Hello there my fellow AmiBayers
Today, I am going to share with you something that has truly captivated me over the last couple of months.
Yes... in short, you can have an IDE Harddrive / CF card on your humble Spectrums.
Firstly this is NOT a sale thread (that comes later) this thread is all about sharing what I feel is like finding ancient pirate treasure
yeah... this stuff makes me giddy as a kid! =D
So a little history first...
A while back I got hold of a Spectrum 128k Toast Rack, then subsequently I traded with a fellow AmiBayer for an Interface 1 and a Microdive... I was truly hooked.... I mean grining like a mad man as I sat there for the n'th time just formatting a Microdrive cartidge!!
There was something magical about this little black box... it made me feel like I was 10 years old and all that magic wrapped up under that little box ...awesome indeed.
Now, as some of you know I have a DivIDE and a few other Spectrums, but these in a lot of ways are 1 way devices... "on comming traffic only" if you will - so your fine if you just want to take part in games... but theres no putting back if you will...
Over the last 8 months
I was collecting lots of systems for R3Play this year, which inevitably I found out I dont need LOL! so after refurbishing them, making sure that they do proud the homes that they goto I have sold most of my spares on.
In this timehowever my friend Yorkie gave me an ailing non-functioning +2B (black) .... after programming some new ROMs - +3e ROM(s) I found out that these have ability to use IDE hard disk devices!
So I followed in the footsteps of many and signed up to www.worldofspectrum.org as its a fantastic community and resource for the Spectrum collector. over the last three months I have learned more than I ever knew before, and the important thing I have learned is that there is SO MUCH MORE!
IDE hard disks (or cf adapters) on a Spectrum... (man its so awesome, surely it must be illegal?!)
Once I had discovered that these roms could use IDE devices, I had to build one... there are a couple of types too... 8bit and 16bit adapters.... 8bit adapters are simple to build for even an intermediate weilder of the iron! - although I will say they are time consuming!
Follow this link and you can build your own
Anyway I detest building wire loom prototypes, I just over analyze everything and I can wig-myself out if I am no carefull - So from the schematics on the interwebs I redesigned the Smallest PCB I could do and make and internal IDE interface for the Spectrum computer.
Here is my PCB design
I wanted the smallest I could make for an internal IDE device, this plugs into the Z80 CPU socket and provides an IDE header capable to run two IDE devices (Master and Slave)
I will put a link up later for those that want to download the eagle.brd file once I get some internet hosting sorted out... if there are any offers
Anyway... so I sent of a request to have 20 PCB's made as it was the only cost effective solution - since I used up all my pocket money sorting out other problems, my friend Beaker71 decided to help out and we shared buid and construction costs, so a big thumbs up for my good friend Jay!
anyway its now built.... would you like to see it?
they arrived in a non-descript package
I was very surprised at how tiny they actually are... so I went about making them up
here is the first of many -
and here is the back of it..
With all the help and support that I have receieved from WoS I wanted to thank them for all there help... so I put the URL on their I do hope that those that get one of these take some time over at WoS and enjoy some of the community that they have to offer!
Now, back to the PCB.... told you its tiny
Here is the army of minons... well squad 1 atleast lol.
So how does it look installed ?
The above is installed in a slightly Modified Spectrum +3, as you can see there are some standard power molex's comming from the bottom of the motherboard.
I will put up some pics on how to do this, its very simple and with a little care should be done within 10 minutes.
So heres a closer look at the height of the adapter in the +3
And a more acute angel...
Now, as some of my fellow Spectrum fans know the +2(AB) has a tapedeck system that dominates nearly a quarter ofthe chasis... so how does this stack up in one of those?
Well contrast here is a top down view of the +2(AB)
As you can see theres plenty of play to be had mounting devices and theres plenty of room to do so pending on what model you have.
A little bit about compatability
Now these 8bit devices are compatible with the Spectrum +2(AB) and +3 that are equipped with the +3e ROM. These adapters are also compatible with the humble 48k spectrum and 48k+ as well as long as these systems are equipped with the PP ROM (Pera Putnik ROM).
