figured out how to sell it. EFFICIENT-uses 1X less power than previous model.
IBM COMPATIBLE-paint matches IBM PC.
MAINTENANCE FREE-impossible to repair.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED-ours, on receipt of your check. RELIABLE-prototype worked at least 1 week between repairs. FULL SUPPORT-broken units available as spare parts. OBSOLETE-dependable, reliable, inexpensive and readily available.
A New Life for
Sinclair/Timex Computers
How to convert a Sinclair ZX81 or Timex-Sinclair TS1000 into a programmable printer buffer
ot too many years ago,
N low-cost Sinclair ZX81 and
Timex-Sinclair TS1000 computers were sold to consumers who wanted a taste of working with the new de- vices. Most of these computers are now stored away, just gathering dust due to obsolescence. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these tiny mites but haven’t used it in years and don’t know what to do with it, here’s a way to convert it into a Centronics- compatible parallel printer buffer that can free up your present compu- ter during printing operations.
As an example of how effective the modification is, this manuscript tied up my computer for 11 minutes while printing. In contrast, using the ZX81/TS1000 as a printer buffer re- duced this to 12 seconds!
You can do the conversion at a fraction of what it would cost you to buy acommercial buffer or build one from scratch. Converting a ZX81 or TS1000, as described here, offers a number of advantages not normally obtained with commercial or home- built buffers. Among these are: a power-on memory test/size-determi- nation feature; a Multi-Copy Mode that lets you select up to 255 copies of a document to be printed; contin- uous display of buffer filled or cop- ies remaining to be printed; a pause function for suspending printing; a clear key to reset the Buffer; and au- tomatic cancelation of Multi-Copy Mode on buffer size overrun.
By R.L.L. Hu & J.J. Chang
This project makes permanent driver/display ICS. The TIL311
more than a million very- hardware modifications to the com- used for ICS contains all decoding
puter to make it possible for all the and driving circuitry as well as the printer buffer interfacing logic to be LED hex display itself in a single IC contained in the computer's original package. The left and right decimal case. Once the modifications are points (see Fig. 2), for example, are made, you will no longer be able to used as extensions of the contents of run any of the computer's original 4-bit hex display JC5, representing software, of course. the fifth and sixth bits, respectively. — E070 a result, the possible range of the About the Circuit gisplay is from 0 to 63, displayed as To transform the ZX81 and TS1000 ‘‘0”’ through “‘.F.’’.
from computer into Printer Buffer, Programmable peripheral inter- the original r-f modulator and ULA face JC3 handles all electrical inter- (uncommitted logic array) and ROM facing required between computer chips must be removed. A 2716 and printer and monitors the Buff- EPROM programmed with the er's keyboard for operator com- Printer Buffer Program (see listing) mands. The system clock is derived goes into the original ROM socket from the TLC555 timer chip, shown and then a small interface board with وع [C4 in Fig. 1. The TLC555 timer ICs and cables that go to the printer was chosen for this application be- and your present computer plugs in- cause it has a free-running clock fre- to the original ULA chip socket. A quency of up to 2 MHz. The stan-
I-digit hexidecimal display, also On dard 555 timer's clock frequency is the interface board, shows the status Nucl nire resrictive and thus is
of the Printer Buffer. Once the rot adequate for this application.
modification has been performed, Of the 64K bytes of possible mem- functions such as pause, multiple ory space available in the ZX81 and copies and clear-buffer are provided TS1000, the first 16K is allocated for through the ZX81’s or TS1000’s ROM, while the second 16K is allo- keyboard. cated for the standard 16K RAM
Shown in Fig. 1 is the schematic di- pack. Though the third and fourth agram of the interface-board's cir- 16K spaces are not used by Sinclair, cuitry that converts the ZX81 and other manufacturers have built TS1000 into the Printer Buffer. The RAM packs that make use of these two halves of the 74LS139 dual spaces, The Buffer's hardware and 1-of-4 decoder used for ICI decodes software have been set up to accom-
both the memory and I/O (in- modate this maximum of 48K of user put/output) space. Quad D flip-flop RAM, but be advised that the proj- IC2 latches hexidecimal decoder/ ect has nof been tested with such
RAM packs. 25
Construction
Two main procedures must be per- formed to convert the ZX81 and TS1000 from a computer into a Printer Buffer. First you must modi- fy the computer’s motherboard to accommodate the preprogrammed 2716 EPROM and the interface board. Then you build the interface board and install it in the computer.
When you disassemble the ZX81 or TS1000, make certain to remove the three screws hidden under the
To make the 2716 EPROM work in the original ROM socket, pin 18 (— CE) must be tied to ground and pin 21 (Vpp) must be tied to +5 volts. Alternatively, you can bend pins 18 and 21 onthe2716 itself away from the IC case, install the EPROM in the ROM socket, and solder the pins to ground and +5 volts via lengths of hookup wire.
If you decide to cut traces, keep in mind that you may also be cutting off signals that are needed elsewhere on the motherboard. In such a case,
rubber feet. If you work carefully, jumper wires will have to be used to
there should be no need to remove thetwo keyboard ribbon cables from their connectors. If you do remove them, however, be very careful when putting them back.
Once you have the computer open, remove the 8K ROM and ULA chips from their sockets. Then.remove the r-f modulator and tie all anode leads of D1 through D8 to ground.
Now is an excellent time to pro- gram the EPROM you!ll be using in this project. The hexidecimal code for the Printer Buffer program is given in the Program Listing. When the Printer Buffer is operating, the amount of information accumulated at any instant is shown on the hex display as a whole number of kilo- bytes. (Actually, 1 KB 1,024 bytes). Therefore, 1,500 bytes will be displayed as a ‘‘1’’. If you prefer to round the number up to the next kilobyte so that it is displayed as a **2" (kilobytes implied), make the changes indicated in the Program Listing when you program the data into the EPROM. (If you don't have an EPROM programmer, an excel- lent stand-alone model that handles up to 128K EPROMs can be built from plans featured in the February and March 1987 issues of Modern
L'lorntennire__L'Aitnr\
reconnect the isolated sections back into the circuit.
Cut a piece of perforated board with holes on 0.1 " centers to the size
Plug the wired circuit board mod ule into the ULA socket on the ZX81l's or TS1000’s motherboard Make sure you plug it in so that the added pins line up exactly with the slots in the ULA socket and pins 1 through pin 40 are properly indexed. Then connect the cables from the in- terface board to your printer and the computer that will serve as the host. If your computer printer port doesn't use the eighth data bit, be sure to ground the appropriate pin going into the Printer Buffer. Also, signal lines such as Paper Out, Error, etc., should be tied to the appropri- ate logic levelif your printer control- ler interrogates these lines.
Without any RAM packs installed
and shape shown in Fig. 3. The in the Buffer, power up the Buffer, board and component layout shown Printer and computer. Internal mem- will fit both the ZX81 and TS1000 ory (IK in the ZX81 and 2K in the cases and motherboards. Any con- TS1000) is sufficient for testing the struction technique that will yield a Printer Buffer. Go through all func- low-profile wired modular assembly tions (see Operation below). Once will do. The prototype shown in the the Buffer has tested okay, power photos was built using 3M's Scotch- down the system, plug in the RAM flex Breadboarding System. Other pack, power up the system again and choices include Vector Electronics’ repeat all function tests. wiring pencil, printed-circuit board Before reassembling the modified layout, etc. In all cases, use low-pro- ZX81 or TS1000, cut two holes in the file sockets for all ICs. case. Cut one hole in the top of the Using sockets for all ICs and for caseto provide a window to view the plugging in the DIP connectors at the hex display. Cut the other hole in the ends of the Centronics cables, wire side for the printer cables. Make pro- the circuit exactly according to Fig. visions for and install a strain relief 1. All signals from top to bottom on for the printer cables as well. the left side of the schematic diagram are from the original ULA chip sock-
et, at the pin numbers indicated. You Using the Buffer
need adapter pins that can be sol- Keyboard control for full operation dered to the interface board and be of the Printer Buffer is provided by plugged into the ULA chip socket in the “C” and “S” keys on the ZX81 the computer. Square header pins and TS1000. These keys control the are too large for this purpose and Clear and Start/Stop/Set Copy func- are not recommended. If you can't tions, respectively. Pressing the “C” find appropriate pins, try using key at any time resets the Buffer,
pins removed from ribbon cable yhich cancels in its entirety all set- DIP connectors. (Had mel anc aclak Ink he
On power-up, the Buffer runs
through a simple memory test and determines the amount of memory available. The display indicates the current kilobyte of memory being tested. With the 16K RAM pack, the display will cycle up from 0 to F and then pause briefly prior to becoming ready for use. The Buffer is now in the Buffer Mode. * Buffer Mode. In this mode, the Buffer simply accepts data from the host computer and sends it to the printer. This is the default mode. The Buffer will always be in this mode unless the Multi-Copy Mode is selected. Hence, immediately after power-up, pressing ‘‘C’’ to clear the Buffer, or termination of a multi- copy job, this is the active mode.
Since the output speed of the host computer is considerably faster than the printing speed of the printer, data will accumulate in the Printer Buffer. The amount of accumula- tion at any moment in time is shown on the hex display in kilobytes.
In the Buffer Mode, pressing the “S” key temporarily suspends the printing operation. During suspen- sion, the display flashes on and off, but data from the host computer will be accepted if the Buffer is not full. Pressing the ‘‘S’’ key once more re- sumes the printing operation.
