Stealth Speccy / membrane and faceplate replacement walkthrough
OwenBot
Dickinson prototypes, and having the opportunity to get a custom face
plate from RWAP, I decided to create a refurbished Spectrum, ready for
the ULAplus and SE Basic (there's a tokenizer so there's no need to
remember KEYWORD locations, or have them on the faceplate for that
matter).
I give you, the Stealth Speccy:
Matt Rudge
>
> I give you, the Stealth Speccy:
>
> http://bit.ly/a4QvPQ
Excellent - the photo of the completed Stealth Speccy is now there. Pity
you couldn't remove the keywords from the keys, but the custom faceplate
looks very sleek.
I'll be interested to see pictures it in action when you get the ULAplus
and ROM sorted.
--
Matt
OwenBot
wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:23:10 -0800, OwenBot wibbled:
>
>
>
> > I give you, the Stealth Speccy:
>
> >http://bit.ly/a4QvPQ
>
> Excellent - the photo of the completed Stealth Speccy is now there. Pity
> you couldn't remove the keywords from the keys,
Whatever they were printed with they are bonded to the rubber. I had
some luck using glass paper on a test area of the older keyboards, but
this one is in too good a condition. I think the only hope is going to
be to get a paint that's a good colour match for the rubber and paint
them out. For now it's less hassle to just leave them.
> but the custom faceplate looks very sleek.
Thanks. It was even better than I'd hoped for. It's amazing how people
don't notice the legends are missing from it at first. I have some
spares available if anyone else is interested in this mod.
> I'll be interested to see pictures it in action when you get the ULAplus
> and ROM sorted.
Well the ULAplus is not down to me, and the ROM won't be finished
until there's a real ULAplus to test it with. Hopefully both will be
later this year.
Duncan Snowden
The neatness of the original Speccy design still gives me a little
thrill nearly 30 years on.
You can say it wasn't a "real computer" if you like, but who uses
buckled-spring keyboards nowadays? If you think of the Spectrum as a
"device" - (one of) the first step(s) along the path to smartphones,
tablets, laptops, netbooks, etc - it fits neatly into that history as an
amazing piece of industrial design.
Preaching to the choir, I know. But let's be honest: it's still totally
*cool*, isn't it? Colin Chapman of Lotus used to say that if a component
wasn't doing - at least - two jobs, the design was over-engineered; his
motto was "simplify and add lightness". Sir Clive was[1] like a geeky
Chapman. I wonder if they ever met during the collaboration over the C5
chassis. (I'm trying to figure out dates in my head here; it may have
been after Chapman's death.)
[1] Yes, I know he's still about. But I'm talking about computers here.
He just doesn't have Chapman's genius for stuff with wheels. More's
the pity.
--
Duncan Snowden.
OwenBot
> > I give you, the Stealth Speccy:
>
> >http://bit.ly/a4QvPQ
>
> The neatness of the original Speccy design still gives me a little
> thrill nearly 30 years on.
I never owned the original machine back in the day but I have to
agree, it's an incredibly elegant piece of industrial design. I think
the tokens were overcomplicated, but I shouldn't complain since I
taught myself BASIC by reading the key legends. :)