Finally these devices with a subtle modification are also compatible with the 128k Toast Rack and 128 +2 (Grey), again equipped with the PP ROM.
Now, I have yet to test this on a 48k or 128k thats equipped with a PPROM as I am waiting for some 48k spectrums to get here first LOL.. so for the moment I am focusing on the +3e systems (that includes the black +2)
So does it all work ?
Well yes it does... wanna see?
as the Spectrum booted up - there it was that "1 Floppy, 1 IDE" - whooho
So using my emulator (FUSE) I have made some youtubes on its use and how to prepare a hard disk device.
Formatting, Partitioning and Erasing
Demonstration of the 8bit IDE and +3e (under fuse)
The above is a direct copy of the CF card that is in the +2e =)
So with these devices I can load game snapshots and save my basic or code programs... I can convert tape and FDD games / applications to run from my internal CF hard disk - its just the hook to bring me into this world of Spectrum, and apprecaite it from the inside out!
Limitiations
There are some limitations though... because the device is 8BIT it wont work with 16bit ATAPI devices like ZIP drives / CDROM's or LS120/240's. The other drawback is because of its 8bit nature you can only access half of the 16bit deivce... say you have a 1GB device... you can only access (use) 512MB of it.... thats over 10,000 48k snapshot files!
+3e DOS partitions are limimted to a maximum of 16MB.. now that might sound low... but thats over 340 48k Snapshot files!
I have found that going back to the spectrum has given me a new found appreciation for just 1MB of space!
Also its a little convoluted in getting data onto the 8bit IDE devices, as all the software wont read half sectors, however there are some programs that do help emensly, I will be doing a guide shortly on these.
So where am I taking this?
Well I want to develop a simple SNAPSHOT launcher for the +3e DOS and eventually the PPROM - it will be very similar to my AG-Launch package forthe Amiga.
from that... I want to write an adventure / dungeon crawller with some fellow crazies for the system =)
Anyway I do hope you enjoyed this first installment... I hope that you follow me onto the next one and we can get some real shared fun going.
Today, I am going to share with you something that has truly captivated me over the last couple of months.
Yes... in short, you can have an IDE Harddrive / CF card on your humble Spectrums.
Firstly this is NOT a sale thread (that comes later) this thread is all about sharing what I feel is like finding ancient pirate treasure
yeah... this stuff makes me giddy as a kid! =D
So a little history first...
A while back I got hold of a Spectrum 128k Toast Rack, then subsequently I traded with a fellow AmiBayer for an Interface 1 and a Microdive... I was truly hooked.... I mean grining like a mad man as I sat there for the n'th time just formatting a Microdrive cartidge!!
There was something magical about this little black box... it made me feel like I was 10 years old and all that magic wrapped up under that little box ...awesome indeed.
Now, as some of you know I have a DivIDE and a few other Spectrums, but these in a lot of ways are 1 way devices... "on comming traffic only" if you will - so your fine if you just want to take part in games... but theres no putting back if you will...
Over the last 8 months
I was collecting lots of systems for R3Play this year, which inevitably I found out I dont need LOL! so after refurbishing them, making sure that they do proud the homes that they goto I have sold most of my spares on.
In this timehowever my friend Yorkie gave me an ailing non-functioning +2B (black) .... after programming some new ROMs - +3e ROM(s) I found out that these have ability to use IDE hard disk devices!
So I followed in the footsteps of many and signed up to www.worldofspectrum.org as its a fantastic community and resource for the Spectrum collector. over the last three months I have learned more than I ever knew before, and the important thing I have learned is that there is SO MUCH MORE!
IDE hard disks (or cf adapters) on a Spectrum... (man its so awesome, surely it must be illegal?!)
Once I had discovered that these roms could use IDE devices, I had to build one... there are a couple of types too... 8bit and 16bit adapters.... 8bit adapters are simple to build for even an intermediate weilder of the iron! - although I will say they are time consuming!
Follow this link and you can build your own
Anyway I detest building wire loom prototypes, I just over analyze everything and I can wig-myself out if I am no carefull - So from the schematics on the interwebs I redesigned the Smallest PCB I could do and make and internal IDE interface for the Spectrum computer.
