So after purchasing a faulty ZX Spectrum 48k, it’s time to start trying to get it up and running.
Task 1 – Composite Mod
From my previous post, we know that it needs at least a composite mod so we’ll do that first. This is actually fairly simple to do and there are a ton of videos on YouTube that walk you through the process
I would recommend heading over to the likes of More Fun Making It or Happy Little Diodes who both have a great selection of videos on speccy’s and the composite mod.
All you are really doing is disabling the current RF signal and putting a capacitor in it’s place. It’s well worth doing as most modern tellies don’t usually have the old analogue input anymore.
Once done it should look something like this
Anyway with the mod in place, it was time to put it all back together and power it up.
And this is what happened:
Well that was a lot more than I was expecting.
This is good news, it should mean that the majority of the components are good – specifically, the ULA, the ROM, the Z80 and the lower ram chips.
I won’t know any more until I can replace the keyboard membrane.
Leave a Reply