srusher.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

TNMOC are having a "Bring'n'Byte" sale it seems. Pity I'm busy that day.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Retro Jumble -Step back to the 80s on Saturday, July 19th, 2025, 10 AM - 4 PM Grab a piece of computing history (Amstrad, Commodore, Dragon & more!). Your ticket includes £10 off any Jumble purchase & FREE museum entry. Don't miss out! Book now: ow.ly/nqZv50WhhCO #VintageComputers #1980sTech

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

My #Sinclair #QL bare metal diagnostic ROM is now good enough to use in anger and has been made version 0.10 to celebrate. github.com/stephen-ushe... As long as the machine has minimally working ZX8301, ZX8302 and CPU it should be able to output useful data to a serial port. No RAM required.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Meanwhile…. Vladimir Putin tells a news conference in St Petersburg ‘I consider the Russian and Ukrainian people to be one nation. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours… There is an old rule: Where a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours.’

submitted 7 days ago • 13 comments

I've spent the morning completely replacing the base memory error reporting for the #sinclair QL diag ROM. It now actually produces something useful and usable. Serial port gets fault address and bad bit mask. Screen gets colour bars, first denoting which RAM bank plus 8 more for the bits 7 -> 0.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

After battling documentation which was unclear or just plain wrong and an emulator which required status registers to be read twice to get a valid value I've finally got IPC communications working on the #sinclair #ql bare metal diagnostic ROM. It was a major roadblock. youtu.be/Uvuj6TJSwe4?...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

I'm currently trying to write a diagnostic ROM for the #sinclair #ql which replaces the main ROM and should give diagnostics out of ser1 even if the base RAM is missing. Currently very rudimentary, should be useful for memory testing. Collaboration for coding welcome. github.com/stephen-ushe...

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

🌍 | This Sunday (8 June) is #WorldOceanDay Helen Johnson, Professor of Ocean and Climate Science @oxuniearthsci.bsky.social‬, is unlocking the mysteries of the ocean. Find out about her work and the role our oceans play in mitigating climate change. ⬇️ www.ox.ac.uk/climate-and-... #OxfordClimate

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Good news. The conductive paint arrived today and it completely repaired the Zero 1 keypad.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Today's fun was not computer related... Fixing my Denon mid-90s tape deck which had stopped listening to tapes. Got no-where until I washed the control/display board with isopropyl alcohol to get rid of flux residue so as to see the solder joints. Flux residue had become conductive!

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

Well, that's why the keypad on the Zero 1 was not working correctly. The conductive paint on the rubber pads which contact the contacts on the PCB have worn through. I have conductive paint on order but as a contingency I've designed a replacement keypad PCB which uses SMD switches.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Back home after RetroFest2025 and shattered. I'm going to have to take a look at the keypad on the Zero 1 master controller and see if I can renovate the carbon impregnated rubber pads. By this morning it was hardly working. I was lucky to manage to get anything working.

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

Had a dry run of transporting, setting up and running the layout for #RetroFest2025 tonight. I took it to the model railway club and the two main lessons from the outing are: 1) Take a track rubber. The rails will need a lot of cleaning. 2) Make a "timetable" of loco and rolling stock movements.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

ebay.us/m/WmFW4L Ahh crap! Is ebay now offering AI generated images?? 🙁

submitted 36 days ago • 2 comments

With a week and a half until #RetroFest2025 starts I've got the Zero 1 demonstration layout practically complete. It's a good thing too as the weather is changing and I don't have enough space to work upon it indoors. Come and play with it at STEAM in Swindon on the 31st May/1st June.

submitted 39 days ago • 2 comments

Fun linguistic fact of the day. We used to speak of 'messagers' and 'passagers' before they became 'messengers' and 'passengers', since they were borrowings from French. Speakers in the Middle Ages decided to throw in what linguists call an 'intrusive n' to make them easier to say.

submitted 39 days ago • 22 comments

T-2 weeks until #retroFest2025 !

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

The Hornby Zero 1 demonstration layout is almost complete. Come along to #RetroFest2025 and have a go driving trains digitally using 1970s technology. "Steam" museum, Swindon. May 31st - 1st June.

submitted 45 days ago • 2 comments

this is not an exaggeration

submitted 48 days ago • 64 comments

T-3 weeks until #RetroFest2025 and the Hornby Zero 1 demonstration layout is starting to look the part. Still a long way to go. It's mostly scenery now, but there is a small amount of wiring as well.

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and an ally of PM Netanyahu: ‘Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to … the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas or terrorism, and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries.’

submitted 53 days ago • 10 comments

The Hornby Zero 1 layout for #RetroFest2025 is starting to come together. The scenic board track is laid and clearance tests done but none of the wiring is even started. The fiddle yard board has only been roughed out currently. Still, there’s progress!

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

T-4 weeks and counting until #RetroFest2025! Eek! At least I've finished the baseboards for the Hornby Zero 1 digital control system demonstration. Still, four weeks to lay track, wire it up and do all the scenery (and explanatory signage) is going to be tight.

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

Following the delivery of the plywood boards this morning I've been beavering away building the baseboards for the model railway to exhibit at #RetroFest2025. The main structure of both boards are done and I've started on the painting process, having put two coats of primer on the "scenic" board.

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

The the QL bare metal diag ROM is coming along but I’m stumped by the communication with the IPC processor.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

As there isn't one already I've decided to try to create a bare metal diagnostic ROM for the Sinclair QL which replaces the system ROMs. Should work with minimally working system, output via serial and video. So far initial memory tests on base 128K done. github.com/stephen-ushe...

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

Today on the bench I have my 1977 vintage cassette recorder. Used with my ZX81 and ZX Spectrum until it developed a warble in around 1984. Warble now fixed but audio distorted. Those Rubycon caps are a bit arthritic. Going to have to wait until a delivery of some 33uF and 3.3uF caps though.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

I kind of love the idea that you could be allowed to play old video games for historical research purposes but if you have fun, the government sends you to jail.

submitted 69 days ago • 21 comments

My delightful discovery of the day is that not only does the word ‘pudding’ derive (roughly) from French blood sausage, but also there is a Korean blood sausage called ‘sundae’ https://alecmuffett.com/article/113250 #food #foodie

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments