Opus Supplies Ltd...?

LZ Suheimat

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Feb 15, 1995, 9:13:24 AM2/15/95

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I was digging about, and I found my Opus Discovery drive, but to my horror
it no longer seems to function :( does anyone know where I can get
Spares for it, are there any Schematics for it anywhere, and do Opus Ltd
still exist, and at what address...

Thanx :)

Brian Gaff

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Feb 15, 1995, 1:37:11 PM2/15/95

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In article <1995Feb15.1...@leeds.ac.uk>
agl...@york.ac.uk "LZ Suheimat" writes:

They do still exist, but no longer support the product. What
spares do you need, they are standard in most things. Its only
the ROM you would have problems with and I dare say one could be
blown for research purposes!

Brian

--
bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk - Email for Speccy membranes
Brian Gaff is B G Services - UK support for 'Z80'
The Spectrum Emulator

Marco Vacquier

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Feb 21, 1995, 7:31:07 AM2/21/95

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In article <792873...@bgserv.demon.co.uk>, bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk (Brian Gaff) writes:
>In article <1995Feb15.1...@leeds.ac.uk>
> agl...@york.ac.uk "LZ Suheimat" writes:
>
>>
>> I was digging about, and I found my Opus Discovery drive, but to my horror
>> it no longer seems to function :( does anyone know where I can get
>> Spares for it, are there any Schematics for it anywhere, and do Opus Ltd
>> still exist, and at what address...
>>
>> Thanx :)
>>
>>
>They do still exist, but no longer support the product. What
>spares do you need, they are standard in most things. Its only
>the ROM you would have problems with and I dare say one could be
>blown for research purposes!

The ROM is still available. The Sinclair Gebruikers Groep in the Netherlands has
it on its spare parts list. More difficult to obtain is the WD1770 disc
controler. I think that later ROM versions also supported the WD1772.

A better way of testing the Opus, is by checking the fuse in the mains connector,
checking the fuse on the pcb, cleaning the edge connector of the Opus and
Spectrum, cleaning the legs of the removable ICs and cleaning their sockets.
The a schematic is very easy to draw yourself, 'cause Opus only used standard
parts. It contains no ULAs, PALs,GALs, FPGAs except for one EPROM. It has
a power supply part using a 7812 and a 7805, an I/O chip: 68xx, the WD1770
disc controler and some 74xx TTL ICs.

The spare IC socket is meant to be for a
6116 SRAM chip. You need that one if you want to use any other diskdrive type
than the standard 40 tracks ss/sd. You can go up to two 80 tracks ds/dd drives.
Just inserting the SRAM is not enough to activate the higher capacity. It has to
be programmed before using it, by hmmm... my neurons have lost their contents
about that matter, but I know I have it somewhere in one of my magazines or
discs of the Discovery User Club. The DUC does not exist anymore since it merged
with the Sinclair Gebruikers Groep.

Brian Gaff

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Feb 22, 1995, 3:22:39 PM2/22/95

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The program you need was called CONFIG. I remember coding it as
telesoftware for Dave Corney when I did the s/w for Micronet. It
was a real pig, as the MC was in arrays!