Original ZX Spectrum +3, drive repair drive
In one of the September days, I came across a post with a description of the native Sinclair ZX Spectrum and thought. But this is a great idea! Of course, I knew about the existence of emulators on PCs, iPhones and even browsers, but all this was not fun. It seems the game is the same, but here is not the soul. And then I realized that for me personally it is connected with childhood and that what was released after 92-93 on this topic does not bother me anymore. It was at this time in my life Speccy ousted 8-bit consoles Dendy, and later the first own 386th IBM PC.
So I went to http://ebay.co.uk and immediately found some quite decent lots with the original British ZX.
')
Asked out and chose a set of ZX Spectrum +3 with a built-in drive (a childhood dream!), A cassette recorder, native instructions, a pair of joysticks, a pistol and a scattering of cassettes. Without thinking, made the first bet of 30 pounds. As a result, I won the whole set for 97 pounds, plus another 50 pounds I gave for shipping to the USA (a very heavy power supply unit, all together weighed about 8 kg). The seller, with joy, put in several native floppy disks and a couple of games for free.
The package arrived in just three days, it was not even a pity for the money given for it. The fascinating process of unpacking ended with the awareness of emerging problems.
The first problem was solved very simply by buying an adapter and a 110v converter -> 220v in the nearest store.
The second problem was a bit more complicated. Having studied the English-language sites, I assumed that I had a typical problem with a worn out drive belt of the drive motor. 99% of the original ZX Spectrum +3 wears this rubber belt very quickly. I ordered it from Dataserve-retro.co.uk for 3 pounds with delivery.
Then he proceeded to cover the patient:
First you need to unscrew the two screws from the drive. Another five screws below. After that, gently raise the keyboard and disconnect the LED wire from the board. Keyboards do not advise touch, they are often fragile and easily damaged.
This is what the LED wire looks like:
My copy is quite well preserved and has a serial number Amstrad (as we remember, Sir Clive Sinclair sold all rights to the production of Amstrad).
We unscrew one bolt to the left, which secures the disk drive to the board. Carefully disconnect the cables from the drive. As a result, we get a drive that is free for our manipulations. The next step is to disconnect the side cables inside the drive. It is more convenient to do this either with tweezers or with long, narrow pliers. I just picked them up with a small tail and gently stretched my fingers. This action is optional, but will give us much more space to replace the belt.
Next, unscrew the three bolts that attach the board to the drive case (indicated by green arrows):
The location of these bolts may vary on some drives, but this is the most frequent model.
Slightly shift the board to the side, only to remove the read / write indicator from the drive case and raise the board for the back. It is most likely not necessary to completely disconnect the board. We study in what condition the old belt drive. Most likely you will see the remains of it inside, or wound on a small golden spire at the back on the right (as viewed from the face of the drive). My old belt looked like this:
Carefully remove all residues and clean the spire with a cotton swab. I dabbed it with alcohol and gently rolled it over the roller several times. Next, take a new belt and gently dress on the spire and a round black piece under the board.
During manipulations with the drive board, you should not turn it over. Otherwise, a stub blocking the writing to floppy disks may fall. In this case, it must be returned to the place near the bottom screw under the board. The stub on this photo is the second one on the right in the back row (by the way, all the screws that appear after the assembly):
Putting it all in reverse order and hopefully turn on the Speccy. Hooray! The disk drive stopped making strange sounds and earned. Rather, insert the original 3-inch floppy disk and check the work. By the way, the original ZX Spectrum +3 comes with built-in support for the operating disk system + 3DOS. Check work:
Instructions from the manufacturer of the drive belt drive can be found here: www.dataserve-retro.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d33.html
As a result, only the third problem remained with me - displaying images on a modern LCD / LED TV.
With this it turned out the hardest. I did not get along with the UHF wire, the TV does not see the signal even through adapters. And according to reviews, this is the most low-quality option.
I bought the following wire from British manufacturers:
Plus I ordered an adapter for Amazon on Scart -> RCA (tulip):
As a result, I received a black and white image with the cropped bottom. As far as I understand the problem with color due to the incompatibility of my TV with PAL (99% of TVs in the US support only NTSC). And because of what occurs circumcision about one-fourth of the screen below? Any ideas?
UPDATE: Received PAL Converter -> NTSC. The result is strange - the image is now completely fit on the screen, but still black and white. At the same time, a significant delay (> 1 second) appeared during image output. I will send this converter back to the producer, it will be impossible to play with such a delay.
What conclusions can be drawn from this? Bad converter or do you need a completely different solution?
I still see these options for myself:
What do you think, which option will work?
UPDATE 2: I tried the converter to VGA. As a result, I received again a black and white picture, only it is quite static, the image does not change.
I do not even know what to think now.
UPDATE 3: I carefully examined my Scart -> Tulips converter and found (suddenly!) That it turns out to convert YPbPr into a component signal, but not at all into a composite one, as I assumed. In theory, sticking to the correct input on my TV, I had to get the picture without any adapters. But unfortunately my TV does not support 240p resolution on the component input. How to finally check it - accomplish your goal.
Found a description of the exact same case: www.retro-otaku.com
And here is a detailed description of my converter with a photo: www.gamesx.com
Thank you andrewsh , sent thoughts in the right direction.
So I went to http://ebay.co.uk and immediately found some quite decent lots with the original British ZX.