* Multi-Copy Mode. This mode al- lows a block of data to be printed up
to a maximum of 255 times without printed to the Buffer. Once data intervention from the host comput- transfer has begun, the display will er. This mode can be selected only af- show the number of kilobytes trans- ter a power-on or pressing of the ferred. When downloading is com- “C” key to clear the Buffer and plete, press the ‘‘S’’ key to com- while the Buffer is waiting for the Mence multi-copy printing. At this first character from the host comput- time, the display will go back to er. The number of copies to be print- Showing the number of copies to be ed is then set. printed, including the current copy Should any characters be received being printed. from the host before the number of Should the Pause/Copy key be copies is set, the multi-copy option pressed prior to completion of down- expires and the Buffer reverts to its loading, multi-copy printing will default Buffer Mode. If this occurs, Commence immediately based only you must turn the Buffer off and on that information already stored in then on or press the ‘‘C’’ key to clear the Buffer. the buffer and then reenter the Multi- If during downloading the infor- Copy mode. mation exceeds the capacity of the You select the number of copies to Printer Buffer, the Buffer automat- be printed by pressing the ‘‘S’’ key ically switches back to Buffer Mode once for each additional copy de- and printing commences immediate- sired. Each time the ‘‘S’’ key is ly. Only one copy will be printed. pressed, the display incrementstoin- Once printing has commenced, the dicate the number of copies set. The Printer Buffer will not accept any largest number that can be displayed data from the host computer until unambiguously by the display is 63, the preset number of copies have which is shown as *''.F.". Conse- been run out. quently, if the number of copies to be printed exceeds 63, the display re- Conclusion starts from 0. However, the number This reworking of the basic ZX81/
of copies is not returned to 0, and the 61090 gives new life to these com- internal counter continues to register puters. With just a few dollars and a the correct number of copies, up tO few hours of your time, you'll re- 255 maximum. store an idle computer to useful ser-
After selecting the number of vice and more than recoup whatever
copies, you instruct the host comput- monetary investment you made for it er to download whatever is to be in the first place. |
ct
PARIS List Miscellaneous:
Programmed MM2716-45 2K x 8 450-ns EPROM (see text); perforated board with 0.1" hole centers(Radio Shack *276-158 or similar); low-profile sockets for all ICs and plug-ins for Centronics cables; adapter pins for plugging into sockets (see text); male and female Centronics- compatible printer cables with 14-pin DIP connectors at other end; hook -up wire; solder; etc.
semiconductors:
ICi - 74L8139 dual 1-of-4 decoder
ICA - 7áLS175 Quad D flip-flop
IC3 - 862554-5 programmable peripheral interface
IC4 - TLC555 CMOS timer
ICS - TIL311 hexidecimal decoder / driver /display
Capacitors: C1 - 200 pF disc C2 - 10 F, 16-volt tantalum NOTE: The source-code listing for the
Resistors (1/4 - watt, 5%): Printer Buffer Program is available in RLR2 - 820 ohms printed form from NAND Engineering, R3 - 100 ohms 1458 Meadowbrook Rd, Gloucester, R4 - 330 ohms Ontario, K1B 5G7 for 18.00 prepaid.
yet] Oe (OQ ey iy 9 Output (O,) ij QE m
fe | CLOCK (CP)
— E 2,4 O سے ا کہ AM Decimal point | « (lett) ii i-u X psc 24 *| Vec Latch |2 (right) e | Decimal poiry i 04ا سب 29277] Discharge ار کم — — :
bo dM BAL 2:16 | Threshold K neh A Voltage control
Fig. 2. Case outlines and pertinent pinouts of ICs used in this project. :
28
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tos. Computer and printer cables plug into board as shown
ification board installed in Sinclair ZX81 (left) and
Mod
Note that boards
ef do not interfere with other components inside computers.
and should be secured with a strain reli
Timex/Sinclair TS1000 (right) computers. Keyboard is at - right, and left side of computer is at bottom in both pho-
29
30
381N0W09 wO) 20128UUOI $2:u0JIU8^) HLW 20 Iuud Ol JOSUO $2100/1U6^) PLN
x © ہم ("m GO "* کم وج oa -~ یم 588588858658 5884885886546
C18 ۰۸3
Fig. 1. Complete schematic diagram of modification module
pt yg بپنرنہ ٢پ CU I UIT AUU/ OJ C.A.T.S. N/L and is reprinted from the Sept/85 TIMELINZ N/L.
TS 1000 Notes | 1. To moke a program run automatically when
loaded, SAVE the progrem with a line 1. To initialize without pulling the plug, enter stetement (usuelly et the beginning or end of a
RAND USR O. program). Exemple: 9010 SAVE " MET” ; 9020 RUN. Now stert the tepe recorder end enter 2. Program size PEEK 16396 +256 * PEEK 16397 - GOTO 9010. It will run automatically the next 16509 time its loaded.
3. Variebles size PEEK 16404 + 256 * PEEK 16405 12 To stop 6 program from automatically running - PEEK 16400 - 256 * PEEK 16401 efter loading, go to FAST mode then enter PRINT USR 836. The machine will go into a loading state. Stort the tape recorder. When the program hes completed loading on error
code will appear. Hit enter and the program 5. VAL “4E 4” uses 8 bytes, 4E4 uses 9 bytes; will LIST.
VAL "40000" uses 10 bytes, 40000 uses 11 bytes.
4. Display size PEEK 16409 + 256 * PEEK 16401 - PEEK 16396 - 256 * PEEK 16397
13. To adjust © tepe recorder's volume and/or verify if 6 program is loading properly, simply stop the tape recorder a few seconds after you have begun to load e tape. The computer will either crash, which means the program was loading correctly, or will continue in a seorch pattern which means there was 6 problem with
6. BOTH PRINT ond LPRINT delete the leading spoce of a token when used et the beginning of a PRINT, AT, or TAB statement as well es when followed by another token.
7. To display the bottom two lines use within © either the title or low volume. program: (line number) POKE 16418,0. Before using SCROLL or INPUT switch off with: (line HHHH HHHH
number) POKE 16418, 2.
8. To print the bottom two lines enter line 1 REM shift J, shift V, function LN, shift C, graphic shift A, function TAN, then POKE 16517,107. Within the program use (line num) RAND USR 16514, then (line num) COPY.
9. With MC programs stored in 1 REM, POKE 16510,0 to change the REM number to 0, and protect it from accidental deletion.
