---
title: "Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting 9/20/26"
id: 71751
type: "video"
slug: "timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-9-20-26"
url: "http://localhost/video/timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-9-20-26/"
markdown_url: "http://localhost/video/timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-9-20-26.md"
published_at: "2026-10-04T18:34:24+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-04T18:37:35+00:00"
author: "David Anderson"
featured_image:
  url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/tsug-09-20-26.jpg"
excerpt: "VCF Midwest report and António's TS 2068 SCLD replacement project."
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  - name: "Greg Bennett"
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  - name: "Joe Vandezande"
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  - name: "John Mobley"
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  - name: "Jon Becker"
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  - name: "Larry Lorenson"
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video_date: "20260920"
youtube_video_link: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsvSbyxenKY"
---

# Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting 9/20/26

![Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting 9/20/2026](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qsvSbyxenKY/maxresdefault.jpg)

A week after VCF Midwest, David walked the group through a photo tour of the show. It was bigger than last year, the organizers had opened up another section of the conference center, and the Timex/Sinclair contingent took three tables, 24 feet in all, flanked by other Sinclair and Memotech exhibitors. [Joe VandeZande](http://localhost/indiv/joe-vandezande/), [Stewart Newfeld](http://localhost/indiv/stewart-newfeld/), [Carl Miles](http://localhost/indiv/carl-miles/), [Jeff Fetta](http://localhost/indiv/jeff-fetta/), [Mark Martin](http://localhost/indiv/mark-martin/), [Peyton Bratton](http://localhost/indiv/peyton-bratton/), [Mowgli Assor](http://localhost/indiv/assor-mowgli/), [John Mark Mobley](http://localhost/indiv/john-mobley/) and [Evan Wright](http://localhost/indiv/evan-wright/) were among those in the photos.

Stewart made the point that the Timex tables were unlike most of the show: other booths displayed restored machines, while this one displayed projects, the file systems, keyboards, video boards and other “prosthetic devices” people have built to keep these computers usable. He wants better signage next year to make that explicit, an idea David seconded after seeing the placards Jeff Fetta had made for his own machines.

The tables held a mix of original hardware and new work. David brought a 1500 bought off eBay that mostly worked on first power-up, a 1526 with the cartridge board Don and David built running David Stevenson’s Zevious, and a VOTEM analog-to-digital converter that plugged into the ear jack. A K2 Electronics cradle drew attention: a heavy steel case that a ZX81 or 1000 slots directly into, with 64K of RAM on a board underneath, two expansion slots including a Centronics port, and a ZX-Wespi-V hidden on the back generating VGA and serving a load-from-menu program list.

Jeff Fetta showed a 3D-printed white ZX80 reproduction, a ZX81 with a compact flash interface and a customized ROM, and a grocery-store display unit rebuilt to play a ZX81 history video on a loop.

Behind David’s TS 2068 sat a 2068 signed by Gary Grimes, displayed with Grimes’s January 1983 design worksheets. One annotation complains that a proposed case looks too much like the TI-99/4A, and a corner sketch compares the machine’s footprint to the Epson HX-20.

Joe’s contributions ran to restorations and homebrew. He got a Zebra Systems light pen from the early 80s working again; the software scans a grid of white squares and the user holds the pen in place until the right one flashes. He also brought a store demonstrator for the 1000: an EPROM board plugs into the back. Alongside those were two keyboards Joe built: a surplus Texas Instruments unit with laser-printed, lacquered paper keycaps, and a fully 3D-printed keyboard wire-wrapped into a damaged ZX81 case with a ZX-Wespi-V and small screen mounted externally. A Byteback relay board drove a 3D-printed “Timex Sinclair Team” sign with LED strips, and a William Stuart Systems SP0256 speech synthesizer spent the weekend announcing the show.

The most detailed hardware discussion was the 2060, the 2068 peripheral several members are building. Jeff Burrell designed the board, Joe the 3D-printed enclosure. Inside, a Trion FPGA that can be loaded to emulate file storage, video, joystick, keyboard and extra RAM; a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 for the file system; a smaller RP2040 module; an I2S DAC for the emulated AY-3-8910; VGA, serial, RGB-from-bus and PS/2 connectors; a battery-backed clock; a wifi module; a front-mounted SD slot; and a 128×96 OLED for status messages such as which tap file is mounted.

Stewart is writing improved documentation for the OpenSpand, the open-source successor to the ZXpand whose Swedish designer wants others to build it.

Joe issued a warning about the 1500: every one he has opened has out-of-spec capacitors in the section generating the -5V and +12V rails for the 4116 RAM, and improperly biased 4116s die. He advises not powering up a 1500 before checking, and offered to repair machines for members.

Two vendors came up. American Retro of Long Island sells replacement Spectrum membranes that also fit the 1500, along with cases, faceplates, backlit mats, the vLA81 and vLA82 ULA replacements, and retro test equipment backed by online schematics and oscilloscope traces; Joe picked up a membrane there to fix Stuart’s 1500. Nick of Wyoming Retro brought two Memotech MTX machines and essentially the complete Memotech ZX81 module lineup from the old advertisements.

António Vitor joined from France to talk about the SCLD replacement he has been building for three years. Building on Álvaro’s ULA replacement work, which did not cover the 2068, he implemented the missing pieces in a CPLD, notably the port F4 response the banking system depends on. His board sits in a socket where the SCLD was. He also made the AY ports answer to both the Spectrum and Timex addresses so Spectrum games with AY sound will play.

Jon’s Berserk port for the 2068 got a demonstration, running in Josef Jelinek’s TSrun browser emulator with the D-pad touch controls John added for phones, speech audio included. Josef has since built a QL version of the emulator, and Tim Swenson supplied a QL disk image so there is software to run in it.

Greg Bennett reported finding a $3 module that runs on either 3.3V or 5V, takes a micro SD card and has an MP3 decoder built in, enough to drive audio playback from a Sinclair without the rest of his earlier design. He has it working through a PC simulating the serial commands and calls it past proof of concept.

John Mark Mobley closed out the VCF talk with the electron microscope a few aisles away, where he was taught to drive the instrument and zoomed to 2000x on a wasp wing.