Tindie

Very easy to put together with excellent documentation. The video quality is really nice. With the added ZXpand, this thing is alot of fun and very useful. I have a couple ZX spectrum programs I can now convert over using the 32K available.

Murthy | July 21, 2020

Great product, any PET owner should have one

For ZX Spectrum 128K +2 USB Keyboard Conversion Kit

This board saved me hours that I would have otherwise spent swapping around RAM chips, sourcing ROM chips, etc. It makes diagnosing and fixing a PET a breeze.

Raphael | July 15, 2020

In a class of its own

This is an expensive piece of hardware, but for the very specific purpose it's designed for, it's absolutely worth the cost. It's made with what is clearly years of experience hacking Spectrums, and makes what would otherwise be an extremely time-consuming and complex process - manually wiring up an ancient and quirky keyboard - easy as pie. I especially like the fact that some very useful, extra non-alphanumeric characters that have been added to some of the keys. It also came with sticky mounts and a USB-B to USB-A cable, all of which were appreciated.

The only thing I would wish for is the ability to manually reprogram the key assignments - as it is, the extremely, uh, unique design of the Spectrum +2 keyboard makes some basic commands, like Ctrl-C, not work in Linux.

George | June 15, 2020

An excellent, easy to use, and fun Z80-based computer

For SD2PET Future - SD card drive for Commodore PET

If you are a fan of retro computing, electronics or 1980s-style programming, then the Minstrel 4th will give you hours of enjoyment. It's a Z80-based micro that is compatible with the Jupiter Ace, giving you access to some great games and more serious software-e.g., via the Jupiter-ace.co.uk archive, The Minstrel 4th has Forth as its built-in language, a compact and efficient language that is well-suited to the capabilities of the Minstrel. Forth takes a bit of getting used to, though there are a number of books and other resources to help you get started and you'll quickly find you can write interesting and powerful programs (1980s style)!.

Conrad | June 12, 2020

Awesome.

Great product, very impressed. Makes it so much simpler, and even though my 4040 drive works great, and my old black Datassette works just fine, this is the way to go!

Alexander | June 11, 2020

All fine! Just everything perfect!

Today I've received kit!

Everything packed fine!
Boards have good quality.

Documentation covers everything that you need to build kit.

Thank you for your work!

Neil | June 5, 2020

Fantastic Computer

This is an absolutely fantastic computer. It replicates the Jupiter Ace of 1982 in hardware and has an exposed bus which allows expansion, modification or just general experimentation. Original Jupiter Aces sell for silly money on eBay these days and buying any 40 year-old computer would be risky, so this is the perfect solution. It's a great machine for learning and running the FORTH programming language, or even learning how a microcomputer works ( software + hardware ) at the lowest "machine" level.

I ordered the fully assembled machine + keyboard, so the machine arrived, ready to run. When I've got over the original "WOW!" feeling, I'll purchase some RC2014 boards to extend/experiment with. Right now, I'm having too much fun.

John | June 5, 2020

The Ace lives!

Oh my gosh I have been waiting for this kit for years.. Building on the amazing ZX80/81 kits, the Minstrel4th is a near perfect recreation of the Jupiter Ace microcomputer, the system designed by ex-Sinclair engineers to run Forth rather than BASIC. The original Ace was a commercial flop, launched as a black and white system with limited memory just when the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 were hitting their stride. Those of us that had the Ace, and struggled through the Forth learning curve, grew to love them. Or at least, I did: for me it was the ultimate games writing machine. Forth was FAST and character mapped screens were FAST and yeah, it was great.

This kit recreates the hardware with a Z80 CPU, RAM, ROM and some clever dual-port memory and a microcontroller to simplify the graphics display. But it works just like the real thing. It even loaded my original games from tape. And it has extras: it's got a full RC2014 bus which makes it IDEAL for controlling your RC2014 gadgets because Forth is perfect for that. It also makes it a dream for enhancing and hacking and learning a lot about Z80, Forth, electronics, 80's lifestyle choices..

Oh yeah the kit. It took me a few hours to solder everything (it's pretty tightly packed in there, but nothing challenging if you've built other kits) and it worked without issue (a lie - I missed one joint for the ROM but found it pretty quickly). The keyboard works, the beeper works, the steady and clear video can be inverted. Clock speeds can be adjusted if you need more speed, and there's a companion serial card for experiments (Forth currently won't do much with it unless you write the code yourself). Such a nice kit on so many levels.

