---
title: "Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting October 18, 2026"
id: 71895
type: "video"
slug: "timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-october-18-2026"
url: "http://localhost/video/timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-october-18-2026/"
markdown_url: "http://localhost/video/timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-october-18-2026.md"
published_at: "2026-10-19T16:19:54+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-19T16:19:55+00:00"
author: "David Anderson"
featured_image:
  url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/tsug-10-18-2026.jpg"
excerpt: "Lon Hildreth's handwritten Timex notebooks, transcribed by Claude. KiloZed cases from 3D Keycap, a glowing badge, a Dragon Warrior-style 2068 RPG, and more."
category:
  - name: "Videos"
    slug: "videos"
    taxonomy: "category"
    url: "http://localhost/category/videos/"
post_tag:
  - name: "Timex Sinclair Online User Group"
    slug: "timex-sinclair-online-user-group"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/timex-sinclair-online-user-group/"
  - name: "TS 1000"
    slug: "ts1000"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/ts1000/"
  - name: "TS 2068"
    slug: "ts2068"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/ts2068/"
model:
  - name: "Timex/Sinclair 1000"
    slug: "ts-1000"
    taxonomy: "model"
    url: "http://localhost/model/ts-1000/"
  - name: "Timex/Sinclair 2068"
    slug: "ts-2068"
    taxonomy: "model"
    url: "http://localhost/model/ts-2068/"
indiv:
  - name: "Adam Trionfo"
    slug: "adam-trionfo"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/adam-trionfo/"
  - name: "David Anderson"
    slug: "david-anderson"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/david-anderson/"
  - name: "Gustavo Pane"
    slug: "gustavo-pane"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/gustavo-pane/"
  - name: "Ingo Schmied"
    slug: "ingo-schmied"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/ingo-schmied/"
  - name: "Jeffrey Kuhlmann"
    slug: "jeffrey-kuhlmann"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/jeffrey-kuhlmann/"
  - name: "Jeremiah Stoddard"
    slug: "jeremiah-stoddard"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/jeremiah-stoddard/"
  - name: "John Mobley"
    slug: "john-mobley"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/john-mobley/"
  - name: "Jon Becker"
    slug: "jon-becker"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/jon-becker/"
  - name: "Josef Jelinek"
    slug: "josef-jelinek"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/josef-jelinek/"
  - name: "Keith Albright"
    slug: "keith-albright"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/keith-albright/"
  - name: "Leroy Keith Watson"
    slug: "keith-watson"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/keith-watson/"
  - name: "Michael Kutzner"
    slug: "michael-kutzner"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/michael-kutzner/"
  - name: "Paul Anderson"
    slug: "paul-anderson"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/paul-anderson/"
  - name: "Paul Holmgren"
    slug: "paul-holmgren"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/paul-holmgren/"
  - name: "Richard Burt"
    slug: "richard-burt"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/richard-burt/"
  - name: "Ryan Gray"
    slug: "ryan-gray"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/ryan-gray/"
  - name: "Stewart Newfeld"
    slug: "stewart-newfeld"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/stewart-newfeld/"
video_date: "20261018"
---

# Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting October 18, 2026

![Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting October 18, 2026](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X-_Ni8og9gk/maxresdefault.jpg)

[David Anderson](http://localhost/indiv/david-anderson/) opened with what he has been getting out of Claude. Years ago [Lon Hildreth](http://localhost/indiv/lon-hildreth/), a former Timex programmer, sent David a box of material he had saved when Timex shut down, which David scanned and put on Archive.org: internal memos, greenbar printouts of code from the back of the technical manual, and spiral notebooks of handwritten notes on porting CP/M to the 2068. David had once typed one notebook out by hand over several sessions. This week he gave Claude about 90 pages of handwritten assembly notes on the never-released bus expansion unit, and about 40 minutes later he had a markdown file.

Claude also turned [Virginia Corcoran’s](http://localhost/indiv/v-carole-corcoran/) [40-column](http://localhost/document/40-column-mode-support-asc-003/), [80-column](http://localhost/document/80-column-mode-support-asc-002/) and [dual-screen display listings](http://localhost/document/dual-screen-mode-support/) into working TAP files. It flagged bugs in the dual-screen code, which has no boundary checking and can obliterate a display file, fixed them, and wrote an article on how to use the library. The group compared notes on the approach: [Jon Becker](http://localhost/indiv/jon-becker/) uses Codex and has it write Z80 binaries directly, and David keeps a GitHub repository for the 2068 with the technical manual in markdown and disassemblies of the Home and EX ROMs, so an AI can be pointed at it.