10. To moke o line of MC invisible (certain codes will self-destruct when displayed) POKE 16514, 118. Remember the MC now begins ot 16516.
MonmrGeRLE
32
Reprinted from the Oct-Nov/86 issue of the P.A.T.S. User Group newsletter
A Review of TECH DRAW JR. from Zebra Systems, Inc. By Syd Wyncoop
Tech Draw is a joystick controlled version of Zebra's Koala pad drawing software. I find it much better, in that you do not get the stray pixels on the screen that the Koala pad generates. There is also a huge difference in price, since you are not required to purchase the Koala pad.
The tirat thing you notice about the program, as it is packaged, is the instruction manual. It is the same one that was sold with the Koala padj therefore must be interpreted in light of a joystick’s operation. Also, the manual is barely legible.
Tech Draw will enable you to design some very fine black and white screen displays! however, it desperately needs color enhancements. Why design a graphics package tor a color computer without color capability?
There is a choice of 16 brushes to draw and are chosen from pull down menus. These menus are accessed from the main menu which is always on the lower 2 screen lines. The brush control is from one pixel to an entire character block.
There are 33 built-in shades which can be drawn with, but are better utilized as #111 patterns. Any fully enclosed shape can be filled in with any of these patterns ta generate some very nice pictures.
There is the usual undo command, in case you dont like the results of the last command, as well as a clear-the-screen option 1$ you would like to start over fresh.
The cursor is difficult to position with any accuracy due to the speed it moves. To correct this requires use of the arrow cursor keys. It should have been possible to initially move the cursor Slowly, speeding it up after a few continuous pixels are crossed. There are tracking options, te correct for sideways movement of the joystick. They will only read the vertical or horizontal movement, as selected, no matter how far you stray. This is nice for drawing straight lines and of course can be turned off to allow far diagonal lines.
There are three character fants and three sizes of each for lettering your drauings. You can print to any spot on the screen, instead of oniy on the normal print lines. The routines to move the cursor, when in text mode, are intolerably siow. The manual states this is to allow exact positioning! however, you can nap while waiting for the cursor to cross large areas of the screen. These routines shold also start slow and speed up as the position of the joystick is held.
Lastiy, the 1/0 menu does not interface with any storage media Other than tape. While it is unreasonable to expect Zebra to include routines for all the various systems on the market, they Coulé have left this interface in BASIC, where it could be easily modified to suit your needs.
I think the program needs some major improvements to be of much value. Tech Draw is definitely not a finished product, although it is being marketed ss such.
۱۱۱۱۱۱١١١١١١١١١۰ ۱" چج رط ۲ ۲رر رر 4044049( 482484048 Eg Eg
TIMEX TIPS By Chuck Dawson
QUESTION: How do you go about specifying certain keys that we do not have on the Sinclairs? There is no ESCAPE or CONTROL keys on the keyboard, but it is used in Mterm. How can it in BASIC programs?
we use ANSWER: People tend to be intimidated by keyboards, especially if there seem to be many more keys than on a standard typewriter. The truth is, since we are limited to eight binary
digits, there are only 256 possible combinations of ones and zeros. The T/S keyboard has oniy 40 keys, and yet _it can send every one of these 256 combinations. Some, of course, are
accessed by first getting the 'F* or 'E' or *'G* cursors. If you look in the manual at the table of characters, you will see that only a feu codes near the beginning are ‘not used". These are usually used to give commands to a printer. For example, most printers use a °12° to advance the paper to the top of the next sheet. Many use °15° to set the condensed type. Most use the ESCAPE code (27) plus another number to do a variety of other things. In BASIC, this would take the form LPRINT CHR$ 27 or LPRINT CHR$ 15. The Mterm terminal emulation program produces an ESCAPE by holding doun SYMBOL SHIFT and pressing ENTER. Another computer may have an ESCAPE key to produce the same results. By the ASCII convention, printable characters do not begin until 32, so those early codes that are used to control printers are called “Control Codes”. Some computers have a CONTROL key which gives access to those codes by holding doun the CONTROL key and pressing another key. À '1' is Control A, a '2' is Control B, and so forth. In BASIC, these would be represented by CHR$ 1, CHR$ 2, and so forth. The T/S uses many of the codes above 127 for its KEYUORDS. For example CHR$ 180 is the TAN function on the 2068 and an inverse "0° on the 1000. That is why, when machine code is poked into a REM statement, you sometimes see letters, keyuords, grsphic characters, and so on. The computer is faithfully displaying each code as it has been programed to do. So there you have it. Just think of each keystroke as sending a number from 0 to 255 to the computer (or to the Modem or to the Printer) and suddenly things don’t seem quite as complicated as they at first appeared.