Edward | May 27, 2020

Very good product.

For Atari ST USB keyboard kit

I have tested my Atari 1040 ST keyboard with the kit on a pc and it works for 100 %.
Now I can build in a Raspberry Pi computer in the Atari computer case.
I am very happy with it.

David | May 21, 2020

AWESOME Product. Kit was perfectly designed.

Everything was included. Easy to assemble with Good Soldering skills. Was a complete pleasure to build. Had a Question and he responded right away. Had a small issue reading an SD card but Changed the Format to Fat16 from Fat32 and it works Great. I am super excited to play with the ZX81 again. The Keyboard works well. I remember the old membrane one. Yuck!

Boris | May 14, 2020

Works perfectly!

For ZX81 USB keyboard conversion kit

Just got this and installed it in an empty TS 1000 case. Dead simple to install, and from there it's plug and play. Tried it with an online ZX81 emulator on the web and worked as expected. Finally I don't have to struggle with a modern PC keyboard to figure out how to get the desired keystrokes into the emulator! Joy!

Liam | May 8, 2020

Super useful and brilliant support!

For PET IEEE-488 Diagnostics

Bought to assist in repairing my PET computers - this module helped me to quickly identify the problem on the PET IEEE port and get it fixed. Excellent documentation. Fabulous support from the developer. Buy with confidence!

Liam | May 8, 2020

An essential purchase for PET owners.

These boards are fantastic. Top notch build quality, excellent documentation, and superb support from the developer. You’ll have your PET up and running in no time! The ability to switch between PET ROM versions is particularly nice and allows a PET to run the maximum range of software. If you have a Commodore PET, then you ought to buy one of these boards!

Liam | May 8, 2020

An essential tool for PET troubleshooting and repair

For PET Diagnostics Module

Another top quality PET device from Tynemouth Software. This module is very well made, and will allow you to troubleshoot a malfunctioning Commodore PET. I used this module to get my PET 4032 working. The PET wasn’t booting up at all. This module allowed me to narrow down the faults very quickly. Excellent documentation and superb support from the developer. An essential piece of kit for anyone repairing Commodore PETs.

Philip | April 7, 2020

Love it!

I bought this for my Commodore PET 2001-8 to help troubleshoot garbage characters on the screen. It allowed me to narrow it down to 2 bad RAM chips, which I replaced and now the system works like a charm! Plus, leaving this in also allows my PET to have 32K of memory and BASIC 4 - which is great because I bought the SD2PET Future and everything works beautifully together!

Lance | March 31, 2020

My PET is alive again!

For SD2PET Future - SD card drive for Commodore PET

Finally a product that did what it claimed without any fuss! My PET had garbage on the screen and once I plugged in this board it came up right away and with an upgraded BASIC! Documentation is very clear - Amazing!

Guillaume | March 16, 2020

Awesome little module

For PET Diagnostics Module

Great little module to diagnose your PETs. This is a huge time saver to point you in the right direction with the most common failures.

In terms of features, I felt it was a little bit restricted, some ideas for the next version:
- add leds or some OLED display for state: good clock, bus error, etc... When the motherboard fails hard and cannot really display something, this device could help you with some basic diagnostic.
- make it open source so people can contribute and add features

Lydia | March 7, 2020

Missing 7x10K resister array. Need to find the part then rev

For VIC20 Diagnostics Loopback PCB

Excited to get the unit working once I find a 7x10k resiter array. Other than that I think its awesome!

Mark | March 4, 2020

Brought new life to my SuperPET. Game Changer!

I also ordered the preloaded SD card. The SD2PET Future works perfectly as described. Comes with a quick start sheet of commands. The optional preloaded SD card has everything one needs to spend a few hours or days going down memory lane.

David | Feb. 15, 2020

Good quick delivery

For Minstrel 2 - ZX80 Clone

Need to add more on keyboard pin-out
Also on line was all version 3 and I received version 2.
Good documentation on the rest of the board

Response from Tynemouth Software | Feb. 15, 2020

This is the listing for the Minstrel 2, the Minstrel 3 is a different product (ZX81 rather than ZX80) and has it's own product listing. Let me know if you want to upgrade to a Minstrel 3 instead.

