The dream of the 1980s, it seemed, was for your home computer to control all aspects of one’s home. Turn on the lights, control the furnace, adjust the window shades; the possibilities were endless.
Hence, the multitude of interfacing products.
Sinclair and Timex computers made for excellent research computers because they were so cheap. And coupled with many of the interfacing products listed here, they could be made into lab instruments with reasonable ease.
They also made excellent “brains” for home-brew robotics projects. One vendor wrote a book about his robot project and sold products to help others build their own.
| Name | Description | Computers |
|---|---|---|
| 16-line Programmable I/O Port | Interface to one Thurnall device. Uses Zilog PIO. Fully decoded, so it doesn’t conflict with other devices. Interfacing to more than one device requires the Thurnall motherboard. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 2068 Expansion Board | Compact expansion board plugs into the rear expansion connector of 2068 computer, provides slots for Oliger expansion boards. Board includes one “spare” 20 pin IC socket for a user circuit, a rear edge connector feed through for attaching the 2040 printer, modem, etc., and the necessary circuitry for a RGB monitor interface. RGB circuit requires | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 24 Line I/O Port | Controlled using BASIC, with suitable interface circuits will control LEDs, motors, relays, lights, sound generators. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 3 Port I/O board | Programmable 8255 PIA. Space for analog-to-digital converter, relays, clock chip, etc. Expansion connector for RAM pack. | Sinclair ZX80, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 310 I/O port with real time clock | I/O board with our real time clock/calendar. 8 outputs capable of driving relays 8 TTL inputs Feed-through Sinclair bus connector to allow normal expansion Battery back-up for clock Expandable ports | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 315 Bare PCB I/O, real time clock board | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 317 Clock IC and crystal | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 320 A to D and D to A converter | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 325 Bare PCB of A/D, D/A | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 330 Wireless control system | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 340 Solid State AC switch | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 350 Relay board | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| 4 Port I/O | Kit, plugs into ST-50 buffered motherboard. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 4-channel Relay Box | Use with Thurnall I/O board to switch low-current household equipment. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 8-way Indicator Unit | 8 LED output; displays binary equivalent of the data on one port of the Thurnall I/O board. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 8-way Switch Unit | Provides a byte-wide input interface to the Thurnall I/O board. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 8-way Transistor Driver | Use with Thurnall I/O board to switch low voltage devices. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A-D Converter | 8 channels, 256 level analog-to-digital converter. Can be used with Atari paddles. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A/D Converter Board | Four channel analog-to-digital conversion board. Connect analog joysticks or other A/D uses. Supports the Mikro-Gen analog joysticks and games that use them. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A/D-D/A Expansion Board | Provides two channels of ADC and two channels of DAC. 8-bit resolution is obtained in 100 microseconds. The I/O command requires a single line of PEEK or POKE. Sample programs are provided and simple applications are suggested, e.g., temperature measurements and an interactive servo circuit. Programs are also provided which show the user how to | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Analog Interface Board | 8 channels each of A/D and D/A. Up to 200K samples per second, 1.6 microsecond A/D conversion time, 100ns acquisition window. 1 microsecond D/A time, 8 bits, 0-5V or 0-2.5V full scales. Board allows rearrangement of the pins and other features for easy interfacing to many types of host computers, including Sinclair, Apple, TRS80, others. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Analog-Digital Module | With the addition of the A-D module, the BB-1 or BB-68 can read analog signals. The A-D is a single channel successive approximation device. It can read an analog signal on 5 different scales: <0 to .25v, 0 to .50v, 0 to 2.75v, 0 to 5.00v and 0 to 10.0v. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| ASZMIC External Card | Features socket for ASZMIC ROM, socket for additional 4K/8K EPROM or RAM, 24 programmable I/O lines (8255) and EPROM programming socket. Allows for switching between Sinclair and ASZMIC ROMs. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| BB-1 Control Module | 8 independent relays with LED status indicators and 8 TTL inputs with Schmitt trigger buffers. Single POKE to change/latch each relay. Read all 8 inputs in a single PEEK. More than one BB-1 can be attached to the computer. The BB-1 was used for: | Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81 |