dno19 5425] SAL (140 ld 241 fO TIN 241 NOISNFdX3 FIFG 241 iuoif paiutadoM
CDN
33
1 REM PERPETUAL CALENCAF 2053 ©1934 BY I. RUERSBACHER
2 POKE 23599 .20: POKE 226523,8 8 BORDER S: BRIGHT 1: CLS : D IM H5s:12.9) 9 BEEP .1,38: GO SUB 1000: CL
10 PRINT ' PAPER 6;" #44 CALEN DAR (1533-9999 AD) ace " 12 RESTORE : FOR Z=1 TO 12: RE AC H$SiZ): NEXT Z ou LET 282" 1 2.3 486.7 8 91 011121314151617131920212::324282 62728293031": BEEP ,05,z 16 INPUT "Y-YEAR. M-PRINT MO, D-DISPLARY:"; LINE TS 19 IF T$s"Y" THEN GO TO 30 29 INPUT "month (1-12):";h. IF ah = R»12 THEN BEEP ,5,-20: G
o JO INPUT “YEAR (YYYY)-"“;B- IF B:1532 OR B59939 THEN BEZF 2ےہ کم Q: GO TO 39 35 CL 3 40 IF T$a"Y" THEN FOR Xz1 TO 1 &: LET AzX 60 LET BİNT B. LET F28-(A<3) 65 LET Cañ+19+(A<3: +1 70 LET DsINT (E/4Q00)-INT (£710 O) -INT (1.25s5E8)4INT (2.6¢C) 7S LET D=D-(7#INT (D/7))4+1 SO IF (Az4) +(As8) +(As9) + (211) THEN LET C238 8S IF (Axil) +(As3) 4(A2zS) + (Am) + 1828) + (A210) + (Asia) THEN LET C23
90 IF A<>2 THEN GO TO 208 | 100 LET Cz28: IF (B/42INT (5^4) ) +(B/100 « > INT (B/1900)) +(B/400=IN T_iB/400:1\ THEN LET Cz29
230 IF T$z"Y" THEN CLS
edz PRINT کو پچ ےج ےو یدیچ
PLOT 10,132: DRAU 225,0. DR 95ء ep 0,-112: ORAU -225,0: DRRU 0,1
. 210 PLOT 10,118: DRAU 225,0 220 PRINT AT 6,2:"3u HO TU U E TH FR SA": PRINT AT 3.0. , 6: PLOT 18,116-( Z-1) 416: DRAU 225,0: NEXT Z zz1 TO 6: PL ‘ 32.132: CRAY @.-112: NE“ i 245 IF Ts='/" AND As1 THE’: LERI سے "m
N À + BB": LPRINT : LPRINT
etc; IF T$a"Y" THEN PRINT TAB 12 sMS(A): GO TO 264
£52 PRINT TAB 8;4S(A); TAB 18:8 264 DIM C$í74): LET Jz8. LET Ks 2: LET C$=Cs( TO 240-2) 475
£70 FOR Zsi1 TO C+0-1: PRINT AT J.K:CS$ (242-1 TO 242): LET KaK*4 e80 IF (Z/7=INT (Z/7)) THEN LET JzJetc: LET Ksg
290 NEXT Z 225 IF T$s"Y" THEN COPY : NEXT
£96 IF T£$s"M" THEN COPY 299 INPUT “ANOTHER YEAR OE :1ONT Hs (Y/N) :“; Y8: IF YS«»"N" برعےح R
308 DATA "JANUARY" ,“FEBRUARY",” MARCH” , “APRIL” , “MAY” ,” JUNE" , “JUL Y”, “AUGUST” ,“ SEPTEMBER" , “OCTOBER ” .“ NOVEMBER” , “DECEMBER”
310 STOP
"m Lu & wa oO 3 t4 H
هم + o
1000 CL3
1010 PRINT "TO P ' NG PRESS" O PRINT THE FOLLOW!
1015 PRINT : PRINT 1040 PRINT "L--- TO Lprint*"
CORINT “Cosme "'"THIS CALENCAR ری
OR: ee PRINT "H--- ""MONTH of BIRT 1060 PRINT “y--- ““YEAR of BIRTH
1070 PRINT "N--- If . 2 اٹ وا If you don't wa
22a IF INKEY$2"HM" THEN GO TO 42 0ج IF INKEY$a"Y" THEN GO TO 5o i" IF INKÉYS$a"L" THEN eO TO 80
1150 IF INKEYS="N" THEN R TUR 1157 IF INKEYS="C" THEN 65 TO as
4508 LPRINT : | : LPRINT ہ
ONTH Of BIRTH“: LPRINT : GO TO à
PRINT : LPRINT "
EAR of BIRTH": GO TO 1100 ۷ 6990 CLS : PRINT : PRINT : PRINT p220 YOU want the Lprint CENTERE 6010 If INKEYS="Y" THEN GO TO 61
2520 IF INKEYS="N" THEN GO TO 63
RER
: PRINT " Je Characters," NT e e 6110 Wed Z$: IF LEN Z$;32 THEN
6158 LET Lz(32-LEN روج /2 6160 LPRINT TA 6165 LPRINT -^^ INT LiZ§
6300 PRINT : PR "
ee NT Enter up to یا روف UT 28:
GO TO 5319 $: IF LEN Z§>32 THEN
6358 LPRINT وج
8500 LPRINT — "
CALENDAR IS FOR:* iind : GO TO 1000
9999 SAVE “calendar” LINE 2
This article originally appeered in QUANTA, the N/L of the British QL Users Group by the seme name, and Is reprinted from the June/87 issus of the N/L of The St.Louis T/S Users Group.
QL REAL-TIME CLOCK by Roy Barber |
I wonder how many QL owners are aware of the fact that their QL may already contain a working real - ume clock which, with the aid of a battery and a couple of diodes, may well give the battery - backed clock so many have requested.