Randall | Feb. 15, 2020

Love it... Must have for all ZX81 fans.

For Minstrel ZXpand - SD card disk drive for Minstrels

After a therapeutic couple of hours build this great little kit, powering it on and programming up a small BASIC program instantly transported me to 1983 when My dad placed the old portable TV on the dinning room table and handed me a box with a second hand ZX81 saying "See what you can do with this."

Well worth the time to build, well worth the money, simply a pleasure to build and use.

Randall | Feb. 10, 2020

Awesome. Just buy it.

Cool project to undertake. Great design and worked a treat. Both on the Minstrel Issue 2 and the Issue 3. Documentation was spot on and the assembly went really smoothly with no problems encountered.

As I said, if you have a minstrel, just buy it, and if you don’t , get an issue 3 as well.

Randall.

Torsten | Feb. 7, 2020

Everything was great, gladly again

For USB conversion kit for Amiga 500 keyboard

Used in a beyond repairable Amiga 500 with a Raspberry Pi.All worked as expected. Some may say expensive but very high quality and where else would you get one. Well worth every penny in my opinion.

Gareth | Feb. 6, 2020

Awesome piece of kit

For Amiga 600 / 1200 USB keyboard conversion kit

This is a truly fantastic piece of hardware. It has no unnecessary ports and a tiny footprint, which is exactly what I wanted. The quality of the board is great along with the awesome packaging, which made sure it arrived here in the US in once piece :) Thanks Dave for an amazing product!

John | Feb. 6, 2020

Great addition to the Minstrel 3

For Minstrel ZXpand - SD card disk drive for Minstrels

I bought this kit for my original ZX81, and was angry to discover.. no only kidding!! This kit is **only** compatible with the Minstrel Kit. I went without most IC sockets and added an edge connector so I could unplug it if necessary (my Minstrel is housed in a ZX81 case). Now I can quickly load the classics and save/load my own BASIC apps. Recommended.

Len | Feb. 5, 2020

Really cool accessory for your Minstrel 3!

For Minstrel ZXpand - SD card disk drive for Minstrels

The board was laid out well and really high quality. As the Minstrel 3 I enjoyed soldering it together. Everything marked well. When I connected it my Minstrel it worked perfectly.

James | Jan. 18, 2020

Excellent re-creation of the ZX81. Good for developers.

For Keyboard overlays for TS1000/ZX80/ZX81

I bought the fully-assembled Minstrel 3, without a case and with the ZX81 membrane keyboard, as I'd like to fit it into a real ZX81 case at some point. I plugged it into my LCD TV with composite video input and it worked fine. I've tried changing the jumpers, and my particular TV seems to give a better picture with the NTSC output, but I suspect it will vary between TVs. Either way, it's way better than an original ZX81 and gives a good, stable picture.

The "border" jumper is useful, especially in 1K mode as you can see the effect of the reduced-size display file. I wanted to try programming in 1K mode, so I ordered the version with a socket for the ROM, and then replaced the ROM with an EPROM that I had patched to make it think it only had 1K. Nice to have this flexibility, and the documentation was clear about what EPROMs to order. I put two ROM images into the same EPROM, one with 1K RAM, the other with 32K RAM, which you can select with the jumpers. Supporting this sort of thing shows a good attention to detail in the Minstrel's design.

I'm really happy with this machine. Thanks, and good work!

Nik | Jan. 17, 2020

Awesome!

Works better than the original keyboard I remember back in the 1980's! As easy to install as any sticker!

Kim | Jan. 14, 2020

This is the MUST have kit for any Minstrel

For Minstrel ZXpand - SD card disk drive for Minstrels

Looking at the instructions which are very clear and easy to follow
the parts are all professionally presented in their own anti-static bags
the daughter board is brightly silk screened and very high quality with the SD card port already soldered to the board

building the ZXPand was very enjoyable with through hole parts and a socket for the PIC 4525. i did add my own sockets to the rest of the ICs for my own personal preference. the joystic port is a nice addition to the minstrel too

overall i give this board and build a solid 9/10 and can highly recommend this product its better and faster to load than adding a cassette player to the Minstrel so in my opinion its the MUST have kit for the Minstrel series not just for loading games but for saving your own programs too

Thomas | Jan. 6, 2020

Simple and painless all-in-one solution for my PET