| BB-68 Controller | 8 independent relays with LED status indicators and 8 TTL inputs with Schmitt trigger buffers. Single POKE to change/latch each relay. Read all 8 inputs in a single PEEK. More than one BB-1 can be attached to the computer. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Beeper, Clock, Switch Board | Timer/clock, beeper and switch input interface. The clock is a 15 bit stopwatch and uses 2 of the 16 bytes available on the I/O board. It has a resistor/capacitor time base, can be switched for 0.1 or 1.0 second intervals. An independent beeper is on the board and an extra output bit is available to | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Buffered Bus Expansion Board | This motherboard provides four 44-pin card connectors, room for wire wrap and voltage regulator. Eight chips are needed, five for buffers and three for decoding bi-directional data bus buffers. Budget Robotics & Computing purchased the rights to make and sell the Computer Continuum board in 1984. | Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81 |
| Buss | Plans for inexpensive expansion system. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| CAI/O Board | Main interface. RS232, 3 ports parallel IO, printer port, tape port, memory expansion port. Replaced “Widget”. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Cartridge Board | Cartridge board that appears to support two EPROMs. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Chip Tester and Logic Monitor | Adapted to the TS 2068 from Build IC Tester: An Accessory For Your Commodore 64 in the May 1988 issue of Radio Electronics. Uses the Z80 PIO. Makes an 8 trace, dual screen, digital storage oscilloscope that runs as fast as the computer. The board plugs in the cartridge port and requires an internal modification | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Compu-Board | Converts the TS 1000 into a complete home computer system. Applications include memory expansion, A/D D/A, wireless thermostat and security system, EPROM programmer, music and speech synthesis, etc. Provides fully buffered lines with status indicators. Six expansion slots. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Cyberanimation 1500 Kit | Vision kit is a linear 1×15 pixel array, electronics, LED video display and PC board. Includes sample programs to run the vision electronics. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Data Acquisition Module | For general purpose measurement 14 channels of analog input; simple interface to Sinclair Basic. Individually software configured channels, allowing any mixture of temperature, voltage, current, resistance, or frequency measurements. Integrating A/D converter allows trade measurement accuracy and noise rejection for conversion time. Maximum resolution: 200 microvolts DC, 0.05 degrees F. English language control over all | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| DCP Interspec Pack | 8 bit, 8 channel A-D converter, 4 relays, 4 switch inputs, 8 bit input port and 8 bit output port. DCP bus at rear of unit for other add-ons. Complete interface pack for ZX81 or Spectrum. | Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| DCP P/A/C Packs | A set of packs giving ZX81 memory, control and analog interfaces. The P-Pack plugs gives 4K of CMOS RAM plus I/O Port. The analog pack or control pack onto the rear of the P-Pack. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Designer's Dream Interface | Provides connection for peripheral devices and RAM pack. Includes card edge connector, interface board, plated 50 pin strip header and 12″ 50 wire ribbon cable with socket connectors. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| DFh Mapped Universal I/O Port | Timex/Sinclair 2068 | |
| Digital to Analog Converter | Fits onto input/output port to give one analog output (0 to 2.55 volts); space on board for two extra converters. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Edge Connector | Many vendors sold ZX80/ZX81/TS 1000 compatible edge connectors in solder-tail and wire-wrap versions. The wire-wrap connector could be used with a small printed circuit board to build a feed-through device that would allow for connecting another expansion unit. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Expansion Board | 4 or 6 slot expansion board for use with Oliger projects for the ZX81/TS 1000. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| FD-ZX1 Interface Board | Turn the Timex-Sinclair into an automated measurement, data acquisition and control instrument. Fully buffered address, data, and control buses for I/O; 6 decoded device codes; 2 14-conductor, 6″ cables to connect interface to other boards. A number of science experiments have been developed to aid teachers in illustrating scientific principles. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| High Speed Interface | Connect the HS-1 interface to a spare TS1000 to create a computing system that is quick and responsive. Fast mode flicker no longer occurs when entering program lines and data. D System used direct memory access to copy the display file from a fast mode computer to a slow mode TS1000, which then produces the | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| I/O Board | Designed for the Spectrum owner who wants to do I/O circuit design. 8 bit port; large prototyping area; description and application information on how to build multi-channel sound generator. | Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| I/O Board | 32 line I/O board. Ports mapped to 4 absolute locations. Port A has 8 LED indicators. Port B has 8 outputs. Splits into 2 ways each so one instruction can be used to switch between two peripherals. Port C is uncommitted. A status indicator gives a 16 LED indicator of the state of Port B. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| I/O Expansion Port | Provides a buffered bus that decodes the address lines and inhibits the internal 1K RAM (and external 16K RAM) when I/O is selected. Up to 8 byte-wide ports. Connects to the ZX-81 via a custom cable. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| I/O Ports and EPROM Programmer Plans | Schematic, documentation and software listing for 24 line input/output port that can be used to program 2716, 2732 and 2764 EPROMs. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| I/O Unit | Expansion module with 6 input/output ports (24 input and 24 output lines) and 4 sockets for 2K memories. Save USR programs in 2716 EPROM for ready access or use static RAMs. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Intercontroller | Fully programmable controller for home, office, lab and workshop with four power sockets. Turn on/off lights, motors, etc. Software programmable with time intervals from fractions of seconds to days. Connect up to four Intercontroller units to the computer with a Softbox. Uses memory addresses 8192-8195. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| IOC24 | Versatile interfacing board that included: 12 unbuffered TTL digital I/O lines 8 unbuffered analog inputs (0-5v) 8-bit analog to digital converter LED status indicators Clock/calendar Buffered digital outputs (500 ma) TRIAC outputs, 400v 2 amp zero-crossing optically isolated (IOC 24-4 has 4 TRIAC outputs, IOC 24-12 has 12 TRIAC outputs) Regulated 5v power supply | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Kradle Manipulator | Parallel digital input/output (16 lines) expansion option for Kradle. Adaptable to parallel printer port. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Memory board with I/O | 16K or 32K and two 8-bit LS TTL input ports and two 8-bit latching output ports. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Motherboard | Expansion board for use with other Thurnall modules. Required to connect more than one device to the I/O board; connect up to four Thurnall modules. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Motherboard | Plugs into the back of ZX81 or ZX80. Printer/RAM pack plugs onto back. Has two female connectors to accept expansion boards. | Sinclair ZX80, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Parallel I/O port | Interface computer to the real world. | Sinclair ZX80 |
| Parallel User I/O | Sixteen input/output lines to drive lights, relays, motors. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| PERICONa | General purpose, user-programmable 24 lines of input/output. Up to 4 PERICONa can be used together. Up to four can be used simultaneously allowing basic I/O, strobed I/O, and bidirectional 8 bit data transfer with handshakes. A module in the BASICare Modular Expansion System. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| PERICONb | 24 lines of heavy duty output to access and control the outside world. Lines are capable of operating relays or driving long signal lines. Up to 4 can be used. A module in the BASICare Modular Expansion System. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Poly Port | 6 I/O ports useful for many applications. 3 ports can be used for vendor’s “Polyphonic System” musical synthesizer. Depending on application, an output connector or cable may be needed. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| PROM Burner Development System | Interface board for programming EPROMs. Includes two I/O ports, access to 8K of executable memory and tools for duplicating, revising and verifying EPROMs. In 1984, it was marketed as a solid state “Disk Drive.” | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Prototyping Board | Printed circuit board designed for prototyping circuits with the TS2068. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Prototyping Board | Printed circuit board designed for prototyping circuits with the ZX81/TS1000. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| PTX-I/O | Expandable 0 to 16 port input/output system. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| QS Motherboard | Allows for connecting 16K RAM pack, QS Sound Board and another board. | Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| RAMPORT | Integrated expansion system. Analog, digital I/O ports and 16K RAM expansion on one card. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| RC-103 Analog Interface | Supports a variety of applications including LOAD signal conditioner, ohm meter, capacitance meter, signal conditioner, tachometer, thermometer and more. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| RD 8100 System | Modular interface system to permit real-time application of the ZX80/81. Connected by motherboard; 5 modules available. The RD 8100 is a modular interface system capable of performing a wide variety of scientific tasks, when coupled with a Sinclair Computer (ZX 81 and Spectrum). Flexibility and compatability are built into the system, which is simple to | Sinclair ZX80, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Remote Control | 16 channel input/output. Wireless (infrared) transmitter/receiver option. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Report Generator | Data acquisition and control module with Centronics printer interface. Supports LPRINT, LLIST and COPY. CMOS real time clock calendar with battery backup. 8 bit parallel I/O ports. CMOS A/D converter. Bus connector for RAM pack. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable |
| RS232/TTL Level Converter Plans | Construct an RS232/TTL level converter from inexpensive components. This converter, when used with the Cosmonics TTL Serial Input/Output Port Package, allows connecting a TS1000 or ZX81 to most RS232C peripherals. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| RX81 Robotics Interface | Input/output board with 8 latched outputs (capable of driving an LED, transistor switch or relay) and 8 inputs (switched or TTL level). Can be used alone or with the Computer Continuum buffered expansion bus board for up to 32 simultaneous I/O lines. The RX81 was used in Bruce Taylor’s H.E.N.R.Y. robot, described in Robotics on | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Serial Input Port Plans | Timex/Sinclair 1000 | |
| Spectrum Hardware Adapter Interface | Lets you use Sinclair Spectrum micro drives/other Spectrum hardware on the TS 2068. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Spectrum Interface | This device was designed specifically for connecting the DISCIPLE disk system to the TS2068. It was a “twister” board that included 9 and 12 volt power supplies. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| STD Bus Interface | Converts the ZX bus to STD Bus. Allows for use of peripheral interface cards from numerous manufacturers. On-board memory expansion option. Memory-mapped ports. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Stepper Motor Interface for Robotics and Machine Control | Interface 2 small stepper motors (1 Amp max.) to a standard Centronics printer interface and make fully coordinated 2-axis moves. Provides 4 limit-switch inputs and all the software you need to completely and accurately control a 2-axis machine. This is available for the 1000/1500 and the 2068 machines, but the 2068 is the recommended choice | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Telephone Dialer | Expansion for the Compu-board system. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Timer/Counter/Music Board | Three programmable counters. Controlled in Basic. May be used as timer, counters, or frequency generators (including audio range). | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Universal I/O Port | Control and sense external devices using any TS computer. 8 bits parallel input, 8 bits latched output plus 2 handshaking lines. Easy to set up or reconfigure many times. This board forms the foundation of a series of software applications that teach concepts of port programming. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| VOTEM | The VOTEM was a hardware/software package that could measure, display and record real world analog signals via the cassette input. Any physical phenomenon (pressure, light temperature, etc.) that could be represented by a DC voltage could be measured. The name of the product came from the fact that it could measure VOltage and TEMperature. The | Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Widget | Interface board allows ZX80 to communicate through serial (RS232) port and parallel TTL input and output ports. | Sinclair ZX80 |
| ZAD: Zebra Analog Digital Interface | 8-channel analog-to-digital interface for ZX81, TS1000, TS1500, TS2068. Manual includes sample applications and I/O software. 8-bit resolution, 0-5 volt scale range. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| ZX80/1 User Port | Small board allowing 8 independent input channels and 8 output channels, directly controlled from Basic or machine code. | Sinclair ZX80, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| ZX81 Parallel Input/Output Board | 16 user-programmable lines; fully TTL compatible. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| ZXPANDER | Connect three expansion modules to the TS 1000. Flexible ribbon cable. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |