OpenSpand ZX81 expansion

This is what my prototype looks like, hooked up to a "naked" ZX81 version 3 board. All resting on top of a Sony PVR monitor.

I've been testing this project on bread board and later on vero-board. A few days ago I fulfilled an order for the first PCB prototypes.

PCBX.com contacted me a few months ago, wanting to sponsor a prototype round and this was the perfect opportunity to test them out.

The schematic and PCB layout was done in KiCad 8, which is starting to feel a bit more familiar each time I use it. A much better experience compared to the rather expensive DOS-based software I used 25+ years ago!

Today I got an SMS saying the transportation has begun, so the boards are produced and on their way to me. Hooray!

Ordering the boards was quite pain free, just making a compressed package with all the production files and uploading to their site.

The deal with sponsoring this was made with the promise that I would document my experience, so I will write more posts about my experiences here as everything develops.

This project has been ongoing for some months, but nothing public yet. This is the start of documenting the progress so I don't forget it all.

Everything will be made open source as soon as I see that it works properly. HW, SW and documentation will be available on github, with the hope that it will survive and thrive even without my involvement.