Adding IDE to your Spectrum +2 A/B (or +3)
Hello my fellow WoS'ers
This is a shared thread with www.amibay.com which you can see here
I don't often get to do a Show and Tell as I would like but today is different since I am suffering from insomnia I might as well make it work in my favour!
Before I start I would like to thank and greet the following
Garry Lancaster, Pera Putnik, the people whom maintain the +3e web site and Nuggetreggae for some amazing work in converting games!
So would you like to know how to add IDE mass storage on you Spectrum +2AB or +3 ?
Then let us begin -
Theres +2AB.... awaiting with excitement
Locating the Screw Holes
Gently does it, or you could break the plastic screw holders
Disconnect the Cassette Header
Disconnect the Keyboard Ribbons
Very carefully - dont be to sudden with them
And now we can begin....
(White Lab coats are optional at this stage....)
This is a shared thread with www.amibay.com which you can see here
I don't often get to do a Show and Tell as I would like but today is different since I am suffering from insomnia I might as well make it work in my favour!
Before I start I would like to thank and greet the following
Garry Lancaster, Pera Putnik, the people whom maintain the +3e web site and Nuggetreggae for some amazing work in converting games!
So would you like to know how to add IDE mass storage on you Spectrum +2AB or +3 ?
Then let us begin -
Theres +2AB.... awaiting with excitement
Locating the Screw Holes
Gently does it, or you could break the plastic screw holders
Disconnect the Cassette Header
Disconnect the Keyboard Ribbons
Very carefully - dont be to sudden with them
And now we can begin....
(White Lab coats are optional at this stage....)
Post edited by Zetr0 on
Comments
Theres 5 screws and there not that tight
Gently does it and there wont be any problems
And there she is.... cute and pretty
Removing the ROM's
Only experienced and danger defying Hackers use screwdrivers to levy IC's from their sockets - (BE WARNED!)
A world in a Chip.... a Zilog Z80 chip.... one of the most ubiquitous chips in the known universe!
Its in everything that an Arm or a Motorola isnt.... so check your underwear!
Woah... thats some Dirty Interfaces.... we better get this filth clean!
Always read the label....
Then check with Google any words with more than two syllables (best check that first) and any words without vowels
A Big juicy bottle of isopropyl alcohol -
would of preferred a good triple distilled Vodka, alas this will have to do.... just gotta fight the Wino's off first!
Clever me decided to put some 99.99% IPA into a small spray bottle....
I have clever moments.... just don't tell!!!
Theres no Escape from the IPA Spray bottle... all will be covered..... fingers, hands and clothing included!
Behold!!
The Cue Tip of extra Cleanlyness +12
Whoa..... I am sure the great outdoors has less dirt than that!
I best watch out for falling fossils!
An important area, here is where we will be adding a couple of power rails =D
The shiney shiney shine of IPA SHINEY!
Yes.... soon the cue tip will ensure proper connection master......
Spray away those years with the Spray Away IPA Way!
Not even these 4 power terminals are safe from the Cleaning cue-tip of Doom!
The original Flux capacitor!
(my flux droper bottle)
Here I add some flux liquid to the power terminals - I find the underside of the board easier to start from.
I always recommend to use a good NO CLEAN and NON CORROSIVE flux....
If you wonder why I capitalize these words... I suggest imagining the consequence of putting your PCB / Motherboard in industrial strength super concentrated Acid.... Or any Handy nearby A500+ that still has its battery =)
This is the heating part of the heat and suck protocol!
And Pump.... suck those terminals right up
An even closer shot of the power terminals..... see I spoil you lot.....
Excelent I can see through to the other side....
En' Voila
Holy terminals of much need power rails note the +12v (top) and +5v (bottom) silk masking
Ahhh the classic 4 pin Floppy Power Molex..... How I love thee!
So much so that I snipped and tinned the leads =)
Lets get the colour code right.... red = +5v, yellow = +12v and black = Ground
And this is how you fit the new power rail
(Power soldering .... all four at the same time gets you bonus points and a new trophy unlock!)
Yes... the most handiest tool in the tool box....
Nail clippers.... they take a smidge of practice.... but once you have the nack..... you can use these for almost anything!
And There you have it.... a new power rail... waiting to be used.....
Please note that on the +2AB theres not much +12v juice... so ensure the device you plumb up to it doesn't use it ( or less than 0.3amps )
And since I am on my soap box, remember to keep kids inside..... and playing video games.... its the only way they will learn!
The magic Posi-driver (aka Philips) as it majestically screws the motherboard once again back into the tray.
The hard part is over!
Ahh a box of golden delight!