Here is my PCB design
I wanted the smallest I could make for an internal IDE device, this plugs into the Z80 CPU socket and provides an IDE header capable to run two IDE devices (Master and Slave)
I will put a link up later for those that want to download the eagle.brd file once I get some internet hosting sorted out... if there are any offers
Anyway... so I sent of a request to have 20 PCB's made as it was the only cost effective solution - since I used up all my pocket money sorting out other problems, my friend Beaker71 decided to help out and we shared buid and construction costs, so a big thumbs up for my good friend Jay!
anyway its now built.... would you like to see it?
they arrived in a non-descript package
I was very surprised at how tiny they actually are... so I went about making them up
here is the first of many -
and here is the back of it..
With all the help and support that I have receieved from WoS I wanted to thank them for all there help... so I put the URL on their I do hope that those that get one of these take some time over at WoS and enjoy some of the community that they have to offer!
Now, back to the PCB.... told you its tiny
Here is the army of minons... well squad 1 atleast lol.
So how does it look installed ?
The above is installed in a slightly Modified Spectrum +3, as you can see there are some standard power molex's comming from the bottom of the motherboard.
I will put up some pics on how to do this, its very simple and with a little care should be done within 10 minutes.
So heres a closer look at the height of the adapter in the +3
And a more acute angel...
Now, as some of my fellow Spectrum fans know the +2(AB) has a tapedeck system that dominates nearly a quarter ofthe chasis... so how does this stack up in one of those?
Well contrast here is a top down view of the +2(AB)
As you can see theres plenty of play to be had mounting devices and theres plenty of room to do so pending on what model you have.
A little bit about compatability
Now these 8bit devices are compatible with the Spectrum +2(AB) and +3 that are equipped with the +3e ROM. These adapters are also compatible with the humble 48k spectrum and 48k+ as well as long as these systems are equipped with the PP ROM (Pera Putnik ROM).
Finally these devices with a subtle modification are also compatible with the 128k Toast Rack and 128 +2 (Grey), again equipped with the PP ROM.
Now, I have yet to test this on a 48k or 128k thats equipped with a PPROM as I am waiting for some 48k spectrums to get here first LOL.. so for the moment I am focusing on the +3e systems (that includes the black +2)
So does it all work ?
Well yes it does... wanna see?
as the Spectrum booted up - there it was that "1 Floppy, 1 IDE" - whooho
So using my emulator (FUSE) I have made some youtubes on its use and how to prepare a hard disk device.
Formatting, Partitioning and Erasing
Demonstration of the 8bit IDE and +3e (under fuse)
The above is a direct copy of the CF card that is in the +2e =)
So with these devices I can load game snapshots and save my basic or code programs... I can convert tape and FDD games / applications to run from my internal CF hard disk - its just the hook to bring me into this world of Spectrum, and apprecaite it from the inside out!
Limitiations
There are some limitations though... because the device is 8BIT it wont work with 16bit ATAPI devices like ZIP drives / CDROM's or LS120/240's. The other drawback is because of its 8bit nature you can only access half of the 16bit deivce... say you have a 1GB device... you can only access (use) 512MB of it.... thats over 10,000 48k snapshot files!
+3e DOS partitions are limimted to a maximum of 16MB.. now that might sound low... but thats over 340 48k Snapshot files!
I have found that going back to the spectrum has given me a new found appreciation for just 1MB of space!
Also its a little convoluted in getting data onto the 8bit IDE devices, as all the software wont read half sectors, however there are some programs that do help emensly, I will be doing a guide shortly on these.
So where am I taking this?
Well I want to develop a simple SNAPSHOT launcher for the +3e DOS and eventually the PPROM - it will be very similar to my AG-Launch package forthe Amiga.
from that... I want to write an adventure / dungeon crawller with some fellow crazies for the system =)
Anyway I do hope you enjoyed this first installment... I hope that you follow me onto the next one and we can get some real shared fun going.
with the first in line 
will be keeping a keen eye on this 
