Sigh. After MUCH checking and adding individual traces to see why AD4 was being stomped on (see yesterday’s post) I looked at my diagram for cabling up the LS240 and it seemed wrong. Put it in a spreadsheet and sorted it and discovered I’d swapped pin 13 and pin 4 😬 The LS240 is not the issue then.

Week’s holiday, yay! It’s 30 degrees outside, boo. I know, let’s inhabit a wooden building with portable aircon and work on dead Executels again 🥵 This could also be captioned ‘when logic analysers attack’, in this case on a 74LS240 buffer that may be toast. Not enough space for a test clip, see.

Happy Anniversary month to the Dragon 32, released in August 1982! Welsh computing history was made when Dragon Data brought this 32KB Motorola-powered machine to high street stores. Raise a glass to 8-bit nostalgia! #Dragon32 #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #OnThisDay #80sTech

Frustrating day. Seems that CP/M 2.2 on the Apple /// doesn’t use any of the many standards for cursor control - ADM-3, Hazeltine 1500, Televideo 950 etc. One techref says ‘here are the codes’ and they don’t work, the second says ‘yeah, upgrade to 2.21’ which is unobtanium. Still, ZORK 😁

Bah. It’s amazing what you find when you’re not looking for it. I WAS looking for the second floppy drive for the Apple ///, but I also found the Box of Books containing user guide, driver guide plus all the system floppies including the fabled demo disk 🙄 @lockfarm.bsky.social

Apple3 hacking at the ‘Z80 at 50’ exhibition at @computinghistory.org.uk. Why Apple /// I hear you all think? Well, Microsoft designed the Softcard /// for this beast, and it shipped with a pretty good CP/M. Hopefully the ROM adapter board it needs will be at home later so I can run it tomorrow.

I'll be there too 😁

The Loud Scots Bloke@loudscotsbloke.bsky.social · 3w ago

This weekend I shall be at the Centre for Computing History exhibiting as part of the Z80 @ 50 celebration! I will be showing some VERY rare Z80 based machines from my collection. Why not pop in and say hello!! www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/77032/Z8...

This is the Z80 source code for the ZX Spectrum 16K ROM 1982. The code was written by Steven Vickers and John Grant of Nine Tiles on the Zilog Development System. Hit the red button and enjoy a good read for a computer that is still being made today. www.timexsinclair.com/document/zx-...

Spent AGES trying to get some Atmega328P chips to program. Arduino IDE said no. Polulu AVR programmer said no. Eventually I spotted an error - 'wrong signature for 328p' (paraphrased) which is odd because I'd bought 328p chips. Take pic of chip...ENHANCE...ENHANCE...bloody 328U innit 🤨

More Apple /// japes. As predicted the 5V rail was weak. There are 4 caps on that rail but I only had spares for 2. Now I'm up to 4.6v which makes things a bit more stable and I can write disks using ADTPro, an amazing bit of software. Also look at the thick case and understand why it got hot!

First power up of the Apple /// in *counts fingers* 8 years. Took a few goes to let the caps reform but it’s now running and lasting for upwards of 3 minutes before failing. I suspect I might have to pick it up and drop it onto the bench to reset the chips. 😁

UPS rocks up with my digikey order, which comes in the size of box you used to get a dozen 12” records in. I don’t remember ordering that much stuff!

@museumjoe.bsky.social hey Joe, ages and ages ago I bought one of your Softcard /// for the Apple /// as a future project. Bare board. Do you have a BOM for it please? I can get everything off the silkscreen, but if you have a handy CSV I can drop on digikey that would be awesome. Cheers!

ok this one got me

Loading software like it’s 1999, it’s the future! Finding both a working cd writer AND blank CD-Rs was entertaining and hot.

Is your dad a mega-nerd? Does he want to know how barcodes work? Or learn about VHS-based consoles? What about open-source computers from the former republic of Yugoslavia? If the answer is YES to the above, then boy have I got the Father's Day present for you. Curious Video Game Machines!

Solar orbit complete! Level up 🍻

i got this weird little beast working today. the HP 125 is a dual processor CP/M machine (one main Z80 CPU, another Z80 to run the built-in terminal).

#lynxJapes With RetroFest 2026 done and dusted I’m having one last go on the Lynx 128 before I put it away. This corruption in the CP/M game Ladder makes me ponder if I’ve had VRAM issues all along. I didn’t test the 8x 4164 that make it up. Apologies for shaky camera 😁

Finally put my RetroFest 2026 pictures up. This was a quick run round just after the doors had opened on Sunday so I didn't catch everyone. binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/rf2026/

I was hoping to demonstrate this last weekend at RetroFest 2026. A true 8-bit Pocket Computer running CP/M on an 8Mhz Z80. On board storage, USB-C or battery powered, internal module bay and full RC2014 expansion bus. It runs Microsoft BASIC and Zork. So it's called the Zorkulator. Please share.

That's RetroFest done for another year and I got back to survey the chaos I'd left in my workshop on Friday. That's a job for future me. Awesome to meet and greet so many people, and finally meet two folks I've known for *years* but never met face to face. Cheers Tony, Pete and all the helpers!

Word, Ms Word

All set up ready for the hoardes! Come say hello if you’re here.

WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF 😆 WordStar 3 on the C128D, using FASTCPM as a base OS which is really just CP/M 3 optimised for the 128. I can start packing the car now.

It’s taken some fighting, words to make the vicar blush, reading, testing and IPA (which I’ve now run out of) but this COULD BE the dbc128 file copier transferring a .d71 disk image to a real floppy. I mean, it’s doing SOMETHING instead of giving me errors so it’s a start 😄

Chatting to the very excellent @tynemouthsoftware.co.uk and he inspired me to make a couple of changes to my C64-flavoured SD2IEC. Witness the SD2frankenstIEC(n). Needs more work on the name I think. It can’t work at the mo because both it and the internal 1571 are device 8. That’s for tomorrow.

Lovely Mr @futurewas8bit.bsky.social Hull, how fast can I obtain from your good self a C128 sd2iec please and thank you?

People who donate things, I salute you. One person in particular is known as Spooky Simon and he gave me the crate of C128 stuff I dug through two hours ago on a ‘fun things’ search. C128 (not browned!) + PSU 1571 drive 1541-II drive 1541 compatible C2N modem Carts Loads of disks GEOS! Oh yes.

Time to put the #lynxJapes to bed, it’s not going to get any more fixed now, and if the Cub fails I have 2 different backup plans. Next up: this beauty. It worked when I got it last year so it should be good. Not so sure about the 1080S screen for it, but I have 5 monitors this will plug into.