We have a generic CF to 40 pin IDE adapter snuggled up to a Sandisk 256MB CF Card that is getting a cuddle from 15CM's of delicious golden IDE cable that is be wooed by a smart looking Z80 to IDE adapter that also chatting up a couple of +3e ROM chips!
The CPU is installed into the IDE Adapter (pay close attention to the orientation as well how clean my fingers are!)
Ahhh the lovely sandwich of mass storage and spectrum....
Ensure that none of those pesky ceramic caps get in the way of a good board mating with the Adapter - again note the direction as well ho clean my thumb nail is!)
Dadaaaaa!!!!
Looks great.... you have done a good job so far!
With a bit of sneakyness you can pull the power rail underneath the IDE adapter and using a ceramic capacitor lock it into place.
Like a BOSS!
Ahhh a golden beauty of an IDE cable.... its Halogen Free btw... I spare no expense!
(I should tell you now there is a difference in each end of the connector)
Now IDC is very stiff stuff... as Black adder would say its made with stiffest stuff that McStiffy of Stiffwood could find on his stiffest shelf of stiffest things!
So to make it more manoeuvrable we need to pleat the wire... to do this we simply put a nick into the plastic after every forth wire
Continue on with the pleat by gently pushing the small nick that separates like so.....
now do this..... another 9 times!!!
And here is one I pleated earlier!
we get to braid it next or dreadlocks which ever!
Its like Christmas!!!
Plugged in the IDE cable - notice the IDE connector has an extra roll - this is to denote the Device Side of the IDE cable.
As you can also see I plugged in a very handsome SanDisk 256MB CF Card!
And here is the HOST end of the IDE cable... see the difference?
Next time I will use different colours!
Ahhh the magic that makes the... err... magic happen!
Its the +3e ROM's \o/\O/\o/ YAY \o/\O/\o/
Here is how and where fit ROM (B) - all nice and cosy next to the dapper looking IDE adapter ;)
And here is where you install ROM (A) - right next to ROM (B) in fact....
Connecting the IDE to the HOST
Ahhh gently (but firmly) does it! Note the orientation of pin 1 (Red Strip Wire)
Add the Power to the CF Adapter
Gently (but firmly) Bend the IDE wire into the right position... see how it curls.... beautiful isn't it?
The easiest way to ensure the Device stays in place (without damaging your precious Sinclair joy is to use Hot-Glue...
Since I have a hot-air gun, I cut pieces and place them where I want them (saves all that messy dripping mess) - you can get a hobbyist hot-air gun that would do the job perfectly for very little cost.
measuring out the size needed for the hot-glue pieces.
Angry looking hot-glue pieces... or slightly confused?
Just melting the larger piece of hot-glue to affix it to the adapter.
Here I am fixing the larger hot-glue piece at the front of the adapter
Gently melting hot-glue piece for the other corner
Make sure you get the two corners and get heat to the front as well, spread the heat around so that it evenly melts.
Hot glue can take a while to set..... but once it does!!!
Yep... a wholesome image!
Isnt it pretty worth another shot if you ask me!
And another glorious shot of the adapter and device fitted!
Reassemble
Gently but firmly insert the keyboard tail - I found pinching pressure was enough.
Dont forget to hook-up the cassette tape header..
.... dont you think that little CF card looks right at home there.... One could easily bring it forward and make a CF-Card access port at the font of the case... for easy access.
Here she is booted up with a 64MB CF card - quick test before screwing her back together.
A splash screen before the Game Launcher loads -
Now If you haven't been to on of these guys events.... then you REALLY ought to try!
Ahh the +3e Game Launcher....
I wrote that =D
Ahhhh Jetpac on the +2AB.... oh yeah!
Next How-To..... Getting Games and Data onto the IDE Device!
Sadly at the moment, I will have to update the whole project log images and store it with postimage... thats over 70 images.... its not a worry.... I can do it...
YES, I am =)
The adapters I have will run out of the box on any +2A/B or +3. You will need a ROM update I can offer appropriate blank ROM's for ?4 with a free programming serivce =)
I can offer kits which include
1x CF to IDE Adapter
1x 15cm IDE Cable
1x 8bit IDE Adapter
1x Power molex
1x Set of Blank EEPROM's (with free programming)
?25 + PnP
This particular adapter also has a NMI debouncing circuit and header so this (in combination with Pera's PPROM) will work on the Spectrum 48k / 128k machines.
There are a few options for power. I have several scrap AT supplies in my junk box that I use for jobs like these (note, AT not ATX). I would say these are the easiest thing to use, just de-solder the original wire loom and solder a 4 core cable on instead, terminating in a DIN plug for the +3. Just plug in and switch on. (black hammerite optional ;))
An ATX supply can be used but is a bit more involved as these need wires grounding to make them turn on, and in some case will only run if there is a certain load present, there are countless tutorials on the web to do this though.
Finally there are power supplies available with just 12v, 5v, and ground, designed for powering hard drives. If you use one of these you don't have a -12v supply for the serial port buffers but the speccy does run fine without it.
can anyone get masterdos and masterbasic to support the Atome lite please
the pcb has two ide connectors only one is used on the end
if the pcb could be turned upside down - i realise this means all the pins are no longer conencted to the right pins in the disc drive socket but were it possible to redesign then the second ide connection could be used with another right angle connection to be on top of the pcb giving four compact flash cards - need rom rewrite too? no room for a DMA or 4mb of external ram kalidoscope II?!
There you go =)
That looks like a fun design, I may have a crack at making an SMD version of that and then a CPLD varient
who's R.J. and is that bad?
Sometimes I wish we had more guides likes yours - not everybody is an electronics/soldering iron-genius :smile:
schombi.de/my-retro-collection.html"
I've PM'ed you
They didn't work for me either, until after i logged on to amibay, then all the pictures showed up in all their glorious... erm, glory here too. Now ain't that just peculiar?
Feel free to help yourself to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3 Manual.pdf
the +3e conversions still continue, but i've spent the last month reconverting all my conversions to tap files having at last bought a DivIDE (incidentally the 512MB CF supplied with it had all my pentagon demo fixes on it, without so much as a mention, and Lotharek was fairly sharp with me while ordering..... liberties!) and a spectranet and 2 V6Z80P's (what a cool board!!!! gotta try my hand with programming that bad boy sometime...)
Love the reference to RJ! I heard rumours he showed up on the Atom designers doorstep and didnt leave for weeks, ranting incoherencies! seem to remember the police got involved!
A spambot could never come up with some of the classics he spouted! Happy NY everyone!
Thanks for the kind words guys, I am quite humbled indeed. while the adapter does look delicious its nothing without the hard work and generosity of Pera, Garry and nuggetreggae.
Those of you whom cannot see any of the how-to pics, dont worry I will hopefully get them up for or over the weekend, sadly AmiBay albums are only viewable to members - if you cannot wait that long, I would recommend that you signup to AmiBay - its free and theres lots of retrolicious mischief from all over the world going on there!
@Nuggetreggae
Good to read you my friend, thanks for the call over the holidays it most certainly brought in some more cheer! hopefully we get to catchup soon my friend =)
TWO V6Z80PO's!!!!.... that just greedy that is... and quite rightious too!
So I shall link them again for the non-AmiBay Members
Opening Spectrum +2AB
Removing the Motherboard
Removing IC's
Cleaning Motherboard & Contacts
Preparing Power point
Power Point
Adapter Kit (FULL)
IDE Cable Detail
Installing IDE to Device
Installing +3e ROM
Install IDE to Host
Fixing Device to Spectrum
Reassembling Spectrum
Conclusion
.... phew..... lots of images!!!!
One question though, if you were planning to use a compact flash adapter, why didn't you supply power the non standard way which seems to be standard on CF-IDE adapters. (Confusing I know :D)
On a +2e I would be inclined to cut out a section from the eternal floppy drive slot and position the CF adapter there.
There's not a huge amount of clearance above the printer slot and you'd have to insulate everything carefully if you were going to mount the CF board above exposed circuitry.
Hot glue is an awesome substance! one can never have enough of it... I think my workshop is held together by it!
Now, to be honest, I am stickler for tradition, the main point of these adapters is to add a HDD, putting power to pin 20 is asking for trouble from the Z80 Socket.
I will probably revise the design for 8bit CF - so it plugs directly to CF including power from Z80 socket, as these are low-power devices.
yes the +3 has the most room, and enough to easily mount a Dual CF adapter at the rear where the Printer port is.
I have seen my friend Mike on AmiBay do this and its a great idea. he However modified his so that it would be a low-profile as possible.
In the +2AB, because of the Cassette mechanism I doubt there would be enough room for a CF to IDE adapter.... perhaps an 44pin variant as these are low-profile.
44 Pin IDE to CF adapter - ?1.59 Buy It Now (in postage)
You can then convert the 44pin IDC cable to 40 pin and 5v Power - I am sure it would look very SMOOTH.
Also if one wasn't afraid of hacking the case a bit, there are some positions at the front that would be grand.... just under the right corner of the keyboard and - with a little effort, under the floppy drive mech on the +3