The 2X§302 chip in the QL already contains all the circuitry required for maintaining the time and date when the QL is switched off, except for a battery and couple of diodes. Sinclair obviously intended to provide the battery back-up as the board has provision for at least one of the diodes, but this has been replaced by a wire link. It is easy to fit the necessary components and details of how to do this are provided below later.
I suspect Sinclair did not incorporate the battery back-up as it shows some lack of reliability on some machines and he did not want any more returned for service than he was already getting. Some of my friends and I fitted batteries and diodes to five QLs with reasonable success. Of the five, two appear to work 100% reliably, one about 98%, and the remaining two about 75% of the time. It appears that the failures which do occur happen on power up or down. I have monitored the crystal oscillation while the chip is under battery power and it seems absolutely reliable on all the QLs. With a large capacitor across the battery supply, only a slight change in mean level of the oscillator can be observed. From this 1 presume failure to maintain time is due to garbage getting into the clock registers due to a lack of isolation of the master chip during the power up or down phase. If a way of deselecting the chip during switch on or off could be derived it should work 100%. To do this it appears that pulling its reset pin low should solve the proble.
Indeed, on one of the QLs modified it does isolate the master chip if the reset button is held down during switch on or off. Unfortunately it does not seem to give complete success on other machines. Obviously Sinclair knew more development was required! As the addition of the battery and diodes is relatively easy it seems worth-while trying it if you like this feature - there seems a good chance it may work on your QL.
To install the components:
(1.) Connect two AAA type alkaline cells in series. I soldered wires to mine but beware if you do this as alkaline cells MAY EXPLODE if overheated. ( A suitable plastic battery clip is available from Radio Shack.--Ed.)
(2.) Remove the large chip marked 2X8302, IC 23 on the circuit board and bend out pin 40, the top RH pin. Take the usual precautions against static damage. While the chip is out, solder the cathode ends (the ends marked with coloured bands) of the two germanium diodes to the bent out pin. Also solder a wire (black for negative) to pin 20 (bottom left) of the chip. Sleeve the diodes and solder the loose end of one to pin 11 of the chip. Do not let solder get down the pins as all but pin 40 have to be reinserted in the holder. The master chip usually has two resistors soldered to its pins and laying on top of the IC (not always there--Ed.).
(3.) Solder one end of a small capacitor, 0.1 mfd or So, to a suitable groundpoint so its other end will reach pin 40 of the IC when it is replaced. | used the negative end of the small 100uf cap to the right of the master chip as a suitable ground.
(4.) Replace the IC
(5.) Fit the remaining loose diode wire to battery Positive and the black wire from pin 20 of the IC to battery Negative. Fit the loose end oof the added capacitor wire to Pin 40 where the two diode cathodes have been connected.
That's it. The battery should be insulated. I used electrician's tape. The battery may be positioned immediately to the left of the master chip on top of the two smaller ICs. I used a double-sided sticky tape on top of these ICs to hold the batteries firmly. Dont forget to sleeve the diodes. (heat-shrink tubing would probably work well --Ed.)
If you are lucky, your QL clock will maintain the correct time until the batteries fail in about a year. If you are not so lucky, you may occasionally need to reset the clock. If the clock is very unreliable you may wish to purchase more 2X§302s. (Not at $30 a pop on this side of the pond. I would just forget it. Norm Lehfeldt
of SLUG, who originally reprinted this article, reports his clock works perfectly.--Ed)
Existing QL cap.
36
1 REM Copy a block of the scr &e&en...buy John Pazmino. Reprinted from the May/Jume issue of LIST , the newsletter of the Long Ist and Sinclair Timex User group.
---.0ccassonally you’tt want to c opy to paper Only a boxed-off se ction of the screen aS by doing COPY. The demo here fOr the 188 @ does such a copy. zzazFor 2068 tine 108050 i5 LPRINT SCREENS (R,C J; OMIT LINE 104989.
2 FOR I=-@ TO S11
4 PRINT CHRS (RHDz64)
6 HEXT I
8 COPY
18 PRINT AT 21,9,"
12 INPUT A 14 PRINT AT 21,8," THEN INPUT BOTTOM ROU: "i ۱ 16 INPUT B 18 PRINT AT 21,8; „THEN INPUT LEFT COLUNN 260 INPUT X 3 22 PRINT AT 21,0;" , THEN INPUT RIGHT COLUNN 24 INPUT Y 26 LPRINT “BLOCK FOR ROUS “;—A; - 7i 3,7 AND ", COLUMNS",X;" T 0 "s e 28 6o SUB 16980 38 STOP 1696 REM LPRINT A BLOCK OF SCREE N 1816 REM LINE ۰ FAST ON 19668 1826 FOR R=A TO 1638 FOR C-X TO Y 10408 PRINT AT R,C 1850 LPRINT CHRS PEEK (PEEK 1639 “aca aa
INPUT TOP R
1898 REM LINE 1098 SLOU ON 1008 1100 RETURN
Reprinted from the Mav issue ofthe NIL of the Chicago Area T/S Users Group
Modification Scheastic
FIGURE 2
BUILD A SPECTRUM ROMSWITCHING CIRCUIT FOR YOUR TS-2068 By Gary Lessenberry
I recently purchased some Spectrum ROMs from Zebra Systems with the hope that I might be able to make my own Spectrum romswitching circuit without paying the high price of those circuits that are commercially available. When [ examined the TS-2068's ROM circuitry, I realized that this. was an easier task than I had originally assumed! All that I needed was: a Spectrum ROM, an SPDT toggle switch (Radio Shack #275-6725), two feet of insulated wire and two 10K ohm resistors (Radio Shack #271-133)
To start the project, you first remove the top from your computer case by removing the seven screws in the bottom of
the case. When you look inside, it will appear as in figure a You now remove the Timex ROM (U16). To remove it, gently pry
constructing this circuit. To test it, place it in the socket from which you have removed the 15-2068 ROM and energize your computer. The Sinclair copyright FIGURE A should be displayed. If not,
your ROM may be defective. After the test, remove the Spectrum ROM.
