Rex Naden was vice-president of research and development at Timex during the time they produced the Timex/Sinclair 1500 and 2068 computers. He spent thirty-five years in the semiconductor industry, holds fourteen US patents and earned his BA, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rice University. Naden developed his affinity for production at an […]
Interview with Rex Naden Read More »
If you read enough of the old Timex/Sinclair newsletters, you’ll notice that two printers were especially popular with 2068 owners: the Gorilla Banana/Seikosha GP-100 and the Olivetti PR-2300 “inkjet”. And you may wonder why those two printers were especially popular. A Printer Named Banana The first is easy: Seiko (a relative of Epson) produced the
2068 Users and Odd-ball Printers Read More »
Being retired and finished with my combat pit, I was drawn to get out my ZX81 which had been stored in a plastic tub for 25 years. I was faced with two problems: 1) I had no RF TV sets and 2) did not have a usable cassette recorder. I did the one transistor video
The KoalaPad was a resistive touch pad made for home computers like the Apple II, Atari and Commodre 64, first released in 1983. A few years later, Zebra adapted it for use with the TS 2068. Ironically, the KoalaPad’s ancestor, the PrestoDigitizer, began as a product for the Sinclair ZX-80 and other microcomputers. Innovision PrestoDigitizer
The KoalaPad Comes Full Circle Read More »
QZX was one of the longest running Sinclair newsletter in the United States, starting in 1981 and published for more than ten years. Many Sinclair computer users never heard of it because it was a special purpose newsletter devoted to the use of Sinclair computers in radio. Most subscribers were amateur radio operators and were
The History of QZX Read More »
After Timex exited the market, they disposed of excess inventory as quickly as possible. Parker Electronics incorporated the T/S 1500 into a HVAC controller for Carrier installations. According to a brief mention in the VISTA Newsletter, Parker “used T/S 1000s as control devices and 2040 printers for read-outs.” The company went to the trouble of
Parker Electronics/Carrier Command Center Read More »
Lynd Church goes to Scotland to discover just how the ZX-81 is manufactured. In keeping with its philosophy of sub-contracting all manufacturing processes, Sinclair Research appointed Timex to produce the ZX-81 when it was introduced in March 1, 1981.Since that time, production at the Timex plant at Dundee has increased from 10,000 to 60,000 units
A piece of cake in Dundee Read More »
The PC8300 was announced at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show. Marketed, and maybe manufactured, by Unisonic, it was a “clone” of the ZX81. The ROM featured a highly similar BASIC but with the character code table moved to the custom chip. As a clone, it wasn’t particularly compatible with the ZX81: the display file appears
MIDI, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, was conceived in 1981 and appeared in synthesizers and drum machines in 1983. It was a means of connecting synthesizers and other musical instruments using a vendor-agnostic connector/cable and digital information protocol. It allowed a musician to connect his Yamaha keyboard to his Roland drum machine and play them
MIDI on Timex/Sinclair Computers Read More »
Reprint of an article about a medical practice program written by a practicing ophthalmologist.
ZX81 in an Ophthalmologist’s Office Read More »
In testing my latest iteration of an RGB to SVIDEO/composite board, I managed to toast my 2068. Symptoms point to fried RAM chips, according to an article on DIY fixes to the 2068, so I’ve ordered replacements. The circuit boards above, from left to right, are a buffered 2068 expansion bus, an attempt to make
A Temporary Setback Read More »
