Proposed Projects for
the Sinclair ZX81 Home Computer

 ZX81

Overview

.. Forums
.. Projects
.. Software

Having been pleasantly surprised with the sales of the replacement Keyboard membranes for the Sinclair ZX81 home computer, we are currently considering looking to design and produce a range of projects for the Sinclair ZX81.  We therefore welcome email feedback on which projects you would be interested in and whether you have any further suggestions which can go into the design.  We will then keep a running tally of the numbers interested on this page.

The Projects:

Sinclair ZX81 SD/MMC Card Interface (12 users)
This interface has been designed in part and would plug into the ZX81's expansion port.  The aim is to have 32K of memory built into the interface and a through port (although the interface's own memory can be disabled if you wish to use the original Sinclair ZX81 16K RAM Pack).

The interface will take an SD memory card and allow you to load games instantly into the ZX81's memory, rather than having to use a tape recorder.  The interface will support the standard .p files which are supported by PC emulators and available on the internet.

Sinclair ZX81 AY Interface (4 users)
This interface would be able to play AY sound files, similar to the Zaxon AY Interface for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.  During the hey-day, there was the ZonX-81 sound interface released for the Sinclair ZX81, although there were few programs / utilities which made use of this hardware

Sinclair ZX81 TV Output (6 users)
This will need some real thought.  At the moment, the Sinclair ZX81 can display a good stable picture of black text on a white background on modern colour TVs provided that you have the later ULA chip.  Unfortunately, the majority of ZX81s have soldered ULA chips which are not easy to replace.  The idea here is therefore to take the signal from the ZX81 and convert it to composite signal and/or VGA out.  This may need to be plugged into the expansion port to help drive this.

Sinclair ZX81 PC Keyboard (3 users)
This interface would allow you to connect a proper keyboard to the Sinclair ZX81 to replicate the original keyboard's function.  Comments are invited as to how this should work, and what the extra keys could be used for!

Sinclair ZX81 MIDI Interface (2 users)
This would again need a feasibility project bearing in mind the limited memory and speed of the ZX81.

Please note that these projects need your support - we will only spend time and money investigating the most popular projects.  If you would be interested in purchasing any of the above items, or indeed, if you have ideas for other projects, please contact us by email.

We have also considered the possibility of merging some of the projects, but think that small is wonderful and it will keep the options open to end users, see projects reach the market more quickly and also mean lower prices per interface!