Paul Glover

The Spectrum +3e project by Garry Lancaster, is a combination of a simple interface and replacement ROMs for the Sinclair Spectrum +3. The end result is a bugfixed, feature-improved Spectrum +3 with the ability to use an IDE hard disk.

It was discovering that webpage (along with some separate information about hooking a 3.5″ floppy drive up in place of the wierd 3″ unit Amstrad were so fond of) which prompted me to dig up the +3 I’d had since Christmas 1987, and which had been retired in the attic since maybe 1994. I just had to try this out!

Some additional hackery involving an Amiga external floppy drive and the original Amiga 4000 desktop PSU I still had laying around resulted in this unusual piece of computing hardware.

Behold - Frankenspeccy!

This next picture shows the machine with the top half of the case removed.

Toward the top of the picture there’s a ribbon cable which carries sound, composite video (currently broken!), the NMI button wiring, tape wiring, and a few spare connections. A 16-way connector on the end connects to a board mounted into the top half of the case. This allows a number of additional connectors to be hacked into the top half of the case, and they can quickly be unhooked to dismantle the system.

In the centre the Plus3e IDE interface is visible. Currently it connects to the rear expansion port, and sits on top of the processor and ROMS, but might eventually be connected directly to the processor (by ribbon cable soldered to the underside of the motherboard), and be attached to the lower half of the case, underneath where the hard drive sits.

The bottom of the picture shows the 23-way D connector for an Amiga external floppy drive. This is connected directly to the internal floppy cable, with power tapped from the motherboard. The Amiga drives have the advantage of supplying all the proper signals (including READY) that the +3 needs, and will work with a minimum of drama.

Also visible is a power cable for the internal harddisk, which will mount where the internal floppy drive used to go.

The simple IDE interface in close-up. Currently held on using blu-tack.

The hard drive goes where the internal floppy used to live. Currently its unsecured, with the upper half of the case in situ the drive can’t move enough to fall and do damage. Again a much better mounting arrangement is needed, using spacers underneath, or some sort of mounting bracket. But it works for now.

The finished item as seen in the first photo above, has a Roctec slimline Amiga drive connected, is hooked up to a Microvitec Cub monitor (converted for analog input), and powered from an old Amiga A4000 internal PSU. The PSU for an Amiga 500 would be sufficient, but I can’t find mine anywhere and this one was going unused.

Frankenspeccy now lives in the USA, but has no reliable means of being hooked to an NTSC television as yet (I knew I should have had the Cub monitor shipped…). The Amiga PSU isn’t voltage switchable, but I have a 110-220V converter for use with the hifi gear I brought over too.