The same work fed the next TS-Pico software update, which adds CAT, FORMAT, MOVE and erase commands and full OPEN, CLOSE, PRINT and INPUT support. Programs will be able to write text to a file on the SD card, append to it, jump around a fixed-field random-access file, or write raw binary. Claude wrote a second article on how channels and streams work, with example code for a channel that acts as a RAM buffer.

David also had Claude design a TS-Pico variant with an ESP32 for connecting to bulletin boards over Wi-Fi, along with the terminal program to go with it.

Another board David is working on maps up to four megabytes of RAM through the bus expansion unit’s bank registers, which Timex had planned at up to 255 banks, and exposes it as a RAM disk and through channels.

[Ingo Schmied](http://localhost/indiv/ingo-schmied/) reported on the KiloZed. [Joe VandeZande](http://localhost/indiv/joe-vandezande/) is the first person outside the Schmied brothers to print a KiloZed case, and he improved on the slicer-generated supports. Loic at 3D Keycap printed two cases in PETG, one white and one black. He sent Ingo ten sets of keycaps along with a box of rejects that failed QC, and Ingo is working with him on selling printed cases to people who can’t print their own. Loic runs a single, used UV printer and is working toward a bigger machine. The case prints best tilted, and it needs a bed a little over ten inches (254 mm), which is more than most printers offer. The group suggested a PCB or clear acrylic top, and Ingo liked the acrylic hatch idea.

Ingo also showed a piggyback board that sits under the Z80 and adds 32K of internal RAM without bodge wires. It is jokingly called the DMA board, though it isn’t true DMA. He hand-soldered the surface-mount memory chip, and his first test suggests a bridge or bad connection. He is testing an IDC keyboard connector in place of individually crimped Dupont cables, and a badge lit by an LED noodle as the power indicator; opaque white filament works better than clear. His latest JLCPCB order brought 25 keyboard PCBs, 25 ZX-Wespi-V carrier boards and five memory prototypes. Ingo has opened a Tindie account and plans to release the files publicly, then sell PCBs, kits and assembled keyboards. The group also discussed a keyboard buffer for the ZX81, which drops keystrokes when typed on quickly.

[Jeremiah Stoddard](http://localhost/indiv/jeremiah-stoddard/) returned to his Dragon Warrior-style RPG for the 2068, written in Z80 assembly. He has a sound driver that updates the AY chip 60 times a second from an interrupt, and has started composing short background tunes and drawing new tiles. Jon Becker showed the remastered *The Crown*, playable in a browser through [Josef Jelinek’s](http://localhost/indiv/josef-jelinek/) [TS Run](http://localhost/computer_media/tsrun/), with a new animated intro in the style of a laser-disc “Dragon Slayer” game. Maze generation, which used to take about 30 seconds, is now near-instant thanks to [Charlie Day’s](http://localhost/indiv/charlie-day/) [LEAP bytecode compiler](http://localhost/computer_media/2068-leap-v2/). David recovered [Lloyd Dreger’s](http://localhost/company/lloyd-dreger/) wargame *[Conquest](http://localhost/product/conquest/)* from a preserved disk; Claude fixed its bugs and wrote the manual that was missing.

[Stewart Newfeld](http://localhost/indiv/stewart-newfeld/) is trying to bring down the cost of the OpenSpand. He wants to move the RP2350B and its parts onto one board, replacing an Olimex dev board that needs about ten minutes of header soldering, so a pick-and-place house can build it. He also learned the real-time clock module needs a rechargeable battery or a clipped diode. The clock may be dropped to avoid lithium-battery labeling.

In chat, [Ryan Gray](http://localhost/indiv/ryan-gray/) asked whether the Pico’s microdrive-style commands rule out future .mdr file support. David said microdrive syntax and .mdr support can be added and are probably close to TAP, and [Gustavo Pane](http://localhost/indiv/gustavo-pane/) pointed to ROM switching, as on the M397 interface.