')
Asked out and chose a set of ZX Spectrum +3 with a built-in drive (a childhood dream!), A cassette recorder, native instructions, a pair of joysticks, a pistol and a scattering of cassettes. Without thinking, made the first bet of 30 pounds. As a result, I won the whole set for 97 pounds, plus another 50 pounds I gave for shipping to the USA (a very heavy power supply unit, all together weighed about 8 kg). The seller, with joy, put in several native floppy disks and a couple of games for free.
The package arrived in just three days, it was not even a pity for the money given for it. The fascinating process of unpacking ended with the awareness of emerging problems.
- First, the power supply unit with a British plug maintained the voltage strictly 220-240 volts. And we have a standard 110 volts in the US.
- Secondly, when you turn on the drive emitted strange sounds.
- Thirdly, the easiest way to display an image on TV using the UHF connector also did not suit me for one simple reason - even in this, Americans are ahead of the rest and use a completely different connector.
The first problem was solved very simply by buying an adapter and a 110v converter -> 220v in the nearest store.
The second problem was a bit more complicated. Having studied the English-language sites, I assumed that I had a typical problem with a worn out drive belt of the drive motor. 99% of the original ZX Spectrum +3 wears this rubber belt very quickly. I ordered it from Dataserve-retro.co.uk for 3 pounds with delivery.
Then he proceeded to cover the patient:
First you need to unscrew the two screws from the drive. Another five screws below. After that, gently raise the keyboard and disconnect the LED wire from the board. Keyboards do not advise touch, they are often fragile and easily damaged.
This is what the LED wire looks like:
My copy is quite well preserved and has a serial number Amstrad (as we remember, Sir Clive Sinclair sold all rights to the production of Amstrad).
We unscrew one bolt to the left, which secures the disk drive to the board. Carefully disconnect the cables from the drive. As a result, we get a drive that is free for our manipulations. The next step is to disconnect the side cables inside the drive. It is more convenient to do this either with tweezers or with long, narrow pliers. I just picked them up with a small tail and gently stretched my fingers. This action is optional, but will give us much more space to replace the belt.
Next, unscrew the three bolts that attach the board to the drive case (indicated by green arrows):
The location of these bolts may vary on some drives, but this is the most frequent model.
Slightly shift the board to the side, only to remove the read / write indicator from the drive case and raise the board for the back. It is most likely not necessary to completely disconnect the board. We study in what condition the old belt drive. Most likely you will see the remains of it inside, or wound on a small golden spire at the back on the right (as viewed from the face of the drive). My old belt looked like this:
Carefully remove all residues and clean the spire with a cotton swab. I dabbed it with alcohol and gently rolled it over the roller several times. Next, take a new belt and gently dress on the spire and a round black piece under the board.
During manipulations with the drive board, you should not turn it over. Otherwise, a stub blocking the writing to floppy disks may fall. In this case, it must be returned to the place near the bottom screw under the board. The stub on this photo is the second one on the right in the back row (by the way, all the screws that appear after the assembly):
Putting it all in reverse order and hopefully turn on the Speccy. Hooray! The disk drive stopped making strange sounds and earned. Rather, insert the original 3-inch floppy disk and check the work. By the way, the original ZX Spectrum +3 comes with built-in support for the operating disk system + 3DOS. Check work:
Instructions from the manufacturer of the drive belt drive can be found here: www.dataserve-retro.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d33.html
As a result, only the third problem remained with me - displaying images on a modern LCD / LED TV.
With this it turned out the hardest. I did not get along with the UHF wire, the TV does not see the signal even through adapters. And according to reviews, this is the most low-quality option.
I bought the following wire from British manufacturers:
Plus I ordered an adapter for Amazon on Scart -> RCA (tulip):
As a result, I received a black and white image with the cropped bottom. As far as I understand the problem with color due to the incompatibility of my TV with PAL (99% of TVs in the US support only NTSC). And because of what occurs circumcision about one-fourth of the screen below? Any ideas?
UPDATE: Received PAL Converter -> NTSC. The result is strange - the image is now completely fit on the screen, but still black and white. At the same time, a significant delay (> 1 second) appeared during image output. I will send this converter back to the producer, it will be impossible to play with such a delay.
What conclusions can be drawn from this? Bad converter or do you need a completely different solution?
I still see these options for myself:
- Order another PAL -> NTSC converter, see the result.
- Try converter tulips -> VGA. For example:
- There is a way to make a composite output from the standard RF output on the ZX Spectrum. Described in detail here . But apparently at the exit I will still have PAL, and this I have already achieved.
- Bring from Russia TV, which will support PAL :) The last option, but also has the right to life.
What do you think, which option will work?
UPDATE 2: I tried the converter to VGA. As a result, I received again a black and white picture, only it is quite static, the image does not change.
I do not even know what to think now.
UPDATE 3: I carefully examined my Scart -> Tulips converter and found (suddenly!) That it turns out to convert YPbPr into a component signal, but not at all into a composite one, as I assumed. In theory, sticking to the correct input on my TV, I had to get the picture without any adapters. But unfortunately my TV does not support 240p resolution on the component input. How to finally check it - accomplish your goal.
Found a description of the exact same case: www.retro-otaku.com
And here is a detailed description of my converter with a photo: www.gamesx.com
Thank you andrewsh , sent thoughts in the right direction.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/155697/
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