#z80kits — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #z80kits, aggregated by home.social.
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Right, I am now fully in EMF Preparation Mode. No #RC2014 kits will be sent out from #z80kits until at least Wednesday next week.
I feel like I have got all the foundation prep work done, but tomorrow is getting everything together, seeing what I missed, and playing a massive game of Tetris as I load it all in to the van.
Whilst I will have access to the internet at EMF, don't assume that I will be checking it often. Unless your message is urgent, I probably won't reply until next week.
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Black Friday / Cyber Monday is kicking off slightly early over at z80kits.com with 15% discount on anything in the Base Kits, Core Modules or Expansion Modules category simply by using the discount code 5202MCFB at checkout.
Grab yourself a Z80 based retro computing bargain!
https://z80kits.com/
#RC2014 #BlackFriday #Z80 #Z80Kits #CyberMonday -
Today has mostly involved kitting up lots of #RC2014 stock to take down to #RetroFest2025 this coming weekend.
I can't take everything that's on the #z80kits store, but if you're coming along and want something specific, let me know and I will make sure to bring some along.
And if you are planning to come along, please buy your ticket soon. Saturday is almost sold out and Sunday is filling up pretty quick.
https://www.retrofest.uk/ -
Just blogged about building the beautiful @rc2014 Mini II Picasso limited edition kit #z80 #z80kits #retrocomputing #soldering https://concretedog.blogspot.com/2025/04/building-beautiful-things-rc2014-mini.html
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Whilst it is still before midday in some time-zones, I just want to share the good news that the new #RC2014 Mini II Picasso has gone on display at the Tate Modern art gallery!
You can get your very own piece of art from #z80kits right now https://z80kits.com/shop/rc2014-mini-ii-picasso/
Remember, you can't spell UART without ART
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I read a report recently that confirmed that straight PCB traces, right angle, and orthogonally placed components can actually make electrons sad and slow them down. They much prefer the excitement of whizzing along curvy traces, particularly if they end up going in to a chip at a random angle. And bright colours really make them want to work harder.
So I will be updating all #RC2014 kits with design philosophy. The first to be done is the RC2014 Mini II Picasso. You can pick one up now at #z80kits
https://z80kits.com/shop/rc2014-mini-ii-picasso/ -
Yay! The #Minstrel2 and #Minstrel3 from Tynemouth are both back in stock at #z80kits
These clones of the Sinclair #ZX80 and #ZX81 respectively are great fun to build and use. Get one quick before the run out again!
https://z80kits.com/shop/tynemouth-minstrel-2/
https://z80kits.com/shop/tynemouth-minstrel-3/ -
This evening has been mostly fingerprinting the various #RC2014 models and ROM images as the TTL Logic Probe sees them.
Tomorrow will be mostly trying to represent them in a clear and easy to follow troubleshooting guide.
In the meantime, the TTL Logic Probe is now available on #z80kits https://z80kits.com/shop/ttl-logic-probe/
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First new #RC2014 product launch of 2025 is a 16C2550 based Dual UART Module. Available exclusively on #z80kits this module is essentially a dual version of the 16C550 UART module that was launched in the final hours of 2024
https://z80kits.com/shop/16c2550-dual-uart-serial-module/
If you have a RomWBW based RC2014 this is perfect if you want more serial ports. Up to 4 ports are supported by default, or up to 8 with a custom ROM build
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🎶 It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas...
now that the #z80kits opening hours and #RC2014 shipping times has been published
https://z80kits.com/xmas/ -
After months of development, multiple prototypes, and a lot of code wrangling, the #RC2014 RomWriter is here!
This stand alone EPROM programmer can program your #RomWBW ROM from Micro SD card, so is operating system independent. It has one job, which is does well, and is much cheaper than a universal EPROM programmer.
Available now at #Z80kits https://z80kits.com/shop/39sf040-programmer-rom-writer-for-romwbw/
More details on the #RC2014 website https://rc2014.co.uk/modules/romwriter-for-39sf040/
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Sorry about the radio silence for the past few days. I went in to hospital last week for some planned surgery.
Everything went well, and the recovery is going fine. I am certainly not back to my usual self yet, but that is probably down to the medication.
I won't be shipping any #Z80kits orders for a few days at least, so apologies to those of you waiting for your kits. However, I do hope to make a start on #RetroChallenge next week. We'll see how that goes.
I have only been dipping in to Mastodon occasionally over the last few days. Have I missed anything important?
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Good news for #z80kits customers in the EU! You will soon have much slower delivery of your #RC2014 kits!
Oh, and things will be much cheaper too, particularly for smaller orders :-)
Read more about the change here https://z80kits.com/ioss-eu-shipping-and-z80kits/
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Have you missed me? I've been away on holiday in North Wales this week and couldn't help but pick up a little souvenir.
This IBM PS/2 is quite full inside, although with the battery dead the config is gone, so it won't boot from HDD. But it does boot to BASIC on ROM, so that's pretty cool!
(#z80kits shop is fully back open again for all of your #RC2014 needs)
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In case you haven't seen the notification, z80kits will be closed for a week from 3rd - 8th Feb whilst I take a few days off for Lunar New Year. So if you want your kits shipped soon, please get your orders in before midnight GMT tomorrow.
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The Christmas hours for #Z80Kits have now been published. Due to events out of my control this means closing fairly early this year
https://z80kits.com/xmas-2023/
tl;dr if you want your #RC2014 kit in time for xmas, you have until next Monday at the latest to get your order in
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I have made some changes this afternoon to the backend of z80kits.com specifically the email & SMTP stuff. This should make things better, more secure and fix the problems a few people had receiving their email.
All tests seem to be good... however, if anybody doesn't get an email they expect to (or receives one they don't expect to receive) please let me know.
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📣 New Product Klaxon!
NeoPixel Module - Short Board and NeoPixel 8x8 Matrix by
Peacock Media
Yes, control addressable LEDs from #Z80 without a microcontroller! Easily programmable from BASIC, C or ASM. Add some character to your #RC2014!Exclusive to #z80kits
https://z80kits.com/shop/neopixel-module-8x8-matrix/
https://z80kits.com/shop/neopixel-module-short-board/ -