Take your Timex ROM and place your Spectrum ROM directly over it with the notches in the same direction (see figure 3). There should only be a thin space between the two ROMs and all of their leads should be touching. Do not leave a lot of space between these ROMs because clearance is critical when you reassemble you computer! You will now, very gently, bend pin 20 on both ROMs upward untill they are perpindicular to the other pins. You may now solder all of the pins except pin 20. Be careful when soldering. Allow 30 seconds between the soldering of each pin so that you won't overheat and damage the ROMs. To pin 20 of each ROM, you will solder a peice of wire and one end of a 10K ohm resistor. The other end of each 10K ohm resistor will be soldered to pin 28 (+5vdc). The other end of the two wires that you have comming from pin 20 of the two ROMs will be soldered to the toggle ewitch. The toggle switch has three pins on it. Two of these pins are labled "ON". Solder one wire to each of these two pins. Another wire will be soldered to the middle pin of the the toggle switch with the other end of that wire going to the circuit board and soldered to ۰
1t with a small screwdriver or E knife inserted between the socket and the ROM. It is important that you - | 6 test your Spectrum ROM before u1 ROH V4 he u
t? ME Lii
> کت -2 £ 2- نے ( not ch 4 - -25 — — —— -2 x — A 1 E- —- 2— Z WUHAN. — — — 1 t1 æ ‘= <“ T ot Svac کے e ds EL 1 $ HHH ے 28 = = t a= -2 0 رح 0 1a- -12 پیم Ti. - spectrum Roi 1:z- -1 ت Fi ے ےطخ ب وو z. en 14— -1% A Timex ٦٦ | Fon Fin $2i:* ments = * Assi 90 2 FIGURE S
37
hou 00e
DUNGEON OF YMIR (TS1500)
Brief Description: Dungeon of Yair is à aulti-level saze
adventure qaae written coapletely in aachine code. PU requires 24K of RAM, and versions are available for the 1500 with a Hunter Board or other 8-16K RAM, OR for the 32K 1500 (with 16k Raspack). ` Yair is true HI-RES, using a HI-RES technique which works only with the 1500 (NOT the 1000 of 1181). A version for the 118/1510800 is scheduled for release i near future. i sert of Yair is available for $24.95 froa FRED NACHBAUR, C-12, MTN. STN. GROUP BOX, NELSON, BC, CANADA VIL spl. Fred also has sany other fine hardware and software products for the 1181 faeily. Write for details.
WHAT ا THIS 77
Upon loading lin 2 parts), a 64 colusn cover screen displays the Cast of Characters, and control keys. The object of the qane is to successfully aake it to the Ith level of the saze, retrieve the SWORD OF KASLO, and retura it to your village. The gaae operates ia the traditional fora of the genre: you have a certain auaber of Hit Points (daaage you can sustain), based on your Experience level, healing rate, and on what spells aad potions you have at your disposal. On your journey, you will encounter 16 different types of sonsters,
lasps, eystery chests (which can be either very good or very bad), pits, ceiling holes, stairs up and down, gold (which is ‘cashed in° for Experience Points at the Teaple of Asylua on each level), and an Oracle, who can hand out useful gifts, Bake suggestions, and punish lapudence.
© There are also several types of Spell Vials, which say be Siaply found in the aaze, or in a aystery box, or handed out by the Oracle. These include Teleport spells, Rejuvenation spells, Healing potions, Drift spells, Shield spells, etc.
The playing screen is very iapressive, with hi-res UDGs for all the aonsters and objects. The saze ie revealed only as you travel through it. As you proceed ta lower levels, aonsters becoae aore difficult ta cope with. Monsters are in constant action, which starts randoaly aad takes on sore evil intent as the gase progresses! Critical inforsation is displayed throughout the qaae on the bottoa line of the screen. À FAST-SAVE with autoboot reloading persits the qaae to be saved in progress at any tiae, and reloaded in 70 seconds, [ have found the fast save/load to be very reliable.
Conclusions: | aust confess that | was very steptical when I first loaded YMIR, since I’ve never been a D&D-type gane afficionado. (°OK, 1°11 load Fred's new qaae, just to be polite...*) My skepticisa quickly turned to interest, curiosity, frustration, fascination, addiction. The graphics and aniaation are excellent (the little aan bends over when you pick soaethiag up!), and the presentation of auxiliary screens (progress reports, etc.) is snappy and eye-catching.
Dungeon of Yair is, in the words of its author, ‘easy to play, -
difficult to easter’. ['a hooked, and | have yet to live past the Jrd level. This gaae has even aade ae late for work. Dungeon of Yair is five-star software: a MUST-HAVE.
You've really done it this tiae, Fred!
