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Ben's Hobbies - Advancing on the ZX Spectrum Laserharp! - New YouTube video
Advancing on the ZX Spectrum Laserharp! - New YouTube video 
Thursday, July 8, 2010, 11:16 AM
I'm doing well on the Laserharp, allthough there is a lot more 'finetuning' todo, like making the sensors more sensible to the green laser light (reflection) only.

But anyway, I've made a short nice video of the current status.
Enjoy!



Nice new lcd display for ZX Spectrum 
Thursday, April 15, 2010, 06:44 PM
I found a nice lcd display on eBay, with 2 composite video inputs, and a 12V power connector.
No remote, no buttons, simply give it 12V, and feed a video signal:



It's only 3.5" in diagonal, but the resolution is 640x480, and the colors are very good!
And the best thing: it only costs less then 21 euro!

Here's a YouTube video I made, where I put the lcd in the place of the +2B's cassette recorder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaEs5TZ_l_o

Search for: "3.5" TFT Color LCD Car Reverse Monitor Aluminum panel" on eBay (worldwide, because it's sold from Hong Kong).


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'Accidentically' flashed ESXDOS and wanna get back to FATWare? 
Sunday, April 4, 2010, 06:12 PM
Someone flashed his DivIDE to ESXDOS, and asked me how to get back to FATWare.
So I got my ESXDOS rom from the shelve, swapped it with my +DivIDE rom, and checked it out.

It's not that hard:
1. Get the FATWare flasher from somewhere
2. Put it on your (FAT formatted) CF card
3. Start ESXDOS with that CF card
4. Use: .TAPEIN FATWAR~1.TAP
5. Use: LOAD ""

This will load the flasher program, so you can flash FATWare again.

~ = extended mode symbol shift A.
Your filename of the flasher may be different when you use another flasher .TAP file (e.g. the 128K versions from Velesoft).


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Laserharp in progress 
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 11:00 AM
I'm working on a laserharp for some months now.

What? A what?
Okay, maybe I should explain first...

I like the music of the French electronic music pioneer Jean Michel Jarre. I visited lot's of his concerts (next sunday again in Belgium!), and his music inspired me often.

One of the most well-known gadgets Jarre uses in his shows is a musical instrument called a laserharp, like this one:


More picture of Jarre using a laserharp can be found on Google.

Years ago (over 15 years) I decided to build a laserharp myself.
So I built a simple laserharp with 10 red laserdiodes and some light dependant resistors, and that worked great! I could touch one of the beams and music came out of the speakers, produced by a Yamaha CS1x synthesizer I had back then.
I already used the ZX Spectrum to control the midi to the CS1x and read the sensors from the laserharp.

But I always wanted to make it better, more flexible, more like the harp Jarre uses himself, and with a more bright laser.
So some months ago I picked this project up again, as you can read here:
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/lis ... /1396122/0 (in Dutch).
Also I am discussing some aspects on WoS:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/s ... mp;t=28923

I just finished a new interface with DAC and sensor input:




I only have to finish the software now that controls the midi output.
So this week or the next I must be able to play on my new laserharp again!
High-tech, but with a ZX Spectrum! ;)

New potential Sinclair user! 
Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 05:24 PM
Pfffff, I'm so tired... Being awake and very busy with lot's of stress from 2.00 this morning until now...

But the product is worth every second!!!






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