Spectrum Cables : How many individual types of these are there "out there" both past and now?

harriusherbartio

So this is all about giving the SPECTRUM cables their correct cable titles to aid IDENTIFICATION OF CABLE TYPE and FUNCTION across the world.. An example of name variation for the same item would be RCA and PHONO.

In the past ,economies were different , control of markets was different and "naming power" (of cables in this case) could be affected by these diverse changes So by identifying all the Spectrum cable types , then finding all the name variations for similar items , this should make it easier to "get hold of" these Spectrum items by having a good knowledge of all the possible name .variations that may apply to each type of Spectrum cable with reference to these "time and place" variations

In addition each Spectrum type can have it own CORE CABLE REQUIREMENTS (cor I am impressed with that!). Go on !You know this is easy! But is is "taking the Mic to call it a Mic Lead?

harriusherbartio

One approach would be to start with the easy stuff . I think it gets harder with machines like the Plus 2 which have a variety of cables say for display purposes : the details about these and the alternative options are not known by everyone . So I suppose an inventory of cable types would be one thing to call it .

Some of these are generic cables that the Spectrum just happens to use and others are more specialist so this is where is gets more interesting . The 48k is the "easy one" and the colloquial names are easy : the "save mic" lead and the TV lead . The exact tech specs for these "common or garden" generic leads need a bit more thought .And are they called the same thing everywhere?

1024MAK

Can of worms springs to mind.... :)

Mark

guesser

Surely the way to describe any cable is just to say what connectors are at either end and what its function is. For things like Spectrum RGB cables or external +3 floppy cables you can also prefix with "proper" or "crap"...

harriusherbartio

Reply to guesser

Good point guesser : that keeps it simple

Yes I suppose the advantage in doing this is to work out the "missing bits" that could be useful

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Reply to Mark

Yes I am good with worms . I remember as a tiny kid I invented a story about "burping them up" .I went to the doctor with my mother My mother explained it to the doctor who immediately accepted my story unlike my mother who had appeared doubtful . He discretely whispered in my mother's ear who thereafter "bought into " my explanation immediately . I was just amazed at my "powers of invention". Bring on the worms that's what I say!

And then there was the time I stuck a small plastic handled screwdriver into the element of an electric fire to see what would happen : I remember a lot sparks and the screwdriver welded itself to the element despite me trying to tug it away. I explained to my mother how I had "whizzed about" screwdriver in hand and it had accidentally caught the element . My mother complained to the manufacturer about the poor protection offered by the fireguard.

1024MAK

Okay, into the fire...

RF / VHF / UHF aerial / antenna "TV" "video" cable! On the computer end, we have a Phono / RCA / Cinch connector. On the other end in Europe we have a TV aerial plug / Belling-Lee connector (IEC 61169-2 radio-frequency coaxial connector of type 9,52). F connectors may be used elsewhere around the world. The cable is (should be) a coaxial type. Phew! One down, about nine (or more) to go....!

Mark

1024MAK

16k / 48k / + / 128k (toastrack) cassette tape cable:
This is two cables moulded together. Each is a screened cable, and at each end of each, there are 3.5mm mono audio jack plugs. Normally one cable has one colour of jack plugs and the other cable has a different colour for the jack plugs.

Note the connectors are known by various names/terms:- phone connector, phone jack, audio jack, headphone jack or jack plug. Also by TS. In the U.K., the male connector is the jack plug, which goes in a (female) socket. But elsewhere (USA) jack often means the fixed (female) socket...

Mark

harriusherbartio

Thanks Mark

Only you could have described these 48k CORE cables as well as that .

I think I will "go through" my box to see what cables I have though I have not sorted them by "Spectrum " yet .There will be some unusual ones and the difficulty will be to remember why I got them . I labelled them with part no and assumed I would rember why I got them . There is a lesson for me there : in future labelling must include function as well as part no


Odd Ball leads and special leads
1) Mono Jack to Male Co-axial .Pro signal PSG00223 (possibly for the Zx-Uno??)
2) Male to Male Stereo Jack : Cable Poer CPAL008 3 metres (for use with PC emulation and tape recorder)
3) A grey (once moulded together but now pulled apart lead: Is a Save/Mic or a Load?Ear? And does it matter!!)
4) A mono 3.5mm male plug to 3.5mm Stereo Jack socket adapter (no labelled ID on it)
5) A +3 Spectrum with male stereo jack on one end and female cassette lead connectors on the other end 6) A 6) 6) A moulded joined together mono paired lead (as per Marks list above) and the TV leads
7) A computer cassette to PC lead with 5 pin DIN on one end and stereo jack on the other
8) A coax switch box . Male coax one end and switch box labelled AE ALT and lead labelled as TV. I tried it yesterday and it does not fir too well on a Speccys TV port (maybe Atari relevant?)
9) A very long (say 6 ft) joystick extended lead for standard Spectrum
10) DIY "wearsaver" coax lead male one end and female the other
11) A DIY joystick extender lead : 9 pin sub D connector on one end and grey 128+2 female connector on the other
12) Same as above DIY job but for standard 48k Spectrum
12) A pair of" properly made manufactured standard joystick extenders 2 coupled together : 6 ins long
13) A DIY lead labelled as "Spectrum +2 plug 8 pin DIN on one end : other end 7 pin DIN also wired up to stereo jack and labelled as set up for Hitachi TC monitor
14) A plug one end labelled Trilogic 0274 -691115 hand labelled ALI 1.5 metres design 1991 ( with 2 accompanying phono plugs on one end) : On the other end a23 pin serial one end and SCART the other (Wow wot did I use that for (its been put in the wrong box!) . Maybe something for the Opus Discovery's Daisy wheel printer !!

48k relevant ? Just 2 I think :-
1)Well maybe out of that lot the joystick (DB9 is it?) extender leads: both the short version (single and paired) and the long versions could be included as "wearsaver" relevant as they are useful for on a 48k Spectrum

2) Also the DIY TV coax lead (male to female) is a good "wearsaver" lead handy for saving wear on the 48k's TV socket

Some others are cassette recorder or emulation relevant so can be useful for Speccy relevant jobs but are not tied particularly to a 48k Spectrum. So I think I have added just 2 from the above list!

caver99

harrius the only computer or addon that can ever remember using a 23 way connector and if it's got 2 phobos and a scart that sounds like an amiga rgb lead matey

harriusherbartio

Reply to caver99

thanks for that info . I will label it up so I know! It was from that era when you buy it all up for very little and it was "too much to digest" and learn about so eventually I forgot where it came from . Thanks

caver99

no problem matey i still have half of one of them cables here just missing the scart connector as i no longer have a real amiga only the mist

caver99

still have a 48k spectrum plus, 128k plus 2b and a harlequin 48k and 128k in middle of building them up and still need to repair the discovery to use with them

caver99

and mod the 128k v1 into the v2b with 128k timings and ay full compatibility

harriusherbartio

Wow

harriusherbartio

The Final Protocol

T his will hopefully "emerge" over time In the meantime Guesser has put forward the idea that the connector type is the most important . The eventual aim therefore seems to be having a simple categorization based around connector type which also ties in to the widening range of "Speccy" genres . Doing the "core" as supplied cables is the first bit and then it can gradually be widened out to include the other genres like Emulation etc . This is the tricky bit as the "funnel" widens out considerably at this point . So maybe getting the core , as supplied , cables for all the basic main types of Speccy should be the "first step" as it gives a "good foundation" for later .

I just love the "prosaic" stuff!

harriusherbartio

The first step identified the "as supplied" cables (as Mark has kindly done for the48 K) The next bit is to decide how to usefully "widen the funnel" but still in a fairly basic way.

PUKKA means genuine or useful or solidly built , This can be "bent" slightly to PUCA so it works "a bit" and stands for . (Possibly useful core additions) to the "as supplied" cables . So the funnel is widened a bit to include other useful "everyday" cables like "wear-savers" and other non specialist items , . The PUKKA category is for seriously useful non specialist stuff in addition to the as supplied stuff . So the next idea is to build up a few more ideas for these apart from the 2 wear-savers I have included . Is this a good idea or not?

guesser

They're just bundles of wire with plugs on the ends. Does it really need to be so complicated?