CO Co
Comaunicaticns
Well, I finally got ay hands on a aore-or-less Professional 32S comaunications rackage and no, it's not Tinyboarc by Flashware. It's a system called Casboard 2068 (the Flexi-Board System) by Kurt A, Casby. It is comprised of a block of code that handles the Xaodea protocol for uploads and downloads and a block of basic for the normal menus and the like. It Comes on à tape with versions for tapel with no upload/download), aicrodrive and disk. To all intents and purposes, it appears to the caller as a professional system with sultiple message bases, upload and downloads, chat with the sysop( if he's there that is » and an extensive set up routine possibility for the sysop. [t even requires a ccamon Password arrangement so that only those to whoa you have provided the saae, can use the BRS.
I had a number of occasions to test the BPS systen with à nuaber of ey friends and all except for the auto save to disk of an uploaded program the RES operated as advertised; ie perfectly. The problea of the upload to the disk appears to be aore of a problem with the caller's software (Specterm-64) rather than the BBS program, but that has as yet to be proven. There is a standard setup routine that the sysop aust follow in order for the program to function correctly. If this process is not followed to a "t', then the system vill step with an error that is usually good enough to stop the program in it’s tracks. The sysop must identify the password, upload and download permissability, message base usage and a few other misc items. After doing this for the first tiae and subsequently saving to disk, future setups can be quite quick. The sysop then sits back and watches TV, or ta some poor slob routing around through the BBS. You can always force a chat routine with the user if the routing becones crazy.
I had thought atout setting up the sustea on a special time and date routine for my local club and had thought that the best hours would be between 8 and 10 p.a. on a Saterday and Sunday evening, particularily because of the phone ringing, or so | thought. What I subsequently found out was that the BES program answers the phone so fast that the telephone doesn’t have a chance to ring. This is great ta one point of view, but it vas Particularily disconcerting to my aother-in-law to receive the rather harsh tones of a high frequency modem rather than the sweet melodic tones of ey voice. She called se 2 hours later with a few words to the vise.
In any case, I am, through all this raabling, recomeending this Casboard BBS system to all who would like to try their hands at being a sysop. Great fun and a sense of accoaplishaent!
Roelof Mulder
Queens dominant
i istri ich squares they This program lets you distribute chess queens on a board, and shows which squar are ضا Cm The aim is to attack all of the board with as few queens as possible, by
judicious choice. It can be done with five of them.
DIM B (8, 8) FOR I = 1 TO8
FORJ = 1 TO8 PRINTAT2*1,2*J +8;“gH” NEXTJ
NEXT I
LETP - 2
LETQ=9
GOSUB 2009 <
LET PQ = P
LET QQ = Q
IF INKEYS < > “" THEN GOTO 1% IF INKEY$ = *"THENGOTO 110 © LET I$ = INKEYS
IF I$ = “Q” THEN GOTO 200
IF I$ = "S" THEN LETQ =Q -2 IF I$ = "6" THEN LET P= P +2 IF I$ = "7" THEN LET P =P - 2 IF I$ = "8" THEN LET Q = Q +2 GOSUB 19009
GOSUB 1020
GOTO 92 PRINTATP.Q*1;*Q"
LET J = (Q - 7)/2 LET B (I, J) = 1
FORT = 1TO8
IF B (I, T) = THEN LET B (I, T) = -1
IF B (T, J) = @THEN LET B (T. J) = -1
NEXT T
FOR F = -1TO1STEP2
FORT = -8TO8
LETU -I*F*T
LETV=J+T
IF U < 1 OR U > 8OR V < 1 OR V > 8 THEN GOTO 329 IF B (U, V) = 0 THEN LET B (U, V) = -1
NEXTT
NEXT F
GOSUB 20%
GOTO 92
PRINT ATP,Q;* >”
RETURN
PRINT AT P9, Q4; “0O”
RETURN
FOR I= 1TO8
FORJ =1TO8
IF B (I, J) = ~1 THEN PRINT AT2 ° 1,29 J + 8; “+” NEXT J
NEXT I
RETURN
39
Z»moo N=- nn 0 > Y
SENS
The Vancouver Sinciair Users Group has been in existence sin
1982 We are a support group for the owners and users of SINCLAIR and TIMEX computers.
Pres:- Ken Abramson PH. ° (604) 438-7740 V /Pres:- ‘Rusty’ Townsend
Sec:- Harvey Taylor
Treas. & Editor:- Rod Humphreys
Our membership dues are only $15.00/year and may be sent to ( Treasurer:
Rod Humphreys 2006 Highview Piace Port Moody, BC. V3H INS
Members of VSUG receive a monthly issue of ZXAppeal - o newsletter.
ZXAppeal accepts advertising. Our **PREPAID** rates are:
$20.00 -- full page 51200 -- 1/2 page $8.00 -- 1/4 page
ZXAppeel has a print run of 75 copies per month for members and distributed to approx 40 other SINCLAIR User Groups througho North America as well as overseas via the NETWORK.
NETWORK correspondence may be directed to the Editor at the abo address.
All articles appearing in ZXAppeal may be reprinted by other T User Groups as long as credit is given to the author and VSUG.
8
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HN? HER; hot a og L2
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>> ` * ۹ —*
|
Exchange these two bytes to enable the rounding-up
Listing 1. HEX listing of the feature, as discussed
Printer Buffer Prograa. in the article.
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