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Dick Smith VZ200


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I've really got to say to start off that this is one of the crappiest computers I've ever seen. Designed and built in Taiwan in the early eighties the VZ200 sure shows its origins. It's built like a cheap calculator from the 70s.

This one didn't work when I got it, what would you expect from a Gumtree ad that states "untested". It appeared to have either a ram or rom issue as there was junk text on the screen when it was turned on.

I opened it up to see a whole pile of crap. Bodges and hacks to the speaker, power regulator and power switch. There was a large resistor across the input and ouput of the 7805 voltage regulator that wasn't shown in the schematics and looked like a crude hack of some kind so I removed it.

This unit has a 4k memory expansion mounted on a daughter board fitted to the main board by these nasty ribbon cables.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/7cc3f2b4ef41458a812e6bc604f914d5.jpg http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/14314ca113d3292c64ecfd1547c6a86c.jpgso for ease of access later I removed the ribbon and fitted headers to the board and matching sockets to the main board. I did this too on the video board which was mounted the same way. I also straightened up the links on this board and tidied up the wiring and straightened up components all over.

I then rewired the on off switch and speaker and plugged it in and yes it worked. Well kind of. There were about a dozen keys on the keyboard that weren't working. The keyboard has rubber keys with conductive pads on the back that short tracks on the pcb.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/43151c98216db7d0849d8c5cb7cd3d51.jpg the yellow areas are insulation laid over the pcb tracks so they can run a link over that. Three of these links were open circuit so I soldered very thin wire on to bridge them any now I have a very cool but crappy VZ200. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/4fc402fd8aee2e2a557988df9152a031.jpgIt came with quite a bit of documentation which I like including newsletters from the VZ200 club in Sydney. I do quite like the VZ200 even though it's poorly made as it's a part of Australian computing history.

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Cool. Gotta say I have a softspot for these types of micros. In my pile 'o projects I have a Dick Smith Super 80 to tackle at some stage. External is filthy, but inside its pretty good.

 

I also know someone who has a Dick Smith System 80 in their cupboard, just need to try to work out how to get them to give it to me!

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Cool. Gotta say I have a softspot for these types of micros. In my pile 'o projects I have a Dick Smith Super 80 to tackle at some stage. External is filthy, but inside its pretty good.

 

I also know someone who has a Dick Smith System 80 in their cupboard, just need to try to work out how to get them to give it to me!

Nice. Yeah I've got a bit of a soft spot for the more obscure computers too. I'm trying to get a MicroProfessor off my brother inlaw and a friend has a woodgrain microbee.

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Cool. Gotta say I have a softspot for these types of micros. In my pile 'o projects I have a Dick Smith Super 80 to tackle at some stage. External is filthy, but inside its pretty good.

 

I also know someone who has a Dick Smith System 80 in their cupboard, just need to try to work out how to get them to give it to me!

 

 

I have a very clean Video genie II, Which is the System 80 sold in the UK. I have the box, books and the leads. A very pretty computer IMO.

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  • 8 months later...

Dribbles from myself being a VZ fan since 1983:

 

Re: Assembler:

 

Best , or at least, the easiest method would be to perform all asm within the Z88 dev kit, ( http://www.z88dk.org ) compile, test in any of the 7 to 8 emulators, and then transfer over to the real VZ. I've been doing this for years. Do a bit of a search on Youtube for heaps of videos of graphical and 1-bit sound demos and a few games that have been done this way.

VZ demo examples :

 

....then you can also just go all out and use the cross TASM software, that is floating around somewhere. Have a copy of it.

 

Search 'vzemu' on yahoogroups - its where the entire VZ / Laser / Salorian Fellow / Seltron / Timex population lives. (Other names for VZ). Ignore our 'VZ' facebook site; its pretty dead and hopeless.

 

/Dave

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