Mega Speedy, the ultimate 1050 upgrade. Intrest assesment.

[guus.assmann]

Hello 1050 users,

 

The ABBUC hardware contest has concluded last saturday. And the Mega-Speedy ended at a 2nd place.

Not bad, considering the diminishing use of the 1050. There's quite a number of alternatives.

 

The Mega Speedy may be produced. This depends on the amount of people willing to buy it.

Discription can be found in this forum.

And of course, all information will be made available, just as it was with the Freezer project.

To start with, a working copy of the schematic diagram.

The Mega Speedy will be able to replace most disk drive upgrades that were ever made for the 1050.

 

Price will depend on the number of units that will be produced.

For sure it will be below $100.

More accuratelly, a preliminary calculation based on 50 units comes out below $65. (Excluding shipment of course)

The pictures show the device. One unit consist of a main PCB and a display/selection part.

Depending on the suppliers and the demand, first units will be available before the end of this year.

 

Please inform me of your interest.

And of course, questions are welcome as well.

 

BR/

Guus Assmann

MEGA Speedy 1050 WF rev 10-sept-2014_sch.pdf

[Marius]

Is it possible to use it without the display pcb? I want to keep my 1050's as original as possible at the outside.

 

I think I would buy at least 3 of these.

What is the quality of the PCB. Is it home made, or will it be professional print?

[MrFish]

Is there a spec sheet and instructions?

[guus.assmann]

Hello MrFish,

 

Yes, there's a discription and spec. Please look in this forum for it, the rest is not ready yet. There will be much more later on.

 

Hello ProWizard,

 

Industrial PCB. (Home made can be very professional as well.)

And no, not usable without display. The display is used to select the emulation mode at startup.

But you can have a longer cable and guide it out the back.

Or have the cable come out the front of the drive, between the bottom and the brown front.

 

@ All,

The unit can replace most upgrades.

To name some: Happy, US-Doubler, Archiver, Speedy, Turbo 1050 and some more.

Edited October 26, 2014 by guus.assmann

[+Firedawg]

Very much would like one or two. Here is the link I believe Guus was referencing for description and specs.

 

Mike

[Thorsten Günther]

I would also show my interest for one or two of these - might come handy to reduce my number of 1050s I am keeping just for their speeders (the 1050 Turbo copies almost anything with the built-in software, e.g.).

[foft]

I'd like one of these. Thanks for all your hard work on this.

[Mathy]

Hello Guus

 

I've got three 1050's, one with some old upgrade. Guess that means I need three of those Mega Speedy's.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[Madi]

I would like to buy two (or one - depending on the price).

[MrFish]

Hello MrFish,

 

Yes, there's a discription and spec. Please look in this forum for it, the rest is not ready yet. There will be much more later on.

 

Hi Guus,

 

Yes, I figured there was something over in the Hardware Contest thread, which I checked out. I just thought you might have some papers together on it. The description over there is good enough though.

 

Do you have any pictures of what it's supposed to look like with the little panel / switch board mounted on the 1050?

 

Thanks

[_The Doctor__]

how many you need to sell to get it to 39.95 plus shipping?

[pixelmischief]

I want one.

[jvas]

I'm in for one.

[TXG/MNX]

I am in for a few

Edited October 27, 2014 by TXG/MNX

[+slx]

Declaring interest, admittedly more for coolness than for need Just installed a Happy so I need to consider swapping that or buying another 1050....

[AtariGeezer]

Put me down for 1 definitely, possibly 2

[Muzz73]

Oh, man... I need one of these!

[Jungsi]

I'am also in for one :-)

[TheMontezuma]

Great project!

I'm interested as well.

[HiassofT]

Is it possible to use it without the display pcb?

The MegaSpeedy should be usable without the display, but then you loose the feature of being able to configure the drive mode - which kind of defeats the purpose of this upgrade

 

You could still configure the drive mode (Happy/Speedy/...) prior to assembling the 1050, it will then by default always power up in the configured mode.

 

Or you could hook up one or two switches to select between 2-4 modes which you once configured.

 

Maybe I'll add an option to the flasher so that you can switch between modes by software. You could then configure the MegaSpeedy to power up in Flasher or MegaSpeedy mode and later switch to Happy/Turbo/... via the flasher.

 

But all this wouldn't quite what we designed the upgrade for, so better install the display PCB with the reset button and the rotary encoder

 

so long,

 

Hias

[8Bitjunkie]

i take one :-)

[jacobus]

Count me in for one!

[+Larry]

Count me in for one.

 

-Larry

[+Roydea6]

I will buy one also, just a little hesitant ....

[+CharlieChaplin]

The MegaSpeedy should be usable without the display, but then you loose the feature of being able to configure the drive mode - which kind of defeats the purpose of this upgrade

 

You could still configure the drive mode (Happy/Speedy/...) prior to assembling the 1050, it will then by default always power up in the configured mode.

 

Or you could hook up one or two switches to select between 2-4 modes which you once configured.

 

Maybe I'll add an option to the flasher so that you can switch between modes by software. You could then configure the MegaSpeedy to power up in Flasher or MegaSpeedy mode and later switch to Happy/Turbo/... via the flasher.

 

But all this wouldn't quite what we designed the upgrade for, so better install the display PCB with the reset button and the rotary encoder

 

so long,

 

Hias

 

 

Well,

 

the german Floppy 2000 showed a menu when you booted without a disk (some other floppy upgrades too). You could then choose which program you wanted to load. Maybe for those that do not want the LCD display you can create a similar menu for the MegaSpeedy, where one can choose the speeder (Happy, Turbo, Speedy, SuperSpeedy, etc.) he wants to use, so the LCD display is not nescessary anymore...?!?

 

I find the beeper much more annoying. What does it do, other than beep in high frequency (ouch, my ears, tinnitus alert!) when an error occurs or an unformatted disk was put into the drive ?!? In the past I had several Speedy drives with LCD (track) display and I always removed the beeper there. Okay, I sold all these upgrades (since I did never use the track display) and kept only the mini Speedy, but the buyers never complained that the beeper was missing...