1024MAK

guesser wrote: »

They're just bundles of wire with plugs on the ends. Does it really need to be so complicated?

Also known as "wet string" with "poky things" on the ends :D

Mark

1024MAK

On the subject of "wear-savers" (also known as Port Savers), do people actually use these?

You can (or at least you could in the past) get back to back D type "wear-savers" (a male connected directly to a female with no cable), which I never saw much point in, as I don't unplug and re-plug in cables very often. And apart from the plastic (e.g joystick 9 pin) D connectors, proper industrial metal D connectors often have a specified life of 500 or more cycles. Although the type with gold flash on the pins may only be specified for 100 cycles, but this just means the gold plating may wear through.

I do have some 9 pin D type extension leads, used mainly with my Atari ST/STE machines (due to the location of the mouse / joystick ports under the keyboard). So don't consider these as "wear-savers".

Mark

harriusherbartio

Ok : Getting towards a "Rough and Ready " list

So if we do not "widen the funnel" (no Pukkas) at all we just have the "as supplied" cables plus whatever cables for Speccy specialist sub genres people are interested in

So as the Plus is the same we can go straight on to cables "as supplied" for the Toast Rack 128k . In addition if anyone wants to chip in with any specialist cables (ie the ones they like or find useful) then these can be included in a specialist section if details of the connector types are included. As there are loads of sub genres cables could be interstibg here as well

However the Main List will eventually be simple when all the prioritization is done and the most useful cables decided on .

What cables came with the Toast Rack as originally supplied?

RobeeeJay

This list could be expanded to screws and chips, making it essentially a "what do I need to google or search on ebay for?" help sheet!

harriusherbartio

Yes

Good idea . Funnily enough I was thinking that about Capacitors to service all the types of Speccy then a bulk order could be possible for the guy who needs to service 10 Speccys .

And where where are we with cables? ( A bit screwed!) The trouble with the "as supplied" cables is that the tech has moved on . But to where? Still the "as supplied" cables has to be a starting point even if it is just for "retro-ness"

So Screws , chips , caps and cables could be on a big list . And the difficulty of getting the right type of screw is not to be underestimated

harriusherbartio

Reply to Mark

Yes I am a big fan of Port Savers there are just so much better than Port Simulators! Back in the day , when Speccys were intensively used and no one knew how to fix them they had their place (usually in a box under the desk if there were not attached to a Spectrum!)

More seriously though , everyone will use cables differently but a MAIN TYPE list could still be very useful even if hard to do . And it does not have to be done immediately it can be considered a "work in progress" that can be added to "as and when"

Re emulation Any chance of you doing the Mayflash screen shot? Thanks

harriusherbartio

Further reply to RobeeJay

And yes it would be quite good fun micro photoing the chips in an Issue 2 but I would never be able to afford an Issue 1

grey key

Has anyone mentioned Vince Cable yet ? :)

harriusherbartio

Further reply to RobeeJay

I think we should "stick to brief" in other words do just cable.

The reason is that I have another thread where I micro photo boards on an "ad hoc" basis ie when they need repair have interest me in some other way.

In fact this thread "Not bored with the Boards" has a fairly wide remit as I can put any Speccy related stuff in their provided I am not bored with it . So this thread would be ideal for the non cable stuff (Finally a decision!)

harriusherbartio

Rely to grey key

No I would not abuse Vince in that way

harriusherbartio

So the next bit is to find out what Cables were supplied with a Toastrack 128k . This should be easy

1024MAK

harriusherbartio wrote: »

Re emulation Any chance of you doing the Mayflash screen shot? Thanks

Whoops! Forgot #-o

Will try to remember to go and power up the laptop later...

Mark

1024MAK

harriusherbartio wrote: »

So the next bit is to find out what Cables were supplied with a Toastrack 128k . This should be easy

Can't help here. I only have a secondhand one, that came with nothing more than the computer... (and maybe a standard Sinclair TV/RF lead, about the only lead original users don't normally manage to loose...).

Mark

harriusherbartio

Reply to Mark

Thanks Mark I will try to look up the info on this