TITLE: POWERFUL PROJECTS WITH YOUR
TIMEX/SINCLAIR
BY: JIM STEPHANS
FROM: SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO.
GLENVIEW, IL
PRICE: $12.95 (ISBN: 0-673-18038-7)
COVERS: INTERFACING 2068 TO OUTSIDE
WORLD
“At last!”, I thought, as my trembling fingers quickly flipped through the pages of “Powerful Projects with your Timex/Sinclair“, “a good basic hardware/interfacing manual with real projects”. I saw breadboards, pictures of wire wrap tools, on Armatron robot, a number of good looking schematics, and hardware contruction tips for several projects. Was this the ultimate 2068 interfacing book I had been looking for? Well, yes and no. Mostly yes, but there are a few parts of “PP” which put me off a bit.
Let’s begin with a look at what’s in “PP”. Jim Stephan‘s book is 228 pages long, has 138 illustrations and is divided up into 7 chapters:
Chapter I covers the 2068, the Z80 instruction set and architecture, hexadecimal code and the use of IN and OUT instructions. That is a lot to cover in 36 pages; too much, in fact, but it does give you a good overview of those subjects.
In Chapter II, Stephans discusses basic electronics components, design, breadboarding, wirewrapping and the construction of a motherboard to house your projects. He gives good examples, including photographs, schematics and line drawings in his narrative. This chapter is a must for novices and a refreshing review for the experienced kit builder.
Still following a very basic approach, Chapter 3 discusses the importance of fundamental skills (like soldering) and high school “electricity theory”, before moving on to the construction of your own power supply. Stephans then gives a well illustrated guide to the backplane’s (PC board) edge connector and the parts you’ll need to make your own interface board. As you move through the chapter, you’re asked to make measurements and interpret your results. You’ll build a simple and inexpensive buffered I/O port and test it as you do.
Not content with simply lighting up LED’s from BASIC, Chapter 4 provides construction plans for an optoisolated, triac driven, 3 outlet port which can run 110 volt appliances.
In Chapter 5, Microbotics are introduced, and a budget model robot, of sorts, is described in enough detail that most home craftsmen could build it. Moving on from there, Chapter 6 describes such other diverse projects (using the same Buffered I/O port) as a speech synthesizer, temperature sensor and A/D converter, among others. Schematics, chips, software, sources of supply, part numbers and good line drawings are provided for all projects.
Chapter 7 is “what if” collection which wastes a couple of pages, though this is made up for, somewhat, by the TS1000/1500 conversions provided in the appendices.
I was impressed by most of what I read in “PP”, though I found some errors, or omissions in a few of the chapters. These were annoying, but would probably not create any real problem, aside from a little confusion. The author’s style is at once casual and parenthetical, while being forcefully reassuring. While I didn’t care much for such expressions as having IC’s “go to dreamland”, the generally positive style can only help the novice to overcome his trepidations.
“PP” is an excellent book, for the level of interfacing (simple 8 bit I/O ports, partial decoding) which it supports, and can serve as a great first book for the novice. I rate it a 9 out of 10, though Mr. Stephans almost lost another point for “hype”; the picture of Radio Shack’s “ARMATRON” was just that, a picture, with no more information than you could get from their catalog. I still can’t figure out what purpose it would serve, short of snagging an unwary buyer in a book store. Still, at $12.95, it’s reasonable value for money, and right now, just about the “only game in town”. (We’ll report on other new releases as we find them.)
©1985 P. Donnelly TSH