HAPPY LITTLE DIODES

Catch up on Horace and Eric's recovery! Watch the first video on these machines here: https://youtu.be/lJuArUXKGE0 Watch a DCDC Mod Instruction here : https://youtu.be/AbIJza7ElrE Learn how the keyboard works here: https://youtu.be/qEPXIWOA2kA Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6

**Reuploaded - I have changed my advice regarding soldering the transistor to the video jack, as the previous method causes the AV connector to foul the transistor leg and not fully engage. In this short video we will perform a composite video modification on one of our speccys that we are refurbishing. There are a few ways to do this, and a hundred ways to do each of the steps, but this is how I do it, please feel free to discuss different ideas and improvements in the comments. I hope you find this useful, if you have any questions then comment below. Note there is no background on the purpose or the workings of the mod, this is purely a instructional. See Berk's first power up in possibly 30 years here: https://youtu.be/lJuArUXKGE0 Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6

It's time to catch up on Willy's recovery, could we diagnose the fault? Could we fix it? Hint: I'm playing Jet Set Willy on Willy right now....Willyception...I'll stop saying Willy now Great info on diagnosing lower RAM faults: https://spectrumforeveryone.com/features/quickly-diagnose-48k-ram-failures-ninja-style/ ZX Spectrum 48K Initial Tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzgCmldm2H4 Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6

A very special video, my first repair job. In this series I'll be documenting repairs carried out for you. Each owner will answer three questions if they want to: 1. What was your first speccy experience? 2. What is your favourite speccy game? 3. What is the story behind this machine? Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6

OK! Time to clear the decks. I've got so many Sinclairs lying around I decided to do all five remaining 48K machines in one! Today we are performing pre-startup checks on Horace, Dizzy, Eric, Berk and Willy, our plucky troop of "Sold as seen, no refunds" speccys. Place your bets, how many will boot at all? Initial Tests - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzgCmldm2H4 Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6

Today we are going to learn how the famous rubber keyboard from the ZX Spectrum 48K works, and use that knowledge to reverse engineer a joystick interface I found in a box. I hope you like PCBs, logic, machine code and Speccys as much as I do! Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6 Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes

Produced with the Happy Little Diodes Speccy Midi Engine, we are proud to present the ZX Spectrum Lock Down Quartet performing Billy Joel's The Longest Time as an ode to the lock down and an ode to all the retro machines stuck in storage. I hope to put a video together explaining how it all worked. I'm not going to lie, this took many, many hours and lots of late nights, each apparently simple step brought with it many more problems. The process was to decode a midi file (using existing tools) to .csv, and use excel to convert this to numerical data to go into an Arduino program which generates key press pulses to enter the BEEP commands as a program into the Spectrum. The key presses enable tri state buffers to connect the address and data lines in the Spectrum (via the edge connector) to simulate a key press, this has to happen precisely when the Spectrum is scanning for key presses, this is achieved through a string of NOR gates and had to be done with TTL chips on a breadboard. Once "typed" in, the program had to be saved as a .wav file, this happened once for each of the 4 parts to the song. The .wav files were then loaded to 4 Spectrums and executed simultaneously. Thanks for watching and please share if you enjoyed it. Stay safe during lock down. HLD Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6 Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes

Hi everyone, welcome back to Happy Little Diodes. (Are you reading it in my accent yet?) Today we are seeing to this Issue 3B 48K that I had to rescue from eBay. It looks like it had been ran over, sold "untested and as seen". While it looked rough, it was actually looking good on the inside, after all, isn't that what counts? Repair work includes - Full clean up - Initial tests - Boot up test (it worked!) - Voltage test - Composite video mod - DCDC Mod - New capacitors all round - New keyboard membrane - New face plate (At this point I'm making a loss on this unit, but it had to be done!) For a more detailed look at these mods: - Initial tests (no credit to me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzgCmldm2H4 - DCDC Mod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbIJza7ElrE - New capacitors - https://youtu.be/bVteIMDYP5Y?t=585 No talking today so just relax and let the electro waves carry you through. Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6 Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes Cheers

Today we are re-capping and DCDC Modding a donated Issue 3 Spectrum 48K. Enjoy! Correction -- The DCDC Mod parts list has an error, it should read "22uF 25V" Capacitor, not "22 uF 5V"! Please subscribe if you enjoy these videos. Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happylittlediodes https://happylittlediodes.wixsite.com/website Join me on Discord! - https://discord.gg/ua5d8jQ6 Amazon links to stuff I use! - https://linktr.ee/happylittlediodes