20 Aug
2006
20 Aug
'06
3:48 p.m.
Out of interest, anyone know how many ZX80s were
sold as
kits? This one's a factory-built one, complete with original
ZX80 PSU. The heatsink for the regulator gets pretty hot, and
that's even without the RAM pack plugged in...
Me and a couple of friends were given kits as a prize at school, I don't
remember that much about the ZX80, apart from the regulator kept cutting out
and eventually went pop. My Father spent a couple of evenings making up a decent stabilised PSU for it. With the PSU the ZX80
ran a lot cooler. I
never bothered with any more Sinclair products after that, once into Acorn,
I bought an MK14 back when it was current. That put me off Sinclair for
life...
I was hooked... Mind you I had the same hassle with my
Acorn Atom kit too,
many owners of expanded Acorn Atom systems will tell you of the roasting
regulator on their boards.
I seem to remmember you were supposed to fit a zecond regulator (7805)
and cut a link if you expaneded the Atom. Then each regulator powered
about half of the machine.
-tony